by Omar Tyree
I said, “No, if anything, I’ll be the one to ask her.”
“Well, ask her then,” Maddy instigated.
“Not right now,” I told them. “I mean, you can tell that she’s busy right now.”
Sure enough, Tracy headed back down the stairs with a bag of her things and headed straight for the front door.
“Be good, Vanessa. Bye everybody,” she told us on her way back out.
Maddy said, “I bet she has a hot date out there waiting for her. You can see his headlights still on.”
We all chuckled at it.
Tonya said, “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”
Jasmine said, “Well, she’s not a girl anymore. She a real woman now.”
Petula smiled. She said, “We are all girls at heart, we just have to make women’s decisions when we get older. But even an old woman can be a girl. My grandmother in Nigeria taught me that. She said a girl’s heart keeps a woman young, and so does a boy’s heart in an old man.”
It all made sense to us, so no one argued about it. Because we were all girls at heart.
* * *
As much as I hated to admit it, I was growing out of my eagerness to continue sweating my cousin about turning her book into a breakout film. It was really wearing me out, and like she said, I had my own life aspirations to figure out. I couldn’t live my life through her. So I was not pressed about asking her if we could use FlyyGirls.com for our new website name and membership emails. It looked like another long, uphill battle. I still liked my own idea of UrbanMiss.com anyway. However, I did recognize that an already popular name would maximize our efforts to attract members. But Tracy just wasn’t ready to go there.
I considered her procrastination a waste. I mean, you get all that power and name recognition and then you sit there and do nothing with it just because someone else says it won’t work. I couldn’t believe that. My cousin had me losing respect for her. We all looked up to the flyy girl who would just get up and go for it, not the one who wouldn’t even try. We knew plenty of people who wouldn’t try. What good was that? So I was steadily thinking about finding ways to make things happen for myself.
I was in my room just about ready for bed after reading another chapter of The 48 Laws of Power, when Tracy walked in on me.
“Okay, you got me,” she said out of the blue.
I was confused. “I got you?”
I didn’t have any idea what she was talking about.
She said, “I’m gonna start writing a screenplay for Flyy Girl, and you’re gonna help me to set everything up for a casting call. You’ve been asking me for this workload, Vanessa, so don’t start whining when I give it to you.”
I sat up in bed and got excited. I said, “Oh, bring it on then.”
“That’s exactly what I’m about to do,” she told me.
I said, “So what made you change your mind all of a sudden?”
“It wasn’t all of a sudden. I’ve been thinking about it,” she told me. She grinned and said, “Probably not as much as you have, but I have been thinking. And it’s only a matter of time before I have to start putting this thing together anyway. It’s either now or later. It’s not gonna go away. And since I haven’t decided on my next project with the studios, I figure I may as well get my own fire burning again.”
I asked her, “So the production companies are totally against Flyy Girl as your next movie?”
Tracy said, “After Jump-start, they are not feeling the black woman’s issues right now.”
I said, “But that’s a totally different kind of movie from Flyy Girl.”
“Nevertheless, it was a multiple black women vehicle that didn’t work.”
I went hard on my cousin and said, “Well, who asked for that movie? I mean, I felt like you did it to connect to me, but no one really wants to hear a sob story about a relative taking in a sibling unless it has some major drama in it. The sibling would have to be in some type of big trouble or create big trouble.”
To my surprise, Tracy began to laugh at my frank comments.
She said, “Yeah, like you’re creating trouble for me right now. But you know what, Vanessa, I think I needed you. After these last two films bombed, it took a lot out of me. Now I’m turning back into the public school teacher who complains about people not getting how hard I work.”
“They don’t care,” I told her. “That’s just the way people are. They want what they want and that’s it.”
Tracy took a look at the book I was reading. She asked me, “What are you doing with that?”
It was her book.
I smiled and said, “I was reading it.”
“How far did you get in it?” she asked me.
“Well, I wasn’t reading it straight through. I was kind of jumping around to the different chapters that I was interested in.”
“What are your favorite chapters so far?”
“Umm . . .” I had to remember them. I said, “Well, I just got finished reading Law Twenty-nine, to plan all the way to the end. That was pretty good. And the one before that one, to move with boldness, was good, too.”
My cousin continued to smile at me. She said, “A lot of those laws are dealing with natural personality traits. I’ve always been bold. But are you trying to be a leader by reading that, or are you just reading to be reading?”
I smiled back at her. I said, “Actually, I’m already like a leader.” I decided to keep it at that. Tracy would tell me what she thought about it anyway. So I waited for her to do so.
She nodded and said, “Law number one, never outshine the master, or you’ll find yourself out on your ass. Anyway, I have a lot of things I want to go over with you,” she told me.
She said, “I know this girl Charmaine Dearborn who asked me about starting an urban girl’s fashion line a while ago, and at the time I just wasn’t thinking about it. I was too busy making movies.
“Well, I’m gonna put you in contact with her to start coming up with ideas for Flyy Girl minitees and ponytail hats,” she said. “I want bright, summer colors like orange, lime green, hot pink, sky blue, and a rust color. I don’t want any yellows. Yellow is weak, so we’ll use rust instead. And you and your girls will be the first ones to wear them.”
As my cousin continued to talk, I felt like I needed a pen or something to jot it all down.
I said, “Wait a minute. Let me get something to write this down with.”
Tracy told me, “You’ll write it down later. I just wanna get some of these ideas out while I’m thinking about them.”
I was conflicted. I still wanted to write them down, for both of us. But at the same time, Tracy was on a roll and I didn’t want to break her flow.
I said “Okay” and planned to use my memory instead.
She stood inside the room at the foot of the bed and told me, “I’m gonna get my lawyers to copyright Flyy Girl Ltd., and we’ll design the logo off of my For the Love of Money book jacket pose, where I’m all glammed out and holding the purse at my side.”
I stopped her and asked, “You want an image as a logo instead of just the words. That’s old school. Nobody does that anymore.”
My cousin told me, “Exactly. I am old school. I’m from the eighties, and I’m about to bring it back. Now, you have to understand that if we do this movie right, then we’ll have to talk to Jordache, Sergio Valente, Gloria Vanderbilt, Coca-Cola, Gucci, Lee Jeans, Laura Biagotti, Members Only, Izod, Le Tigre, Aigner, Guess. And if you think for one minute that I’ll have any of these old designers in my movie without having my Flyy Girl Ltd. out first, with a logo that young girls and old can lock in their minds on sight, then you gots to be crazy.”
She said, “I don’t even need words in Japan, just my logo. I don’t need words in Germany, just my logo. I don’t need words in Brazil, just my logo. And then when I show up, looking flyy as usual, they know it’s me without any spelling or language barriers.”
I started smiling. My cousin was just running off
at the mouth. It was like she was back from the grave, man. The dark cloud had passed her by.
She said, “So what we do is this: I finish writing this screenplay, and instead of us calling up Hollywood actresses, who may or may not have the drawing power to pull this movie off at the box office, hell, we roll up our sleeves and go on the road to find our own flyy girls for a multitude of purposes; extras, co-stars, models, assistants, you name it.
“And we can take it from city to city, starting with Philadelphia,” she told me.
I said, “That’s how J. Lo got her start, while casting for the role of the Mexican singer Selena.”
“That’s also how your favorite film icon, Spike Lee, discovered a lot of people,” Tracy told me.
“He’s not my favorite,” I told her. “I just talk about him a lot because he deserves respect for starting it all.”
“Actually, Melvin Van Peebles started independent black films fifteen years before Spike Lee.”
“Yeah, and it was someone else doing black films fifteen years before him,” I argued with a grin. I was sure happy to see Tracy back, though. She hadn’t been her spunky self in my opinion for months.
She said, “Anyway, getting back to what I was saying. I can hire cameramen and photographers and start up the clothing line with a hot buzz and limited sales in the cities where we host the flyy girl casting calls. That’ll help me to break even with our travel and setup expenses while we build the hype. And by the time we’re done, any production company that would not take advantage of the momentum we build would be insane.”
I sat there and had to remember all of that with no pen. But it was going to be easy. It was a simple game plan. Still, knowing my cousin and the way the world worked, I assumed her simple plan would change twenty times before everything was all said and done.
Tracy said, “So I’ll talk to you again sometime tomorrow afternoon when you get back from school, and we’ll jot everything on paper then, after I’ve called my lawyers and let them know everything I’m planning.”
Then she walked out the door and left me dumbfounded and gleeful. I immediately jumped up and grabbed my pen and a notepad to start writing down everything I could remember. I knew one thing was for sure, I would be up all night working on ideas of my own to add to hers. And with my cousin knowing me, I could imagine that she already knew that.
Like Lightning
Tracy told me the truth. I had been asking her for the workload, and she was finally giving it to me. But I didn’t mind it at all. It was exciting. We were finally starting the Flyy Girl franchise, something my cousin should have thought of doing years ago.
“Have you received any baby-tee sample designs from Charmaine yet?” she asked me, weeks after we had revved up the process and served notice to everyone involved. I had plenty of notes and a cordless telephone on the dining room table, which served as a makeshift office while Tracy looked into renting office space in L.A. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to rent a high-end office or just keep it simple, with offices in L.A., Philly, and New York. She was really thinking a mile a minute now.
Tonya, Jasmine, and Petula were all at the dining room table with me, sorting out our lists of things to do. My friends were all fully involved in the process. I had made sure of it. Besides, we were all jumping at the opportunity to be the first girls to model Flyy Girl Ltd.
Tonya answered Tracy’s question before I could.
“She said she should have something to us by the end of the week.”
“And what about contacting Freedom Theater in Philly about holding our first auditions there in June?”
Jasmine spoke up on that one.
“They haven’t called us back yet. I left them three messages already.”
“Did you tell them that we’re paying them for it?”
Jasmine looked confused.
“Was I supposed to?”
“No, but that would have made them call you right back,” Tracy joked.
We all laughed at it.
“Money talks,” Petula added.
“How far along are you on the screenplay?” I asked my cousin. “Can we read some of it yet?”
Tracy said, “Even when I’m finished with it, I won’t let you read it. I have to do at least three rewrites before I’ll be satisfied. But we will have at least the first two drafts by the time we head to Philly in June. Once we finish the first couple of casting calls, I’ll assess what’s working and what’s not, and I’ll do another rewrite.”
Jasmine asked her, “Is that your normal process?”
“Well, I try to do as many rewrites that are needed to get the job done. But no process is mistake-proof,” my cousin answered. She said, “Sometimes you can even overwrite by trying to analyze too much. And for book adaptations, you’re always trying to streamline material. But I won’t have a problem with the screenplay for Flyy Girl because I know just where to start.”
“Where is that?” Tonya asked her.
Tracy smiled at her. “You’ll see once the casting calls begin.”
It was late afternoon, and more of my girls were on their way over. They were all getting used to Tracy as our boss lady, so to speak. She was calling the shots, and we were all her loyal servants.
“Vanessa, I have a meeting with Susan, then I want to check out a few more office spaces, so you hold down the fort until I get back,” she told me. In the next second, she was out the door again.
“So, how does it feel?” Petula asked me as soon as my cousin had left us.
“How does what feel?”
“You know, being related to her?”
I thought about it and began to smile. I said, “It’s like, you’re proud on one hand, but then on the other hand, you’re always thinking about how you fit in. You know?”
Jasmine shook her head and said, “Yeah, you’re on some competition thing, Vanessa. Just be happy for your cousin and do what you need to do for her vision. I mean, I can be a team player. I can do that.”
“Nobody said anything about that, Jasmine,” I argued.
“Yeah, but I can hear it in you. That’s what you’re really saying. ‘Where am I on her level?’ ” Jasmine said to me. “I guess that’s just the Philadelphian in you. People from the East Coast are always like that.”
“You don’t think about that?” Tonya asked her. “I know I do. It’s just natural.”
“Aw, that’s because you’re into sports, Tonya. You don’t count,” Jasmine told her.
“I’m competitive with my brothers and sisters,” Petula said. “But Tracy Ellison Grant is on a whole other level.”
“Yeah, but she has doubts and confidence lapses like the rest of us,” I told them. “It took me nearly a year of bugging her just to get her to this point.”
“That’s true,” Tonya agreed.
“So what? She still has the name to do it. Everybody deserves a break every now and then,” Jasmine stated.
I wanted to get her point so we could move on. It sounded like a meaningless argument to me. We were all helping out with the process of hyping the Flyy Girl brand, film, and clothing line, regardless of how we felt individually, and that was that.
So I asked Jasmine, “What’s your point? You think I ride my cousin too much? I’m just trying to get her to use what she’s got to move forward, and now she’s finally doing it.”
“Yeah, and you’re making sure that we all know that you deserve the credit for it, too.”
“Well, it’s her cousin,” Tonya stated. “None of us live with Tracy like Vanessa does. She has to think about it every day. She has no choice.”
“She really doesn’t,” Petula agreed.
Jasmine finally gave up on her petty argument.
I said, “Well, at least I’m not just sitting here sponging off my cousin, which a lot of people in my position would do. I’m sitting here spending my extra time trying to help her.”
“We all are,” Tonya reminded me. “And none of us are getting paid for it.�
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There was a minute of silence after Tonya’s comment regarding money. Then Jasmine smiled.
“Yet,” she told us.
Petula grunted, “Unh hunh, we see where your mind is, Jasmine. That’s a shame.”
“Naw, man, I don’t even think like that, I’m just saying.”
“Oh, we’ll be paid eventually, in some form or another,” I promised them. “You never know what this kind of exposure can do for your career. And we all look good in our own ways. So all we have to do is work it.”
As soon as I finished my statement, the phone rang.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Yes, this is Freedom Theater in Philadelphia calling back in reference to using the stage for a casting call for a film.”
“Yes,” I answered. “It’s for the Philadelphia-based novel Flyy Girl.”
“Oh, yes, that book is very popular with a lot of our young performers,” I was told.
“Yeah, well now we’re finally writing a screenplay for it.”
“Okay, that’s good. So for what days would you be needing the stage, and for how long each day?”
“Wait one second, let me gather my notes,” I told her.
* * *
Things were moving like lightning, they really were. We had Freedom Theater set up for our opening casting call in Philadelphia. Tracy was nearly finished with the first draft of her script. Susan was starting to get the buzz going with P.R. contacts. Yolanda Felix was locking down all the legal work. And Tracy had rented office space in Inglewood all by mid-May.
We had office space in a two-story building that was low key, but also allowed us a chance to mingle with the people in the community. We had our first samples of the colorful FLYY GIRL baby-tee shirts, with my cousin’s logo pose from her sequel book going down the sides, and a one-liner that read Flyy Girl across the left breast. And boy did they work! We could barely walk in and out of the building without people stopping to ask us about the shirts and our matching ponytail hats. They couldn’t even get them yet. They were only rough samples.
Tracy didn’t even like the shirts at first. She said, “You can’t even see the logo unless you’re standing sideways. And then your arms are in the way.”