An unexpected dedication

When I started working the six to midnight shift at KZZO in Clovis, NM in March of 1987, Jid the owner allowed me to start doing listener dedications of songs on the air. It was something he had previously forbidden us from doing. Our rival, KTQM, did them, but what their DJs would do is just read a whole bunch of dedications all together at once. It wasn't really special. I did one dedication per song and only six dedications an hour between 7pm and 10pm. After just a few weeks, I was filling up my dedication slots very early.

After I lost my shift to Heid, he still did the dedications. But there was a twist in which Jid attempted to record the callers so that they could be played over the intro of the songs they were sending out to their intended recipients. Heid usually made some kind of snarky, sexually-charged comment on the dedication. However, this complicated Heid's ability to do his show because it required him to leave the studio and go into the production room to record the calls. And he usually had less than three minutes to accomplish all this before he had to play the next song. (We did not have automation at the Zoo when I worked there.) I don't think this process became permanent because it would have meant that someone else had to be on hand to record the calls and Jid was not about to pay someone to come do that.

During one of the many down phases with Marz, I was driving around with her, her sister Vid and one of her friends. I stopped to fill up with gas. As soon as I got back in the car, I heard a girl on the radio say, "I want to make a dedication to Fayd." Heid asked, "You mean the guy who works overnights here at the Zoo?" "Yeah, I want to let him know that I love him." "Seriously? Have you SEEN what he looks like?" "Yeah, I know. I love him!"

The second the caller mentioned my name, everybody in the car starting gasping and yakking about what was going on, so I couldn't tell whose voice it was. At first, I thought Marz had called up the station from my apartment while I was outside and that the dedication was pre-recorded. Marz said that she did not make that call. Then Marz started getting jealous and demanded that I tell her who that was. I didn't recognize the voice. I still thought she made the call and was trying another one of schemes to get me to break up with her. Marz said that she was going to find out who made that call and beat her up. I'd never seen her get so possessive about me. It made me wish I had actually set something like that up a long time ago.

A couple of days later, I had to call Kiz for some reason. Her sister Chez picked up the phone. She told me that Kiz had moved out of the house and was living with "Sean Penn." Chez asked me if I'd heard the dedication the other night. I told her that I was in my car while Marz was with me and she got really mad. (Chez was aware of my relationship with Marz.)

A couple of days later, Marz and her friends came over to spend the night at my apartment. Marz said that she found out who made the dedication and beat her up. Marz said it was some Radio Tease I didn't think was worth writing about in this blog. I was pretty certain she was lying because I didn't give her much information about the Teases I met before her. She told me I was to never talk to her again. And then she and her friends ran back out and didn't spend the night.

The next Saturday, I got a call from Chez while I was working at the station during the daytime. She asked me to meet her at the mall because she had something to talk to me about. I went over there and found her. We sat down on a bench. She asked me how I would feel if she told me she knew who made the dedication. I told her I thought it was that certain Radio Tease. She said she knew it wasn't because she was the one who had called in and made that dedication.

While I was trying to process what she was telling me, she talked about the first time she saw me. It was when we had done that remote at the City Zoo (when I was hanging out with Graz). She and a friend were talking to Tod. Chez said she saw some guy with long hair there and asked Tod who it was. He said, "Oh, that's Fayd!" At the time, she thought I looked interesting. So, when I came walking up to her house to meet Kiz for the first time, she knew right away who I was.

She said that she enjoyed how nice I was to her while I was trying to go out with her sister. She kept pestering Kiz about whether or not she was going to go out with me, but she wouldn't give her a straight answer. She was afraid to tell Kiz that she had a crush on me because she was afraid I would find out and reject her. Chez said that everytime I called the house to talk to Kiz and she picked up the phone, I was always nice and asked her how she was doing. It drove her crazy because she couldn't say anything. She said that one of the main reasons she started really liking me was because I was the only guy who never called her the b-word. Even her father had called her that. At one point, she thought to herself, "If he calls and talks to me one more time, I'm going to be in love with him." Sure enough, I called. She thought, "That's it. I'm in love with him. I have to do something about this." And that's when she called Heid to make that dedication.

The whole time I was listening to her, I was wondering what I was going to tell her. Then she asked, "What are you thinking?" I said, "I guess you know that I don't feel the same way about you..." "Yeah, I know." "...and you know I'm involved with someone else right now..." "Yeah, I know." "...and you know that I was not trying to make you feel this way about me." "I know that, too, but I couldn't help it."

The stupid thing was that I actually kind of liked Chez during my encounters with her. She was actually rather cute in a tomboyish way. She had dark hair and large brown eyes. But the main obstacle that kept me from throwing Marz overboard for her was that Chez was only 16 years old. One thing I found out that day was that Chez had actually gone to junior high school with Marz and was two grades behind her. She'd actually gotten into altercations with her.

Chez told me that what she needed more than anything else was someone she could call and talk to who wasn't going to be mean to her. She knew nothing was going to happen between us, but she just needed to know that I could be there for her. I was rather flattered by all this and I agreed to be that person she could lean on from time to time. I gave her my phone number.

She would call every once in awhile and let me know what was bothering her at school and home. I mostly listened. I never really gave her much advice. It wasn't a big deal and I could tell she was trying everything to keep from blurting "I LOVE YOU" out loud.

This went on for about a month. Then, her father decided to move the family to Roswell. (Kiz was going to get to stay because she was no longer living at home.) Chez was upset because she didn't want to leave Clovis. She had friends in school and I was there. She also knew she wasn't going to get to talk to me as much because long distance was EXPENSIVE back then. She was only going to get to call me when her family happened to be in town. She knew they would be coming up every once in awhile.

The night before her family moved, she tried to call one "last" time. But this was a night that Marz was sleeping over (which I told her was going to happen). The phone rang and I picked it up. I didn't say anything, but I knew who was calling. I could hear her breathing. Marz was staring me down, wondering who was on the phone. I laughed and said, "No one there" and hung up the phone. I went back to bed. The phone rang again. I picked it up. "Fayd?" Chez asked. "Yeah, I can't talk now." "Is she there?" "Yes." I hung up.

Steam was coming out of Marz' nose by this point. "WHO WAS THAT?" "Hey, do you remember that dedication a few weeks ago?" More steam came out. "YES?" "Well, that was the girl who did it. But she's moving away tomorrow, so we never have to worry about her ever again."

All of a sudden, the stack was blown. "YOU WERE GOING BEHIND MY BACK? WHAT IS HER NAME?" "Chez." "CHEZ? YOU MEAN THAT B**** I USED TO BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL? WHY ARE YOU MESSING WITH HER? SHE IS SO UGLY!" "We're just friends. There's nothing going on." "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! THAT'S IT! WE'RE THROUGH!" She and her friends left the apartment. But we really weren't through, even though I'd hoped we were.

At this point, you need to be aware that there is a lot more to Chez' story and her connection to me. It takes place over the course of several years. It's practically an epic with some strange coincidences. Even though I promised in my rules that I would get to payoffs right away, I can't do that with Chez. (Technically, the rule only applies to things from my childhood. At this point, I'm 23 years old.) Just know she'll likely turn up when you least expect her. That's the way it was in real life.