Gold, Fire & Refinement

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Strong reasons make strong actions." ~William Shakespeare

After the fourth segment of The Keepers story aired—coast to coast and around the world, millions of people were talking about it, and it soon became one of the biggest news stories of 2010, in the nation. At Thurgood's insistence, Zarah consented to being interviewed by all the big-name hosts of all the major daytime and nighttime news shows, all the major newspapers, and by Ebony, Essence, Time, Rolling Stone, and Newsweek magazines. Newswire organizations had reporters covering the story and supplying articles and photographs to news outlets and online vloggers on events of the story as they unfolded.

A marketing genius, Thurgood Williams worked with his company's New York advertising agency to keep promoting upcoming episodes of the interviews. TV commercials and radio spots teased viewers about upcoming segments of what THN hailed as "the story of the century" and "the nation's most surprising 'unearthing' of buried history." One online advertising banner for The Hits Network transformed the letters in the word "H-i-t-s" to "H-i-s-t-o-r-y." After doing that, the line then reads, "The History-making Network" as the banner image fades to black. Following that, an onscreen message appeared with a deep baritone male voice echoing its sentiments, saying the history-making interviews were being broadcast on THN-TV and radio, and that people should check Araminta Online, THN.com, NewSouthTV.com, or their local listings for times and dates.

THN was also re-running every show late at night to keep introducing newcomers to the story while keeping interest and excitement going about upcoming segments. Viewers visiting Araminta Online, NewSouthTV.com, or THN.com were provided more segments of last-aired interviews than what was shown on original broadcasts. Employees of The Hits Network TV and radio stations, as well as members of Wilson Publishing's editorial team, were responding to thousands of questions and comments posed on hundreds of popular online social media venues. Thurgood Williams was making good on his promises to WPI about what his involvement would do for the story, and the number of viewers was nearly doubling every day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was well past the middle of June when Zarah finally found time she could spend with her fiancé. Alone in her hotel room in Pennsylvania, connected with him on Skype, she heard from him, first hand, how her story was making headlines in Europe. That meant she didn't have to catch him up on much. When he started laughing while telling her all he was having to put up with from business associates who knew she was his fiancée, she just smiled and thought about how much she missed him.

"Penji Nzimbe, the architect from Zaire? And the two British guys, Michael Tucker and Jeffrey Gray? They were all pretending they don't know you. Kept saying they had to find out more about the 'lovely sexy young black lady conducting those amazing interviews.'"

She smiled and told her man his fake British accent was "spot-on," then asked, "What did you say? To your business pals?"

Trying to look serious, he said, "I didn't say anything. I just got up and punched 'em out. They know better than to drool over my woman behind my back ... right in front of my face."

"I am so sure you punched 'em." She wondered if her eyes revealed how much she needed to feel his touch, the same way her body felt. They'd only been apart for a little while.

"Did too," he said. "You should see 'em. Five men in business suits with black patches covering their oozing, aching shiners. Except for Uncle Drake. All my other business partners now look like pirates."

"Liar," she smiled. "I can't wait to see you again."

"Ah, wanna see how much I miss you? I can show you."