Hope Falls

by Jamieson Wolf

  Miriam was meeting Naomi in Mama's, a popular family restaurant that specialized in Lebanese food. Miriam loved the spicy donairs, the cool tubule. When she got to the table, Naomi was already there, dipping pita bread in humus.

  Naomi was short, just under five four with dark red hair, with striking brown eyes fringed by thick lashes. Her mouth was small with pouty lips. But when she smiled, she lit up a room. Miriam envied her friend. She played one of the hardest roles on television, that of two identical twins. One was a good twin, one was a bad twin. Naomi

  played both roles.

  Her face smiled when she saw Miriam. "Honey, I ordered you a Bloody Mary."

  "Thank god."

  "Well, not to be blunt, but you look like you need it."

  "You have no idea."

  Their drinks came and Miriam felt the warmth of the booze run through her system. Naomi stated talking but Miriam held up her hand. She ordered two more Bloody Mary's and a large grilled chicken salad, a donair platter and some coffee. She drowned her second Bloody Mary when it came and then turned to her friend.

  "How about clueing me in on what is going on here." Naomi said.

  "I have something to tell you."

  "Well, that's obvious, isn't it?"

  "Is it?"

  "You never drink like this, you normally eat like a bird, yet you've downed two drinks in the space of half an hour and ordered enough food to feed an army. What gives?"

  "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

  "Hey," Naomi said. "We're soap actresses. We've seen everything, remember? How about telling me what is going on before running scared?"

  Miriam nodded. "Alright. I have to tell someone." She said. She was about to continue when her glass exploded, showering her in Bloody Mary and shards of glass. Through a haze of glass and blood, Miriam saw her friend reach forward and grab her hands.

  "OH MY GOD!" Miriam screamed. "They've found me."

  "Did someone just shoot at us?" Naomi asked. "That was a bullet, shit, that was a bullet. Get down Miriam, get down."

  Miriam complied, but she was babbling. "I'm so sorry, Nai, I'm so sorry. I never thought they'd be watching me, I never thought of that, I don’t want them to kill you too."

  "What is going ON, Miriam?" Naomi whispered.

  "They're after me," she said. "They're trying to kill me." Blackness came quickly and she fell to the floor.

  NINETEEN

  Miriam begins to explain the situation

  Miriam woke in a haze.

  She turned onto her side when she heard bird song from the window. She opened her eyes. She didn't know where she was.

  Miriam sat up and took a look at her surroundings, wiping sleep from her eyes. She was in a soft, lilac colored bedroom. She was lying beneath a purple duvet, surrounded by pillows. The bed she was on was made of a dark wood. If she was going to survive, she had to be observant.

  She heard a noise in the hallway and pulled the blanket up to her chin, though it would do no good. She noticed that she was no longer wearing her clothes, but instead was clothed in a cotton nightgown.

  The noise came closer. It was a tinkling, clinking noise. Miriam kept her eyes on the door. The doorknob rattled, reminding her of the mysterious X at her apartment door. She began to shake under the covers and watched as the door opened.

  She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Naomi. She had two trays of food balanced on her arms and a warm smile on her face.

  "I'm glad to see you're awake." She said.

  "Thanks." Miriam said, taking a hold of one of the trays. Naomi had made them a breakfast of eggs, toast, pancakes and hash browns. "I'm going to gain twenty pounds when I eat this."

  "You can stand to gain some weight."

  "Thanks, love you too."

  "Well, you can. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?" Naomi said, a little too harshly.

  "Of course I have."

  "Than are you blind?"

  "What kind of a question is that to ask me?" A hand went to Miriam's throat.

  "Don't play victim with me, Miriam. You do enough of that at work."

  "What a horrible thing to say!"

  "It's the truth!" Naomi was red faced, her red hair tussled. Miriam couldn't help to start laughing at her friend; short as she was she looked like a very angry gnome. "Oh, I'm glad you think this is funny!"

  "I'm sorry!" Miriam said through laughter, "you just look so…so…pissed off!" Miriam lost herself in a new fit of the giggles, snorting coffee through her nose. When she was done, Naomi looked at her.

  "Now do you feel like telling me what is going on?"

  "How did I get here?"

  "I carried you after you fainted last night. The waiters and the Maitre D wanted you to go to the hospital but I told them you were alright, that you didn't like the sight of blood. It was close though; they were insisting that you go to a hospital with the rest of the people who were hurt. I told them who you were, what show you were on and that you didn’t want this to be in the tabloids. I put you in my car and drove you here. What happened at the restaurant last night, Miriam?"

  "We were being shot at." Miriam whispered.

  Naomi put the trays down and sat next to her friend on the soft bed. "Miriam, what do you mean?"

  "Just what I said, we were being shot at."

  "Miriam, who was shooting at us?"

  "I don't know. They were shooting at me."

  "Why were they shooting at you?"

  "Because they want to kill me."

  "Oh my god…" Naomi put down her coffee, went to the desk beside the bed Miriam was on and took out a pack of cigarettes from one of the deep, wooden drawers. She pulled out a cigarette, flicked a lighter and lit it. She inhaled, a blue plume of smoke rising above her head. She handed the cigarette pack to Miriam who took one and lit up as well. Then, Naomi spoke. "I think you have to tell me what is going on."

  "You believe me?"

  "I don't know what to believe. But I can see you're scared, Miriam. You have to trust me, you have to tell me what is going on. There is something eating you inside, I can see that."

  Miriam burst into a flood of tears. "I'm just so scared!" she sobbed. She felt her forehead and the cuts that were there. She had not imagined last night.

  "Its okay, Miriam. I'm here for you, whatever you need me for, alright?" Naomi reached out and touched her hair.

  "You're like my sister. I'll do anything for you."

  "You may regret you said that."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Because I need help. I need to become someone else."

  "I don't understand." Naomi looked at her friend, concern shining in her eyes.

  "I need a disguise so good that no one will know who I am.

  TWENTY

  Miriam tells Naomi more of the story

  "What do you mean, you have to become someone else?" Naomi said. "You're not making sense."

  "Oh, none of this makes any sense, Nai!" Miriam wailed and flung herself back on the bed. "None of this makes any sense." She started sobbing into the covers.

  Naomi came over and rubbed her friends back. "It's going to be okay, Miriam. Here, we'll take your breakfast to the kitchen and eat in the sun. That ought to cheer you up. Than we're going to have a drink and you're gonna spill the beans. Kapeesh?"

  Miriam nodded her eyes puffy.

  "Here, I'll carry that. I'll also get us something to put in that coffee."

  Naomi led the way to the kitchen and Miriam, as always, was awed by it. It was an array of wood and chrome, both shiny. There were wooden cupboards over top of a stainless steel stove, which was next to a chrome and steel fridge. A dishwasher glinted in the corner, underneath granite counter tops. Naomi loved to cook and had made the kitchen her oasis.

  Miriam sat on one of the stools that surrounded the bistro table in the kitchen by the window. She shuffled softly to the table and dug into her eggs and bacon that Naomi had placed on the table. Naomi returned a moment
later with a bottle of Bailey's.

  "A little drop in the morning will do you good." She said smiling. She poured a dollop in each of their coffees, paused and added another. "Sometimes you need more than a little."

  Miriam sipped at her coffee and felt the Bailey's rush through her bloodstream. It warmed her tummy and she could feel the coffee, hot, heating her skin. She sighed with pleasure. She felt almost human again.

  "Now," Naomi said when Miriam had finished her breakfast. "How about you start at the beginning okay?"

  "You're not going to believe me."

  "Yes I am, now spill." She pulled out a pack of Menthols.

  "Can I have one of those?" Miriam asked.

  Naomi handed her a smoke and Miriam lit up. "Thanks."

  "No problem."

  Miriam inhaled and blew out a plume of blue smoke. "I guess it all started the day I tried to leave for a role on Days of Our Lives."

  "You got a part on that? You didn't tell me that!"

  "Yeah, it was eight years into my stay at Hope Falls. But Howard came to see me." She relayed what he had said about the Lifetime Contract, how she had laughed at him. She told her about Bruce's death a year later, Caroline's two years after that. "It was so horrible, Nai, so horrible!" she sobbed, remembering Caroline. "She was such a good actress, Bruce was such a sweetie."

  "What about the others?" Naomi asked. It was the first time she had spoken in over an hour.

  "The others?"

  "Yes, who were the other actors who had Lifetime Contracts?"

  "There were eight of us, including me. Bruce, Caroline, Rachel, Stacey, Ronald, Jack. And Toby.

  "Toby, wasn't that the one who-"

  "Yes." Miriam said. Her voice made it clear she would discuss him no further.

  "What happened to Stacey, than? You've told me what happened to Bruce and Caroline."

  "Are you sure you want to hear this?"

  "Yes." Naomi took her friends hand.

  "They killed Stacey on set, just like the others."

  "Who was she again?"

  "She was that young woman who played my daughter, Anna. Remember, the one who died in the house fire?"

  "Yes, I remember her. House fire? Wait a minute, if what you're saying is true, that means they-"

  "Yes." Miriam said. "They burned her to death."

  TWENTY ONE

  Stacey dies a tragic death

  "They what?" Naomi whispered. The evening was coming fast. Miriam had been talking most of the day and the end of another day approached. They could see the sun setting in the distance. Naomi got up from her barstool and started rummaging in the fridge.

  "They burned her to death." Miriam repeated.

  "Miriam…what are you saying?"

  "I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

  "I believe you, I do, I really do." She ran to her friend and took her hands in hers. She squeezed Miriam's hands and gave her another cigarette. She refilled her coffee and went back to the fridge. She took out a chocolate cake and set it on the table with two forks. She rejoined Miriam at the counter. "What happened, Miriam?"

  "It was three years after Caroline's death. There had been another rewrite."

  * * *

  Miriam remembered seeing the blue pages in amongst the white ones, remembered that familiar feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. She flipped to the blue pages and began reading:

  *

  ….(INT: Night, STEVENS MANSION. STACEY sits in the living room, alone. SYLVIA and MARK are both out. STACEY site alone. She looks to the picture of GRAM STEVENS on the mantle piece. Mesmerized, she approaches the mantle and takes hold of the picture.)

  STACEY: (sadly) You never loved me.

  (She holds the picture to the light so that the glass shines. GRAM STEVENS seems to move underneath the glass.)

  STACEY: You never loved any of us. Mother is so screwed up because of

  you, do you know that Gram? Do you?

  (she is becoming irate, pacing the ground. She spits at the picture.)

  STACEY: I hate you! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU! YOU RUINED OUR LIVES!

  (There is a noise and a GHOST appears in the shape of GRAN STEVNS)

  GRAM: You wretched little slut! You don't love your mother like I did, you don't love my baby! You only exist to suck her dry! You suck her dry until she has no more love to give you!

  STACEY: Than why does she fear you? Why does she fear the mention of

  your name?

  GRAM: Because I am able to strike fear into all that meet me.

  STACEY: You don't scare me! I'm not afraid of you!

  GRAM: You should be. (Menacing look) You should be.

  (There is a loud BANG and a large fireball roars out of the fireplace. STACEY SCREAMS as she is engulfed in the flames.)

  GRAM: Your mother was cursed when she had you! Now you will pay the

  price!

  (STACEY continues to scream, flailing about the room, waving her arms and SCREAMING in the loudest, shrillest voice. Fire leaps off of her body and sets furniture on fire.

  [EXT: NIGHT: STEVENS MANSION: MARK and SYLVIA drive up in time to see the mansion burns to the ground. There is another SCREAM and STACEY throws herself from the window, hitting the ground five stores below with a loud SMACK]

  *

  "I had to watch her die again when they played the dailies." Miriam said. "They shot gasoline out at her when they shot out the fire. I could smell it when I ran to her. I took my coat off and tried to put out the flames. But it was too late." A tear rolled down Miriam's cheek. "She was a charred corpse and was dead when she hit the ground."

  Naomi didn't say anything for a moment. Then she said: "What are you planning to do?" When Miriam told her, Naomi looked grim. "I don't know if I can help you with that. Why don't you go to the police?"

  "Naomi, think. I can't go to the police. They'll kill me. I know it may be shallow but I value my life a lot more than telling the truth. I have to fight this. It's the only way."

  Naomi sighed. "I guess you're right, but I'm still not sure what you want me to do."

  "But you have always been good with make up! You used to work in

  the theatre."

  "Yes, but this goes beyond even my expertise. But don't worry; I can take you to see a friend of mine."

  "Who?"

  "Her names Susan. She plays Annabelle on Passions."

  "Isn't that the woman that is really Tabitha's sister?"

  "Yeah, except no one except Tabitha knows yet."

  Miriam smiled. "Do you think she can help me?"

  Naomi smiled back. "Girl, if she can't help you, no one can." She drank the last of her coffee and took another mouth full of cake. "Now come one, dig in. We'll watch a movie tonight and go and see her tomorrow morning. It's too late right now to make a house call."

  As Miriam readied herself for bed, she knew that nightmares would be coming for her. Talking of Bruce, Caroline and Stacey always brought the dreams. Thinking of them brought nightmares.

  She closed her eyes with worry, but, thankfully, she was asleep in moments. She slept a dreamless sleep that night, but sometime around four o'clock in the morning she heard a tick tick tick sound coming from the window. When she looked in that direction, there was no one there. She had the vague sense that she was being watched.

  She got up, closed the blinds and nestled further into the blankets.

  She laid her head back down and was asleep again within moments.

  TWENTY TWO

  Miriam and Naomi enlist Susan's help

  Miriam’s plan was simple: If she was going to sneak into the studio and find out who was involved in this whole mess, she would have to do it as someone else. That way she would not be recognized.

  First, though, they had to enlist more help.

  They were in Naomi's car, the early morning sun streaming through the windshield. Miriam wore her large, gold sunglasses so that her eyes could tolerate the light. She had had nightmares last night, of Ronald.
Of Jack. And Toby, sweet Toby, who still called to her in her dreams. She had woken this morning with bags under her eyes. She had found Naomi's booze cupboard and put a healthy dollop of vodka in her coffee this morning. It helped to calm her nerves.