Chapter 5

I awoke early the next morning, tangled together with a very naked Cal. A very thin, emaciated naked Cal, looking every bit like an anorexic. I also had two relatively minor personal problems. The first was an incredible desire to pee. The other was a really raging erection. Steel like, one that was going to cause me a problem with the first problem if I didn’t solve it.

I untangled myself from Cal as gently as I could, causing her to protest in her sleep at the severing of contact and headed for the bathroom.

There, try as I might, I couldn’t persuade little me to subside to the point where I could actually get him to perform his other function. I could see I was going to have to take a hands on approach.

Ten minutes later, showered and refreshed, I re-entered the bedroom to find Cal awake and sitting up in bed, still naked.

“Come on sleepy head,” I encouraged her, “up, shower, dressed and let’s go get some breakfast before everybody else gets here.”

“Will you wash me?” she asked.

“If you want me to, yes,” I replied.

She slowly got out of the bed, and walked over to me, took my hand and led me into the bathroom

“I think you need to lose the towel,” she said.

I lost the towel and turned the shower on. The cubicle was a bit of a squeeze with two of us in there. I’d like to reassure you that absolutely nothing of a sexual nature took place while I washed her. I’d like to but washing a naked girl in a confined space inevitably leads to body parts coming into contact. Hand on places where they perhaps wouldn’t normally rest, and of course the inevitable happened. I was after all, just a teenaged boy.

“Sorry,” I murmured when it happened. She just smiled.

Finally clean, with our virtue more or less intact, we dressed and set off downstairs for breakfast.

While we were eating we were joined by three others, two men, whom I recognised, James and George, and a woman, who I didn’t. She was introduced as Sally Grayson, a PR consultant.

After we’d all shaken hands, and the three newcomers had got themselves some breakfast we got down to business.

George opened the proceedings.

“It seems you two are quite the item,” he said, “when your mother didn’t return you to the hospital, they posted you as absconded. Your mother told the police when they came for you, Cal, that she didn’t know where you were. You’d left the house that morning and hadn’t come back. Then David’s Mum joined in that she was worried about you, since you’d disappeared as well. At the moment, there’s a nationwide manhunt on in England for two missing fifteen year old schoolkids.”

“No mention of abroad?” I asked.

“Not yet, but that may come,” George said, “also no mention of rising Hollywood star David J Barker. Just David Barker from Castleford and his girlfriend, Calista Warner.”

“That’s where Sally comes in,” James said, “Sally is a PR consultant I work with a lot, and she has some ideas.”

“Ideas?” I asked.

“At the moment.” Sally began, “the hospital is putting out that you, Cal, are a very sick girl, and that David, if he has run off with you, is putting you at great risk. One of the things I want to start is a social media campaign. Free Calista Warner. Start to feed snippets of information via the internet. That’s one approach. We also want to get the pair of you on TV over here.”

“No,” Cal said, “I couldn’t.”

“All right,” Sally agreed, “we’ll put that to one side. Then there’s the press. I think we should let slip that you’re here in the states. Put out a statement that gives the true picture. Abuse, unlawful drugs, the lot.”

I looked at Cal and she nodded.

George then took over the conversation.

“What that may do is prompt the UK authorities to start extradition proceedings for the pair of you. A process that could take a long time. In the meantime, Cal, we’re going to get a therapist to work with you and assess your current mental state. Then we’ll be able to refute anything coming from the other side. That way, we can probably get the whole thing quashed, I’ll be working closely with Andy Skillington back home to see to that.”

“So what do you need from us?” I asked.

“Just some details,” Sally said, “biographical stuff, what the problem has been, that sort of stuff.”

“All right,” I said, “so long as Cal is all right with the stuff you want to know, and you realise that Cal had very little memory of the last six months or so.”

“That’s why we’re calling a counsellor in,” George said, “to see if we can at least partially lift the blockage.”

“When?” I asked.

“It won’t be until tomorrow morning,” George replied, “one of my people will pick you up here at ten and drop you back afterwards. You can go with her, David, but the counsellor will need to see Cal on her own. She may also need to see you separately.”

“But David can come with me can’t he?” Cal asked, suddenly nervous.

“Of course he can,” Sally said, “on another point, we’ve identified over forty David J Barker or Greg Paradise fan sites on the internet. Including one describing itself as the official David J Barker Fan Club, we’re feeding information to them giving an ‘Heroic film star in mad dash to save girlfriend’ twist.”

Sally spent twenty minutes getting biographical details from Cal. She perked up considerably with her last question.

“What about your father?” she had asked.

“He left us when I was little,” Cal replied, “he went back to America.”

“Wait?” Sally interjected, “your father’s American?”

“Yes,” Cal replied, “does that matter?”

“Is he named on your birth certificate?” Sally asked.

“Yes, Derek Jack Warner, he was in the US Air Force, he was posted back to the USA. According to Mum he promised to send for us.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Sally said, sounding sincere, “but that helps us.”

“How?” I asked.

“As the daughter of a US citizen, Cal would qualify for citizenship herself. If it comes down to it, it would be that much harder to deport her,” George said, “of course, we’d have to throw you to the wolves, but she’d be OK.”

“NO!” Cal almost screamed, “I’d go back before that.”

I took her hand and squeezed it.

“It’s all right Cal, I’m with you until we beat this,” I said, “anywhere one of us goes the other does, and you’re not going anywhere.”

“I am,” she replied, softly, “I’m going anywhere you go.”

We talked for another half hour about how we were going to handle the PR for the campaign as Sally dubbed it, then she left.

I stood up to leave, but James gestured for me to sit back down.

“There’s a few other things we need to discuss,” James said, “like your Q score.”

“My what?” I asked.

“Q score, it’s a measure of how many people like you, think of it as an approval rating,” he replied.

“All right, what about it?”

“Well once the film came out, you went from a Q score of 0 to 7.9, overnight. Now the film has been confirmed as the highest opening weekend gross in history, you’re up to 8.3. We predict that once this story hits, and you’re identified as the English Schoolboy, that will go up again. You’ll be one of the most recognisable, and popular faces on the planet.”

“And how does this help Cal?” I asked.

“It doesn’t, directly,” James said, “but it increases your visibility.”

I stood up and glared at my agent.

“James,” I shouted at him, “this is not a publicity stunt. My oldest and best friend has been abused, first by some bastards in Germany, and then by some, frankly, bigger bastards in the NHS. This is about the freedom, and wellbeing of somebody who has been my best friend since we were little.”

“David, “James said calmly, “calm down. I know that and it’s not what I’m saying. The more recognisable, the more famous if you like, that you are, the more coverage your trip is going to get.”

I slumped back down into my seat.

“OK,” I replied, “so what are you proposing?”

“Good,” James said, “at the moment, this is not big news in the states, so we’re going to start with a press release to the UK media, making sure that we stress that the Yorkshire schoolboy they’re talking about is film star David J Barker. Then a recounting of the treatment that Cal has been having, and the illegal drugs that the doctor has been feeding her.”

Cal didn’t look happy at the prospect of having her medical history out there.

I reached over and squeezed her hand.

“It’ll be all right,” I said, “that part has already been put out there by the hospital, but with their twist to it. We need to get our version out there.

She just nodded, sadly.

James explained the rest of what he called his marketing plan, and we parted around eleven am.

“What do you want to do?” I asked, once they’d gone.

“I need to go shopping,” Cal said.

“Then we’ll go shopping,” I replied, “what do you need?”

“Er, girl things,” she answered.

“Girl things?” I queried, “you mean make-up, or undies?”

“No, David,” she said, an exasperated tone in her voice, “I mean girl things. Remember Human Biology in year nine?”

“Yes,” I said, “you wouldn’t sit with me that term.”

“Well think of something that happens with girls,” she said, “sort of periodically.”

Finally the penny dropped.

“Oh,” I said, “I get you. I think we might be able to get those down in the hotel foyer.”

She sighed.

“David,” she said, gesturing down her body, “Girl,” then she pointed out of the window, “Los Angeles, shopping. And yes I need those, but not today.”

“Cal,” I said, softly, “you’re talking like...” I trailed off.

“Like a normal girl?” she asked, “it’s all right David, you can say that. My mind has cleared up a lot, I think it’s being off those tablets for three days.”

“Can you remember any more?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“No, it’s like looking into thick fog,” she replied, “occasionally something vague sort of swims half into view, but then it’s gone again.”

She buried her face in my shoulder. I stroked her hair.

“It’s all right Cal, it will all come back.”

“That’s the problem,” she said, “I’m not certain I want it to. Will you do me a favour?”