Marilyn's Ghost

by Lorena Franco

  “If I had known, I would have slept in the plane like you,” said Adam, tired.

  “I can see you’re more quiet today,” Pam laughed, flirty, punching his shoulder gently.

  They finished at seven in the evening and went to the prestigious restaurant Imàgo, located on the sixth floor of the hotel, to eat with Karl and the two production bosses. Adam and Pam were silent during the dinner, listening to the indications of ‘the bosses’ attentively. The following day there would have to be walking through the narrow streets of Rome at six in the morning. That meant getting up at three-thirty for the makeup and wardrobe session. Neither of the young people were worried. They knew the script by heart, they knew their characters well. The film was on a sure path to success and the makeup would know how to hide the bags and fatigue.

  Meanwhile, Marilyn and Paul Newman were talking in Pam’s luxurious and ample suite.

  “How do you think those two will end up?” Paul asked, referring to Adam and Pam.

  “I guarantee a romance, Paul. I’m sure of it,” Marilyn answered, nodding excitedly. “Pam deserves it, she’s been rejected recently and poor thing, she deserves some hope.”

  “Are you telling me my actor is her second meal?” Paul asked, scandalized.

  “No, no, he’s the desert, that’s even better,”Marilyn suggested cheekily.

  “This doesn’t seem right to me, Marilyn. If he is the second course then I have to warn him about Pam’s intentions. I like the girl, but I have to be sure that…”

  “Paul, don’t be so old-fashioned!” Marilyn interrupted him, laughing. “As they say nowadays, one hand washes the other,” Paul nodded in agreement. “Well that’s it. Let them enjoy themselves. They are young and handsome and this film will be a success. I can already see Pam with a little statue in her hands…”

  Marilyn went quiet. Her face showed sadness, that old Paul remarked upon.

  “What’s wrong, Marilyn?”

  “When she wins that statue I will leave, that was what I promised her,” Marilyn answered, distressed.

  “I might have to make one of those promises to be able to leave,” Paul reflected. “Adam is causing me an increasing number of headaches…”

  “I wish I hadn’t made that promise and that I could stay here forever, with Pam. I know I’ve said a thousand times that I’m tired of wandering the earth, but this girl is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life and, well, in my death,” the diva explained, laughing.

  “Keep cool, young lady. We all have a mission. We are carrying it out successfully and when we finish, you know what Saint Peter has offered us. Eternal peace and our own little corner in paradise.”

  “In paradise? Who knows what paradise is Paul, it seems to be really boring.”

  “They might serve Don Perignon, blondie.”

  “You don’t need to tell me twice, Paul,” Marilyn laughed.

  When Adam stopped at the door of Pam’s suite to wish her goodnight, he saw how the old ghost of Paul Newman was encouraging him to go in with her. Adam would never forget the day he met his ghost. He was a young man serving hamburgers. It seemed to be a normal, average day and then suddenly, he saw Paul Newman himself sat at one of the tables of the local haunt where he worked, watching him, looking at him fixedly. His blue gaze was imposing. He thought he was suffering from hallucinations, but Paul did not leave. And when Adam finished his eight hour day, Paul followed him back to his small, disastrous apartment. Adam was scared, but the ghost of the veteran actor knew how to calm him immediately and explained that he saw something incredible in him. He promised to help him be the star that he had seen in him, ever since you saw him act in a small theatre three months previously. It was Paul who guided his first steps. Thanks to Paul Newman’s ghost, he had met Samantha Moore, his agent. Thanks to the mythical actor and his powerful and convincing agent, he had been able to participate in many films alongside great stars and finally, he had the opportunity to play the main character in a great project. All this had happened in a short time. And so once more, Adam listened to his ghost because he was seldom wrong. And if it seemed good to Paul that he should start a romance with Pam, then it must be a good thing…

  “Goodnight,” said Pam, smiling despite her tiredness.

  “We have… four hours to sleep.”

  “Yes, sleep tight, Adam.”

  “Wait, Pam,” the young actor whispered.

  “Yes?”

  “Are you tired?”

  “A little, what’s up?”

  “It’s just that…” Adam glanced at Paul, who did not yet know how unskilled his actor was at hooking up.

  “Do you want to come in?” Pam asked, laughing. Adam nodded, relieved.

  As soon as they got through the door of Pam’s suite, Adam held her sweetly around the waist and they gazed into each other’s eyes. Their heads came together slowly and finally, after months of wanting to, their lips brushed, with increasing intensity and with fast and skillful movements.

  “This…. I’m going to go to the bathroom… Don’t you dare come in!” Marilyn warned, watching how the two lovers fell onto the large bed, one on top of each other with unleashed desire.

  When Marilyn entered the bathroom, she felt a certain jealousy, and remembered one of her best lovers. Elvis Presley. Her great love, Pam’s grandfather, did not spring to mind. It was Elvis who came straight to her thoughts. “Curious,” she thought.

  Although Pam could not make many comparisons as her love life had been scarce, Adam seemed like a great lover. He was sweet, loving and generous. At every moment he asked if she was okay and if she liked what he was doing. She felt comfortable with him, forgetting Marilyn completely. When the alarm rang at three-thirty in the morning, the first thing Pam did was to look around her room. She looked in every corner, but there was no trace of her ghost. Adam was still sleeping placidly after the ecstasy of a few hours earlier, so she went to the bathroom to take a shower. A nervous laughter took over the young actress, when she saw Marilyn sat on the lavatory looking annoyed.

  “How was it?” the diva asked.

  “Marilyn, did you hide in here?”

  “I didn’t really want to see a live porno. Come, take a shower and let’s go explore!” she exclaimed happily.

  “Keep it down!”

  “But Adam can’t hear me.”

  “But I can and you know that if you get excited I get excited and…”

  “Come on! There’s no time to loose. To the shower!” Marilyn ordered, returning to the room and observing the beautiful face of the actor, resting placidly.

  The first day of filming of the movie Story of Two Souls was long and intense. After excellent characterization of the two characters and transporting them to the Rome of the thirties, the chemistry between Adam and Pam did the rest. Of course, they were also gifted actors. They were two great stars that had started a new journey together and what had happened the previous night had brought them closer together. Their gazes were explosive, their acting was sincere and their kisses… their kisses! Even the tough Karl sighed every time he saw one of those kisses every director dreams to see on the monitor of his cinematographic projects. All the takes were good, Adam and Pam were happy to be working together while their ghosts looked at each other complicity. They were proud of their actors. They saw a bright future for them, of course, thanks to them, the veterans.

  The days went by. Pam continued to not have a single free second in her agenda to call her parents or Richard. She could only send them a few short WhatsApps in the brief pauses she had, telling him that all was well and that the city and the little she had been able to visit was beautiful. Richard responded to each message with enthusiasm. Fortunately, she had a lot of work and that mitigated the pain a little bit. Deep down, the agent knew that Pam was having a romance with Adam. He knew his young actress had forgotten about him in that sense. He knew he had missed his chance. And a romance with the new talent Adam Williams was something that would
benefit his actress’ career. He felt nostalgic when he looked at Pam’s house and knew that she was not there, observing him from behind the curtain and suffering every time a model went through his door.

  One day when they finished filming early, Adam and Pam went for a walk through Rome, just like two regular tourists. They had seen the Fontana di Trevi quite a lot as they had filmed various scenes there, in the day and at night. Citizens and tourists watched Adam and Pam’s scenes curiously, next to a figure also dressed in the thirties style, from behind the security barriers.

  Marilyn and Paul decided to leave the two love birds and went for a walk, unseen by the living. Both knew Rome well, they had been there for professional reasons on several occasions. They liked holding one of their surreal conversations, but above all, they enjoyed being naughty. They would enter a shop and drive the shop assistants crazy by taking or throwing things. They posed in front of the tourists’ cameras who saw with surprise how a halo of light appeared in front of them in the photo. They interfered with cellphones until they drove the staff crazy, and like this, a hundred more pranks that came to them on the way.

  The first thing Adam and Pam did was to visit the splendid Coliseum. Then, they enjoyed a portion of authentic pizza with a thin and crisp base with a delicious layer of flavors in Pizza al taglio, close to the Vatican, in Via del Grazie. To burn off the fungi porcini pizza they had chosen, they climbed up to the top of the Vatican by the narrow stairs to contemplate Rome from the circular terrace. They were breathless when they got to the top, but the views were worth it.

  Exhausted, they visited the Pastelería Josephine, close to Campo dei Flori that artists liked so much. There, they tried some delicious sweets from overseas. They wanted to try everything, everything typically Italian, so after visiting the Pantheon they went to one of Rome’s typical ice-cream parlors that was close-by. They chose the Giolotti and savored a sweet vanilla ice-cream for a few minutes. It was the best they had ever tried. They also had time to visit the Capilla Sixtina and wandered around the special neighborhood Trastevere. Everything was so different to Los Angeles, it oozed art and history in every corner. There was magic and enchantment in the streets. The couple, hand in hand, could not stop admiring everything their eyes saw with wonder and admiration with every step they took.

  “It’s stunning. I loved this walk with you,” Pam admitted, while they climbed the stairs of the Piazza Spagna, on their way back to the hotel.

  “You are stunning,” Adam said, stroking her face and kissing her once more.

  Their free time that day had been filled with kisses, strokes and hugs. Everything was so romantic and perfect that it even scared her. Pam could not believe her luck was finally changing, even in love. “Don’t fall in love, don’t fall in love,” the little voice inside her still said. But it was already too late. There are trains that only come by once, as her uncle Jim used to say. And Pam had decided to not let this train pass.

  Adam and Pan shared a suite for the three weeks they were filming in Rome, without anyone knowing. They hardly slept and the makeup artists despaired when they saw the bags the two actors had every morning in their dressing rooms. Even so, they looked dazzling, full of happiness. Their eyes shone with a special light and Karl pampered them as if they were his own children, as he was so proud of them. It had nothing to do with Pam’s first shoots. In Story of Two Souls, she felt like a true star, acclaimed and pampered by all. finally.

  Marilyn and Paul’s ghosts on their part, were a little annoyed and displeased.

  “Look. They don’t say anything to us,” Marilyn said to Paul, watching a scene in a dark, narrow and cobbled alley of Rome, where the lovebirds were kissing in hiding after an argument. “As if they don’t need us anymore.”

  “They have fallen in love.”

  “Yes? You think my Pam has fallen in love? Paul nodded with annoyance.

  Yes, Marilyn also thought so. And although Pam wanted to be with her ghost for a little while, Adam did no leave her for a second. He was always with her, when shooting and when not. But Pam liked to see this interest in Adam, as finally someone had fallen in love with her. And it did not overwhelm her at all. Richard had moved on. And of course, Brad too.

  “They are so clingy,” Paul complained. “We’ll see how long they last.”

  “I think it’s cute…”

  “What’s not cute, blondie, is that they’ve abandoned us. Even my headache has disappeared because the mister no longer deigns to talk to me,” Paul explained, raising his voice.

  “Paul, calm, calm… you were more pacific in life. As a ghost you’re an old fogey,” Marilyn laughed.

  The shooting in Rome had come to its end. Seeing the city as if for the first time, Adam and Pam gave into the passion and their apparently sincere feelings. They said goodbye to the city. The shoot had been a success. There were still five weeks during which they would shoot interior and exteriors of Los Angeles, simulating the current era in which the two young actors would have the opportunity to change register but not essence, just as the proud and satisfied director had told them.

  When they arrived in Los Angeles, Adam and Pam were not expecting to find several fan clubs. Surprised and not used to such situations, they saw how several young people approached them looking for the best photo and an autograph. Adam desperately looked for his ghost and so did Pam. But there was no trace of Paul nor Marilyn, who from a distance watching how their ‘novice’ actors were starting to lose control of the situation.

  “Now they’re looking for us,” Paul muttered.

  “Don’t be mean.”

  “Let them suffer for a bit,” said Newman’s ghost, slanting his deep blue eyes.

  Before being able to go home, they signed autographs and had thousands of photos taken, trying to put on their best faces, after a twelve-hour flight, alongside strangers who told them they were good-looking and how much they admired them.

  “But we haven’t even screened any films yet…” Pam lamented in the taxi that would take each of them to their respective homes.

  “I don’t get it either, Pam. That was…”

  “Horrible. That was horrible,” Pam finished, shaking her head.

  After having spent three weeks together, twenty-four hours a day without leaving each other’s side, Pam went to her house and Adam to his apartment.

  “I’m going to miss you tonight,” Adam whispered in her ear.

  “And I you… But we’ll see each other at the shoot tomorrow.”

  Pam entered her house and finally saw Marilyn. She had not seen her since they got on the plane. They had not been able to talk for days.

  “Marilyn! I wanted to be alone with you so much,” the young actress admitted.

  “It didn’t seem like it,” Marilyn answered, smiling maliciously. “Okay, tell me, how are you?”

  “I don’t understand what happened in the airport. That avalanche of fans… They’re crazy!”

  “I told you that you would have to get used to this type of thing happening quickly.”

  “So fast? They haven’t even seen me act in any films yet.”

  “But they will see it. You appear in magazines, they speak about you on television, and Adam is also very popular and his physique… well! There’s nothing I can tell you that you don’t already know.”

  “Marilyn, he is so handsome, so… everything! I’ve fallen in love,” the young woman confessed, with a goofy smile.

  “I think your agent is coming to see you,” Marilyn sighed, seeing through the window how Richard was approaching the door.

  Richard seemed elated. He gave Pam two effusive kisses and they sat on the sofa, very close to Marilyn who still thought that Richard was the most attractive man in the world. After Will Smith, of course.

  “I’ve spoken to Karl. He told me you’ve been outstanding. You know, you have many chances to get an Oscar with this part,” Richard announced.

  “What?” Pam asked, split between alarm and shock, loo
king openly at her ghost.

  “An Oscar, Pam. The dream of every actress.”

  “Of course, of course, then that’s great. I’m really tired, I’m going to sleep.”

  “Rest, Pam. Tomorrow I’ll go to the shoot.”

  “I’ll see you around then.”

  “Are you okay?” Richard worried.

  “Yes! It’s been an intense three weeks and I need to rest.”

  “I understand. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Richard left, discouraged. He had been hoping for a different type of reunion with Pam. He did not know what exactly, after having rejected her in that way, but he hoped to see her happy when he told her she could be one of the candidates to win a dreamt-for Oscar. However, he saw panic in her eyes. Pam was a mystery to him and because of that, he didn’t have the same relationship with her as with the other actresses he represented. Pam was and forever would be, someone special. To look after her and protect her was instinctive to Richard.

  Pam and her ghost returned to the Warner studios to films scenes of the thirties, interspersed with those of the twenty-first century on sets set up for the occasion. They had spent three months working on them and both Pam and Adam were speechless when they saw the sets on which they would continue to give life to the two endearing people in love, as in love as they were in real life.

  When Pam arrived at her dressing room, a bouquet of red roses were waiting for her on the desk.

  “I couldn’t send you a bouquet of flowers in Rome,

  But I’m sending them here.

  Great shoot, artist!

  Fondly,

  Richard.”

  Pam shook her head with seriousness and to Marilyn’s surprise, she threw the beautiful bouquet of flowers in the trash.

  “What has gotten into you?” the diva asked.

  “You know perfectly well, Marilyn. He rejected me and he keeps sending flowers to the dressing room? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Perhaps he does this with all the actresses he represents.”

  “Then in that case, he can send them to someone else. Not to me. It’s over, days ago I decided that my relationship with Richard would be strictly professional. For both our sakes.”