Chapter 24

Thursday morning I was up at six a.m., already a routine was developing. I met Dick as he was coming out of his apartment. We did our run. It really felt good as my stamina was coming back. I wasn’t huffing and puffing at the end as I had been from the winter layoff. I wished I could run all year round.

At the studio, Paul Grant made an appearance. He showed why he did well on his TV show as he delivered his lines in one take. After the shoot, Mr. Wayne complimented Grant on his performance.

Grant told him, “Old man, some of us have it and some don’t.”

Mr. Wayne replied, “I wouldn’t make a habit of calling me that son.”

Several of the movie’s writers were on the set to observe. I noticed one nudge the other.

After lunch, I went to my one-room schoolhouse. As the only current student, I was getting possessive. I lucked out on the test. California and Ohio were currently using the same textbooks so the questions were about the short stories I had read.

They also threw in some general questions that were no brainers, like what did Sherlock Holmes do, when he was high on cocaine. That was easy. He shot V’s in the walls of his room. The V was for Victoria. I wondered how hard it would be to shoot E’s for Elizabeth.

I felt pretty good about that test. My workout went well and I was able to increase the number of reps by five. Dick Wyman also had me saddle a horse and ride around the lot to prove that I knew what I was doing.

I swear my horse fell asleep moving. That is until we turned towards the barn. Then he took off at a gallop. He also cut the corner at a shed so close I had to duck so my head wouldn’t be taken off by the eaves.

For that little trick, I rode the horse around that shed ten times and made him stay away from the corner. I then took him out away and turned towards the barn. The horse must have learned its lesson because while it did move fast it gave me clearance on the corner.

After I rubbed the horse down, Dick told me, “You know your way around a horse.”

I think from him that was high praise.

I ate at the same little diner. This time going with what I thought was Mexican but was told it was Tex-Mex food. It was great and I was developing a liking for spicy foods. Mum never looked like this.

I returned to my apartment and started on Biology. There were no tricks here, you knew it or you didn’t and there was new material introduced the whole year. I picked several systems to try to understand how they worked. If I had to list specific details of each system such as the names of the major nodes of the nervous system I was done. I would be doing all I could to pass seventy-five percent of the material on the test if they distributed the questions evenly.

Before falling asleep I thought about girls again. This was getting to be a problem. I had to meet someone.

Friday was the same, get up, exercise, run, go to the studio. Go to costume, go-to makeup. Go to set, wait for Paul Grant and wait for Paul Grant. This time the Director didn’t rant and rave, however, he was in serious conversation with the Producer and all of the assistants. Mr. Wayne was also involved in the conversation. None of them seemed happy.

The Biology test was as I feared. They wanted specifics that I didn’t know. I felt like I had bombed it. I really needed the workout after that.

I decided to worry about World History Saturday and Sunday and spent Friday evening watching my little TV. I did add to my letter home.

Saturday morning they delivered my office furniture early. I set everything up and added some more to my weekly letter. Later I walked to the Mall to buy some new underwear.

Walking towards the Mall there was a public library. I stopped there and was able to obtain a library card using my new driver’s license. I browsed for a while and checked out several books then headed onto the Mall. After that shopping, I returned to the apartment. I now had to go to the bank

At the apartment, I dropped off the books and picked up letters from my father and our attorney. They identified me as being able to draw from the checking account that had been opened by mail.