Chapter 84

It was almost noon by the time I got to the studio, and I pulled into the parking lot just in time to see Meg rummaging through the trunk of her car. I parked, and said, “What’s up, are you trying to stash some lunch leftovers?” as I came up to her.

She looked up and said, “At last! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I’m starving, and I was hoping to find some cookies or something, but we can get something decent to eat now that you’re here.”

I shook my head and said, “Hey! Where does it say that I have to feed you every day? Besides, what happened to all that food you got at the party Friday night?”

She yelled, “C’mon,” and ran off instead of answering me. I saw where she was going. A guy had just dropped a studio bicycle off at the parking lot, and she wanted to get to it before someone else did, so I ran after her. I got on when we got there, but she jumped onto the handlebar instead of sitting on the luggage carrier behind me. Its difficult riding with a grown person perched up there, but the view of her butt was interesting and I managed to keep us upright until we got to the grassy area in front of the lunch room. I must have hit the brake too hard, because she tumbled forward and landed on her back. I had to throw the bike down or I would have run over her and I ended up on the grass a few feet from her. I sat up and looked over to see if she was okay, and, she glared at me as she was brushing grass off her pants, and said, “Nice going, Lance Armstrong, this is going to cost you an extra dessert.”

I was about to reply, when a voice behind me cut in with, “Nice entrance, Pete, but you don’t have to throw her on the ground. Talk nice, and I bet that she’ll come around.”

I was looking at Meg at the time, and her eyes got big when she glanced behind me, so I turned to see Jack Heddon standing there in his Rocketman costume, cape and all, munching on a sandwich.

I answered, “Hi, Jack,” as I scrambled to my feet. I was helping Meg up, when he added, “I had dinner with your wife Saturday. She said to say hello if I saw you.”

I turned to him, “Kristen’s here in town?”

“No, we were at a fundraiser in Chicago.”

“How’s she doing?”

“Fantastically well, she’s been playing to packed houses, and there’s talk of a TV show.”

I made a mental note to ask Amy about it when I got home.

Meg poked me in the side just then, so I said, “Oh, uhh, Meg, this is Jack Heddon.”

It was easy to see why all the girls were crazy about him. He’s a really good-looking guy. He looked directly at Meg and flashed a huge smile when I introduced her, then without taking his eyes off her, he threw the last of his sandwich in a nearby trash can, leaned close, stared into her eyes, and said, “Oh yes, I remember Meg. Didn’t we do a play together a few years ago?”

Meg surprisingly gave him a blank look and said, “No, we’ve never worked together. It’s nice meeting you.”

He turned back to me, and with another big smile, said, “So, Pete, Kristen tells me that you’re working on a show.”

“It’s, uhh, only a pilot.”

He did something odd. He put his hand on my shoulder and let it rest there for a second before he said, “Well, let me know if I can help you in any way,” then he stepped closer, and in a whisper he added, “Nice to see you again,” and he walked away.

Meg looked at me once he was gone, and asked, “Do you know everybody in the whole fucking world?”

“I met him in Vegas a while back, but what’s the deal with you? You pulled away from him like he was contagious.”

“He’s gorgeous, but he’s creepy. Did you see the way that he was looking at both of us?”

“You heard him; he thought that you and he had worked together.”

“You have a lot to learn. He knows damn well that he never worked with me. It’s what a lot of people in this business say when they don’t know you. They think it’s a form of flattery.”

“So he was trying to flatter you?”

“Sort of. He doesn’t know who I am, but I could be someone important to his career. It might come back to bite him if he snubbed me or was rude to me. He’s on top of the world right now, but that could all go away in an instant and he doesn’t want to burn any bridges. But tell me something. Who is Kristen? Are you really married?”

“She’s Kristen Baker. We used to go together. She said that we were married when her career began to keep people from bothering her.”

“Kristen Baker! You used to go with Kristen Baker!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Damn! I was right. You DO know everybody in the world.”

“You look impressed, but are you okay?”

She raised an eyebrow, “I’m fine, why?”

“You haven’t mentioned food in almost five minutes.”

She hit me on the arm, and we went inside. We were eating when my phone rang. It was Myrna Devon, and she asked, “Have you seen Meg?”

“Yes, we’re eating lunch.”

“I should have known. Let me talk to her.”

I handed Meg the phone, and she handed me my phone back and sat there looking a little dazed after a bunch of nods and ‘yes Ma’ams’. She finally said, “I’ll be damned. You ARE going to buy my lunch for a while. Guess what? I’m onboard with your show.”

“Really, what part are you going to play?”

“Not as an actor, I’m going to be helping you. The writers have come up with some changes.”

“But you’re an actress, why don’t they have a part for you?”

“The show is about younger kids.”

“You look young. You’re pretty; you have that cute nose and those freckles. Why can’t they use you?”

“Thanks, but this is a youth business. A seventeen year old can play a twenty-five year old, but it doesn’t happen the other way near as often as it used to nowadays. The Devon girls can do it for another year, maybe two, but they are starting to show their age.”

“I don’t get it; they still look twelve years old!”

“They look that way to you, but the camera picks up things that you don’t see.”

“So, how has my part changed?”

“You were picked as the good-looking, slightly older, next door neighbor from what I hear. You were important to the show, but only as a diversion for the girls, and you were not going to be seen a lot. Well, the backers saw the footage from the location shoot the other day, and they want to see more of you.”

“So, what’s your part in this?”

“I’m going to be your acting coach. I’ll help you with your lines, tell you where to stand, how to move and things.”

“Do you know how to do stuff like that?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I’ve studied this stuff my whole life. I’ve helped lots of people.”

“Why is it unfortunate?”

“I’ve had to do it for the money, and if you get a reputation for doing something in this business, people tend to only think of you that way. I’ve missed acting jobs because people only think of me as a coach.”

“Well, I don’t think of you that way.”

She seemed surprised and asked, “Really, how DO you think of me?”

I leaned close to her and stared into her eyes, then I reached up and touched her hair. She had the last forkful of her second dessert halfway to her mouth, and she stopped and stared at me with her mouth open, until I said, “I think of you as a human garbage disposal.”

It took her a second to react. I think that she considered throwing the last bite of dessert at me, but she quickly reconsidered and wolfed it down instead.

I asked, “Okay, what do we do now?” when we finished.

She replied, “Now the hard work begins. Come with me.”

I followed her to a small room not far from the lunchroom. It had nothing in it but a table and two chairs. A stack of yellow notepads and a cup filled with pencils next to it were on one end of the table.

She pushed a yellow tablet and a couple of pencils in front of me after I sat down, and said, “Here’s the deal. This is a pilot. Some people are risking a whole bunch of money on this, so a lot depends on how it comes out. They’ll make their money back and a lot more if it gets picked up. Aside from that, it could mean work for a lot of people, so every part of it has to be as good as we can make it. You didn’t have a big part when they first wrote the script. The show is aimed at a younger audience, and you, for some unknown reason, are supposed to be eye-candy. I don’t know what the new script is like. They’re supposed to get me a copy this afternoon.”

I grinned, “Wadda ya mean, ‘For some unknown reason?’ What am I, Quasimodo or something?”

She immediately came back with, “No, he’s better looking than you are. Now shut up; I do the talking here.”

She told me about camera angles, lighting, and a seemingly unending string of general ‘dos and don’ts’ for the next several hours, pausing after each point so that I could write down what she said. Some of the things she spoke of were things the speech coach had mentioned, but they seemed to make more sense coming from her.

It was almost three when her phone buzzed. She said, “That was Mrs. Devon.” after a brief conversation. “She has the script and she wants to go over it with me. She said that she wants you to go see Mrs. Gibson; she has some things for you to pick up.”

“Okay, will I see you tomorrow?”

“I don’t know. It sounds like you’re going to be busy from the way Mrs. Devon talked.”

“Doing what?”

“She didn’t say. Remember that your name is Tom in this sketch. I’ll see you later.”

I watched her leave, and it occurred to me as I gathered up my notes that her flippant attitude was absent all during the ‘lesson’. She was serious about what she was doing, and she was good at it.

Mrs. Gibson was at her desk working on some papers when I walked into her room. She pointed to a chair when she saw me, and slid a large envelope in front of me. She said, “I want to talk to you about some things, Pete. The school year is nearly over, and I’ve contacted your teachers. Your grades are not what I would like them to be, but you’re doing okay, and they’ve agreed to do something that I would prefer you not spread around. The envelope has your school finals in it. It also includes a summary of the things that the questions are based on.”

Stunned, I asked, “Gee, what is this all about, Mrs. Gibson?”

She sat back and said, “Let me give you my Hollywood lecture. The entertainment industry is very big business. The name ‘Hollywood’ is world famous, and what went on there in the past went a long way to make Los Angeles what it is today. But, as I’m sure you know, very little actually goes on in Hollywood itself today. Several of the older studios, like Paramount and us, are in the older parts of Los Angeles, but most studios moved to places like Burbank and the San Fernando Valley, where land was a lot cheaper years ago, but they aren’t that far away. Most major movie and TV studios are less than a half hour from here. So the profits from the tourism they bring in, and the taxes they pay, are vital to all of Los Angeles. This includes the ‘Los Angeles Unified School District’, so it’s sort of normal for them to stretch the rules a little when school-age people are called to work in the entertainment industry if it’s late in the school year, and the grades have been okay.”

“Wow, I’m surprised. I didn’t think the school did things like that with all the rules they have.”

“Well, they do. Hollywood and the movie industry are magic words. Most young people, given the opportunities that you and your sister have, would just drop out of school if school boards didn’t go along with things like this, and they might never go back if they failed the classes.”

“So, when do I take the tests?”

“We’ll look at them tomorrow morning.”

“What! I can’t possibly learn everything and take the tests by tomorrow morning!”

“You already passed. You got an 82.”

Stunned, I stared at her for a minute before I asked, “How did that happen?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s based on your test scores for the year. It goes into your permanent record as though you actually took the tests. But I want you to come in tomorrow so we can look at the tests together. I’d like to go over the questions with you and discuss the answers.”

“Is that what LAUSD wants?”

“No, it’s what I want. You’re not a straight-A student, but you’re not too bad, and I don’t want you to lose track of things. I’d like you to be here at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. We should be finished by noon.”

“Is that enough time?”

“It has to be, you have a location shoot tomorrow afternoon.”

“What about Erin? Are you going to help her too?”

“No, she’s working with someone else.”

Mrs. Gibson went back to her papers and I sat there for a minute trying to absorb everything, when a thought hit me. I asked, “Are Erin and I finished with school this semester, Mrs. Gibson?”

Without looking up she answered, “Yup, as far as school goes, your summer vacations started today.”

I walked to my car in a daze. Not having to go to school every day was an adventure up until now. I was suddenly euphoric when the realization that my finals were over and I was finished for this semester began to hit me. I sat in the car for a while, trying to think about what I was going to do. Mrs. Devon said that work on the pilot would be finished in a couple of weeks, and I wouldn’t be starting the modeling thing for a while. What would I do with my time? Thoughts of Sylvia jumped into my head, and I began to get angry for the first time. How could she leave without even talking to me? I thought of her standing on the mountain with the lights of the city reflected in her eyes, and I ached for her. I needed her. I missed holding her, touching her, making love to her, but she was gone, and the madder and more disappointed I got the more that I thought about her. I had to force myself to calm down before I drove home.

The light on my answering machine was blinking when I got to my room. One call was from Jay, the rich guy from the airport. He asked me how I was, and if I had ever mentioned him to Marla. He left a phone number and asked me to call. The next one was from Digger Haynes asking me to contact him, so I dialed his number.

He answered on the second ring with, “Hi, Pete.”

“How did you know it was me?”

“Caller ID. The phone company gave me a talking telephone. Being blind has its advantages. So, how are you?”

“I’m fine. What’s up?”

“Could you come over for a few minutes, I’d like to talk to you.”

“Sure, I’ll be right there.”

I drove over, wondering what it was about, and he was standing in the doorway when I got there. He said, “Hi, Pete, come on in,” when I walked up.

I followed him inside, and I asked, “Did you actually see me?” after we sat down.

“Not really, I see shadows and I was expecting you. That’s one of the things that I want to talk to you about.”

“Okay, what’s up?”

“I’m a damn good judge of character, Pete, and you seem to be a pretty good guy. Are you?”

“Yes, Sir, I think so.”

“Will you answer me truthfully if I ask you some questions?”

I feared what was coming, but I answered, “Yes, Sir, I will.”

He was quiet for a minute. Then he said, “Cindy has come home late two nights in a row, Pete. I didn’t hear a car leaving, so she must have walked from wherever she’s been. You live closer than anyone else. Has she been with you?”

“I-uhh, yes, Sir.”

“She doesn’t sleep when she gets home. I hear her TV on until morning. She’s upset about something. Are you and she having sex?”

“I, uhh, well, uhh, not really.”

“C’mon, Son, that’s not an answer. I won’t be mad if you are. It’s actually about time that she was.”

“No, we haven’t had intercourse.”

“Then what’s going on? What does, ‘Not really’ mean? I know that she likes you, you’re all she talks about. C’mon, Pete, she hasn’t slept in several days, and I’m concerned.”

“And you won’t be angry with her if I tell you?”

“No, I promise that I won’t.”

“Well, I guess that she has a crush on me. She came to my room the last two nights and wanted to, uhh...”

“She wanted to have sex.”

“I guess so.”

“So, why didn’t you?”

“I like her, but not that way, and I don’t want to mislead her. Did you know that she’s still a virgin?”

“I suspected as much.”

“Cindy is really a great girl and I like her a lot, but she needs more than me. She’s an exceptional person, and she should be with someone special.”

“You’re not special?”

“Not at all, I’m just a high school kid.”

“So you passed up a sure thing because you like her?”

What he said bothered me a little, and I said, “She’s not a sure thing; she’s a girl who hasn’t been around much, and I didn’t want her to do something that she’d regret. Besides, I’d be ashamed of myself if I took advantage of her.”

He grinned and said, “You’re okay, Pete. I’m surprised that there are still kids like you around. I knew that something was up. I appreciate you telling me what happened. What do you think we should do about her?”

“I don’t know, but I bet Amy does. I’ll talk to her about it and let you know what she says.”

“That’s good, but what is there about Cindy that’s missing?”

“It’s not that, Digger. I’ve been seeing someone else.”

“Oh, so how’s that going?”

“Not well. She decided to move on without me.”

“Well, don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

I chuckled to myself and said, “I’ll try.”

“Good. Now, there are a couple of other things. My eye condition was originally diagnosed as untreatable, but I just got word from the VA that a doctor in Long Beach came out with a treatment that looks promising, but we have a problem. Cindy and I get around pretty well with taxis, buses, and things, but Long Beach is a two hour ride on the bus each way. Could you teach Cindy how to drive if I buy a car?”

“That sounds like great news. You don’t have a car now?”

“No.”

“How does Cindy get around?”

“She walks, rides her bicycle, or takes the bus.”

I answered, “Yes, I’ll be happy to. Do you have a car in mind?”

“I want her to be safe, so I thought I’d get something new, but not too expensive.”

“I’ll talk to my dad, he knows cars.”

“Great. Now, how are you going to deal with Cindy?”

Suddenly a voice behind me said, “Why do I need to be dealt with?”

Cindy was standing in the doorway looking curious. I was about to say something, but Digger beat me to it and said, “I want Pete to teach you how to drive, and I told him that you can be pretty stubborn.”

“Drive! Why do I need to learn how to drive?”

Digger began to tell her about what he heard from the VA, and I saw something I hadn’t noticed before as I watched her. Cindy has regular features, but she’s so quiet and plain-looking that it’s easy to overlook her in a crowd, but her whole look changes when she smiles or gets excited about something. Her body language is different, her face lights up, and she actually looks quite pretty. She was that way now because Digger had just told her about the doctor. She was grinning and hugging him, and I watched the quiet, almost invisible girl I know from school change into a vibrant, attractive, young woman. Is that how Jake saw her? It made me wonder if I was missing something.