Firefly Lane (Firefly Lane 1)

Tully tried, as the months passed and a new year began, to remain patient and believe in the best, but by the end of May, shed almost given up hope. Nineteen eighty-eight was not shaping up to be a good year for her. It was early now, on a hot spring day, and she was working hard to enjoy her spot as the replacement anchor. At the end of the broadcast, she headed back to her office.

She was just sitting down at her desk when she heard:

"Line two, Tully. "

She picked up the phone, pushed the square white button for line two, which immediately lit up. "Tallulah Hart. "

"Hello, Ms. Hart. Dick Emerson here. Im the VP of programming for NBC in New York. I understand youre looking to move up to the networks. "

Tully drew in a sharp breath. "I am. "

"We have an opening on the early morning show for a general assignment reporter. "

"Really?"

"Ill be seeing nearly fifty candidates next week. The competition will be fierce, Ms. Hart. "

"So am I, Mr. Emerson. "

"Thats the kind of ambition I like to hear. " She heard the ruffling of papers on a desk. "Ill have my secretary send you a ticket. Shell call to set you up with a place to stay in the city and the date of your interview. All that work for you?"

"Perfectly. Thank you, sir. You wont be disappointed in me. "

"Good. I hate to waste my time. " He paused. "And tell Johnny Ryan hi from me. "

Tully hung up and dialed Kate and Johnnys number.

Kate answered immediately. "Hello?"

"Im in love with your husband. "

There was a half seconds pause. "Oh, really?"

"He got me an interview at NBC. "

"Next week, right?"

"You knew?"

Kate laughed. "Of course I knew. Hes been working on it for a long time. And yours truly mailed out the tapes. "

"With everything thats on your mind, you were still thinking about me?" Tully said, awed.

"You and me against the world, Tully. Some things never change. "

"This time I really am going to light the world on fire," she said, laughing. "I finally have a fucking match. "

New York City was everything Tully had dreamed it would be. In her first week here, with her new NBC business cards clutched in her hand, shed walked down these busy streets like Alice in Wonderland, her face perpetually tilted upward. The endless skyscrapers amazed her, as did the restaurants that never closed, the horse-drawn carriages lined up along the park, and the crowds of black-clad people who filled the streets.

Shed spent two weeks exploring the city, choosing a neighborhood, finding an apartment, learning to navigate the subways. It could have been a lonely time—after all, who wanted to see the sights of a magical city like New York alone? But the truth was, she was so excited about her new job that even being solitary didnt bother her. Besides, in the city that never slept, you were never really alone. There were always people in the streets, even in the darkest hours.

And then there was her job. From the moment she first walked into the NBC building as a reporter, she was hooked. She woke every morning at two-thirty so that she could be at the studio by four oclock. Although she didnt technically need to get there so early, she loved to hang around and help out. She studied Jane Pauleys every movement and mannerism.

Tully had been hired as a general assignment reporter, which meant that she was assigned bits and pieces on other peoples stories. At some point, if she was lucky, shed get to cover a story the big correspondents wouldnt touch with a ten-foot pole—the biggest pumpkin in the state of Indiana or something equally relevant. And she couldnt wait. When shed paid her dues, shed get a real story to cover, and when she finally got that break, shed knock it out of the park. Truthfully, when she watched people like Pauley and Bryant Gumbel, she knew how far she had to go. They were gods in her eyes, and she spent every spare minute watching how they did their jobs. At home, she analyzed the broadcasts, recording each one on her videotapes and playing and replaying them.

By the fall of 1989, shed found her groove and begun to feel less like a cub reporter and more like a young woman poised to make her mark. Last month shed gotten her first honest-to-God assignment: shed flown to Arkansas to report on a prize-winning hog. The story never actually made it on air, but shed done her job and done it well, and shed learned a lot that trip.

She would have learned more in the studio, she was certain, if the morning show hadnt been in such upheaval. There was a war going on on-set and the whole country knew about it. Last week theyd taken a new publicity photo and Deborah Norville, the host of the early, early show had been on the couch with Jane and Bryant. That one picture sent shockwaves through the network and indeed the country. One article after another appeared; they all claimed that Norville was pushing Pauley out.