by Lark O'Neal
“Supposed to be sight-seeing. Weather forecast isn’t the best.” Bist. He finishes the yogurt and aims for the trash can, but it bounces off the rim. He gives me a rueful sideways grin. “Always when somebody’s watching.”
I’ve eaten my yogurt. The tea is half-gone. The sun is still not up. It’s feeling a little too intimate in here, and I really want to talk to Tyler. Hear his voice. See his sparkling eyes. “I guess I’ll go get dressed and stuff.”
He’s settled back in the chair, legs outstretched, knees open in that way guys have, so perfectly comfortable. He inclines his head, looking at me through narrowed eyes. “You think you’ll speak to the film people?”
I shrug, kind of embarrassed all over again. “I don’t know. It’s kind of weird, right? Like I’m an elf?”
He grins. “Why not? Elves all over New Zealand. You’ll make money, maybe you’ll be famous.”
“Hardly.” But his words spark something deep in my gut. “I guess it could be fun.”
“Yeah.” He stands, grabbing his cup. “You think on it, girl. You never know where things can lead.”
“Thanks.”
* * *
Late morning, we pull into the circular drive of a big house on the mountainside looking down over the town of Nelson. The plan for the day was to sightsee, but the rain changed everything. Instead my dad called the commercial people and made arrangements for us to meet in Nelson. Everyone goes along, Katy and Darcy and Kaleb, along with my dad and me.
“We’ll wait in the car,” Katy says, but when the camera guy peeks over our shoulders and sees them waiting, he waves. “Tell them they can all come in.”
The house is practically made of glass, the windows floor to ceiling and facing the water, and I can’t help myself, I feel a little kid inside me do a triple back flip. “The ocean!” I exclaim quietly to my dad.
He squeezes my hand. “Wild day out there.”
The director comes in. He’s a small man with thinning dark hair and intense eyes. “Hello, Jess,” he says. “I’m Ian Redding. Glad you could come. This must be your dad?”
Dad sticks out his hand. “Keiran Pears, Long Cloud Winery.”
“Is that right?” Ian pauses. “Good wine. Sauvignon Blanc, yeah?”
My dad beams. “You know it?”
“I do.” He turns to the group, a couple of guys from the crew, and the rest of my, well, family. He greets them in turn, Katy, Darcy and Kaleb. Darcy has worn a green dress that brings out the red lights in her hair, shows off the creamy notes in her skin. She’s curve-a-licious, and the guys definitely notice. Kaleb has gone all stoic, expression-free and aloof.
“Jess,” Ian says, “Come over here and let me get some shots, see how the light plays.”
My lifelong shyness starts to rear its head, but I think of a half-year’s pay in my pocket and move toward the window. He angles my body toward the light and shoots a bunch of pictures, close and far, with an enormous black camera.
“Good,” he says, and I release the pose, glancing over at my dad with widened eyes. He’s standing behind the couch with Kaleb, both with arms crossed, both of them watching closely. Dad gives me a thumbs-up.
Ian goes through the shots, and I’m heartened by his nod. “Camera loves you, girl.” He comes over and shows me the screen on the back of the camera. I don’t know what he means about the camera loving me—they only look like really good pictures of me. “I have a crooked tooth,” I say suddenly, afraid it will be a deal breaker.
“Let me see.”
I smile exaggeratedly and point to it.
“It’s beautiful.” He touches my shoulder briefly. “Now, let’s do some moving shots.”
We go through various things, walking mostly, talking. He calls Kaleb over to be my buddy, and we pretend to be talking as we walk through the room, looking out at the water, pretending to point at wonderful things.
“Dolphins!” Kaleb cries, and I look up at him in amazement.
“Are there really dolphins here?”
“Don’t know you anything about New Zealand in America?”
I flush. “I was born here, you know.”
His mouth softens. “Sorry, cuz.” His big hand covers mine for a second, then it’s gone. “Just kidding.”
I meet his eyes. A gold spark glints there and I lift one side of my mouth. “It’s okay.”
“That was great, you two. Both of you.” Ian grabs a couple books off the table, about the size of thick spiral notebooks. “Here’s the script for the first commercial. I’m going to go have a quick chat with my mates and you can take a look.”
Kaleb splits off, headed back to his spot behind the couch.
Ian stops him. “I’d like you to read with her, if you don’t mind.”
“I’m not an actor.”
“You’ll just be feeding her lines.”
Kaleb glances over at my dad. If he were a horse, his eyes would be rolling back.
“What’ll it hurt, lad? Afraid of being bitten by the bug?”
Kaleb scowls. “Hardly.” Perching on a chair by the window, he laces his hands around one knee and looks out at the ocean.
I hold the script in my hands, but in fact, I can’t read a single word. This is getting too real. If I do it, I’ll have to act in front of the crew and the cameras, and probably be really bad at it. My heart is racing, making me feel lightheaded, and all at once it feels like my jet lag slams back, sucking my brains right out of my head. “This doesn’t seem like me. I mean, really—”
“Breathe,” Kaleb says.
“I’ll do it,” Darcy pipes up.
“You’re not an elf,” Kaleb retorts.
“I could wear a wig. A long blonde wig.”
“Yeah, and—”
Katy holds up a hand. “No bickering, you two. Not today.”
I can’t even really pay attention to the exchange, because my ears are full of an ocean-like roar that shuts out all sound. Crossing my arms around myself, I turn back to face the tossing gray water, feeling my belly toss right along with it.
The director comes back. “All right, Jess. Why don’t you and Kaleb read for us?”
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this,” I say. “I’m, like, super shy and, like—”
Ian nods. “It’s all right to be nervous. Just read.”
“Okay.” I take a breath, remembering how terrified I was the first time I went up to a table to take an order.
“Kaleb, you start.”
He reads the line, and I read the next, hearing even in my own ears that it’s wooden and stiff, like a first grader stumbling through his first book. There are rustles on the edges of the room, and somebody coughs, but we move through the whole page that way. My cheeks are flaming, and by the time we finish the painful heat has moved into my ears and burned the top of my chest. I wish I could get into a transporter and disappear back to my little house in Colorado.
“Cut.” Ian inclines his head, tapping his finger on the side of his cheek. His glasses hide his eyes, so I can’t tell what he’s thinking.
I can’t stand to look at anyone. The silence lasts a thousand years. Ten thousand.
“Okay, this is what we’re going to do. Family, please wait in the other room, will you? There are snacks and coffee downstairs. Everybody else but Damon clear out.”
Once they’re all gone, it’s me and Kaleb, Ian and the camera guy, Damon. “Sorry, that was awful,” I say. “I told you I’ve never done this.”
“It’s not easy at first,” Ian says. “Why don’t you come over here and sit down in this comfortable chair? And, Kaleb, you sit on the couch. We’ll just run through the words first, and I’ll give you some direction. You’re not going for perfect right now, or even acting. I want to hear the sound of your voice, your diction, see how your mouth moves on film, ok? Just read aloud like you were reading to a kid.”
“Okay.”
“Kaleb, start at the top.”
This time it’s a lot ea
sier. We’re backpackers stumbling on a magical forest, and as we speak this time, I read the setting notes and see the place in my mind. I become the girl in the story, the way I do when I read a book and disappear into the pages, the outer world dissolving. We go through it seven or eight times, and by the last one the rigid terror in my spine is gone.
“Ready now to try it standing up?”
I glance at Kaleb. He’s been super-patient, and I’m glad to have an advocate here. “Sure.” I stand up, wishing I had a real backpack, trying to remember how it felt to have my shoulders hauled back by my pack in the airport. “Does anyone have a backpack? That would help me a little, I think.”
Ian raises his brows, and I blush again. He says, “Good, Jess. Whatever makes it real for you, that’s what you need.” He jerks a head at Damon. “Go see if anyone has one.”
He comes back with a battered camouflage pack that looks as if it’s been around the world a few times. I imagine Vietnam and Prague and Argentina, the pack of a worldly girl, and as I haul it onto my shoulders I think of what I’d put in there—my underwear and books, battered guidebooks, a hairbrush. Now I’ve come to New Zealand with my friend, and we’ve just discovered the most amazing thing.
Kaleb and I run through the lines again, and it’s not lines this time. It’s…something else. The walls dissolve and we’re in the landscape of the film, and it’s somehow easy to imagine Kaleb as my friend. Despite his reluctance at the start, he’s very natural, which makes me feel comfortable, too.
“I knew it.” Ian says. “That was spectacular, Jess. And Kaleb, too. Thanks so much.”
I shed the pack. “Are we done?”
“Give me a couple of minutes, will you? You can join your family in the break room. I’ll be with you shortly.”
I’m giddy with relief and something I can’t quite identify as we head down the stairs. My blood is filled with bubbles, and they escape me on a giggle. I slap my hands over my mouth, and the giggle turns to a laugh as we come into the open space downstairs. “I never giggle,” I say to Kaleb.
He grins. Maybe because I’m giddy and it’s over, I notice how gorgeous his mouth is, and I find myself licking my lower lip. He notices, and the grin shifts ever so slightly into something knowing.
Embarrassed, I look away, fingering the necklace Tyler gave me. I’m all over the map today!
My dad hops up. “How did it go?”
“A lot better. What are you eating? Is that a slice?” I try the word out and give my dad a little smile.
He gives me a wink. “It’s good!”
“Carrot cake,” Katy says. “It’s divine. You should try it.”
Darcy is standing against the wall, talking to a guy who has to be ten years our senior. He has a woeful, enchanted expression as he looks down her dress. When she catches my eye, she grins slightly. I smile. We don’t know each other at all. I hope this acting crap isn’t going to get in the way. I’m aching for a friend.
Kaleb grabs a plate and fills it with muffins and vegetables, and an apple and a pear. Eyeing it as I make myself a plate, I say, “And I thought I had a big appetite!”
“I’m a big guy.”
His is, actually. I only come up to his shoulder. I dither over a reddish cake and the carrot cake. “You must play sports. Football?”
“You mean American football, don’t you, with all the helmets and that?”
I settle on the carrot cake. “Please don’t make fun of me not knowing something again.” I take a bite and it’s dense and sweet and fab.
“I played rugby in school.”
My dad joins us, filling his cup with more tea. “This is fun, Jess.” His blue eyes glitter. “Thanks for giving us the experience.”
“You’re welcome. Because you know, I’ve been planning it for months.”
He cracks up, just like I knew he would, and all of a sudden I feel a sense of rightness. I’m supposed to be here, with my dad, doing whatever I’m doing. It’s like…fated or written in the stars, or maybe just making something right that wasn’t before. He slings an arm around my shoulders and gives me a little punch in the arm. “There’s my girl. You were always so sly.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Full of puns and jokes all the time. Very outgoing girl, like your dad.”
“Wow.” It’s hard to imagine myself that way. “As long as I can remember, I’ve been super, super shy.”
Something flickers over his mouth, so fast I can’t quite catch it, but it looks like grief.
Darcy comes over, the skinny guy trailing her. “How did it go?”
“Okay, I think.” I look at Kaleb. “How do you think we did?”
“She was great,” he says. “Me—“ He shrugs.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do anything without you, Kaleb, so thanks.”
He eyes me, nodding, and takes a bite of apple with big white teeth.
Darcy says, “I’m so jealous!”
“You could probably be an extra,” the skinny guy says. “I could ask for you.”
“Would you?” She swings around with guileless eyes. “That would be so great, Mike!”
I’m half-smiling to myself when I catch Katy glaring at her niece. Darcy rolls her eyes. “Auntie, it’s just a little diversion. You must see I’m bored out of my brain.”
Katy doesn’t say anything, but before I can get any more of a sense of what’s happening, the director comes back in. He’s wearing an unreadable expression. My heart sinks, and for the first time I realize I really want this. For the fun of it. To say I did it. Maybe as proof that leaving everything behind in my Colorado life was the right decision. “We’d like to speak with you, Jess, and your dad.”
“Okay.”
“And you, too, Kaleb, if you wouldn’t mind?”
He has to hastily wipe cake crumbs off his hands. “Right. Coming.”
We troop up the stairs and sit around a counter. Ian introduces us to a young woman in a suit, wearing stockings. Like, actual pantyhose. I haven’t seen a woman in nylons since I was a kid. Her name is Tegan, and she smiles at me. She holds her hand out to my dad, and the wattage of her smile increases by 200 percent. I look back at my dad and realize that I guess he’s not bad looking for an older guy. “You must be Dad,” she says. “She’s of legal age, but you’d probably feel more comfortable knowing what’s happening here.”
“What is happening?” he asks, and shifts on his barstool.
Kaleb sticks his hands in his jeans pockets. Light makes his curls into a halo around his impassive face. Half angel, half devil, I think. I wonder what feature Tyler would emphasize if he painted him, and suddenly know. His eyes are tilted and coppery and very unusual, and Tyler would make them even larger and more angled and brighter, like pennies.
“We’d like to offer Jess the lead in the commercial,” Ian says. “Our main actor landed a major movie, and we’ve been hamstrung trying to find the right look along with someone who could imitate an American accent.” He grins at me. “That part was easy, eh?”
My heart is beating really fast. “No problem at all.”
“Kaleb, we’d like to offer you the part of her friend. I’m going to write you in as a New Zealander, Maori, and we like the way you represent the locals.”
“Nah, man.” His lips turn down. “I’m training to be a somm. Not an actor.”
The director raises a brow. “A sommelier? That’s fantastic.” He swings around to my dad. “He works for you at Long Cloud, then?”
My ear is starting to pick out the words that sound particularly New Zealand. The word “then” is narrower than I would say it, and so is any word with that short e.
“He does. How long do you expect the filming to last?”
“We have to wrap by August 20.”
My dad mulls that over. “I could spare you till then, bro.”
“What’s it pay?” Kaleb asks.
The woman passes a piece of paper over to him. I’m watching curiously as he looks at it
, and still nothing shows on his face. “Sick,” he says. “I’ll do it.” He looks at me, and his chin lifts in challenge. “If you will.”
And now I’m not sure again. I came to see my dad, after all. “Where will we stay?”
“We’ve got rooms for everybody. You can stay with your friends, because I hear the other girl is willing to be an extra. Or we can work something else out.”
A sense of terror and desire braided so tightly together I can’t separate them wraps around my throat. “How much?”
She passes me the piece of paper. It says NZ $6000, just like Colin said. My heart lurches in excitement. “Really?”
The woman barely smiles as she nods.
I show my dad. “What do you think, Dad?”
“Let’s take an hour, all right?” He stands, definitively. “Give us the itinerary and the contracts, and we’ll have some lunch and get back to you. That suit?”
Ian nods. “We’ll be waiting.”
As we’re walking out, I feel a sense of panic. What if they don’t want to wait? What if they find someone else while we’re gone? It’s stupid, but it’s so much money. What if I’m walking away from one of the biggest chances I’ve ever had?
$6000!
“Dad,” I say urgently. “Maybe we should just agree now. It’s a lot of money for not very much time.”
His eyes crinkle at the corners. “You’re not going to lose the deal, I promise. It’s always wise to take some time and really see what you’re getting—and getting into—no matter how sweet it all looks.”
I nod uncertainly.
As we all start climbing back into the van, Kaleb says, “Trust him. Your dad’s a great businessman.”
“I guess he must be. The director knew his wine. Wasn’t that cool?”
Darcy dives into the van, bringing perfume and cleavage and energy. She settles between us without apology. “You’re making me jealous, Kaleb. She’s supposed to be my friend.”
“Stop leaning on me.” He yanks his jacket from under her butt.
She flashes me a grin. “He doesn’t like me. Have you noticed?”
“I like you fine,” he growls. “I’m just not required to worship you like the rest of the world.”