“How could you do this to me?” Susie shouted to her brother. “We’re flesh and blood.”
The camera pulled forward to get a closeup of Susie and her brother. It panned to a pale Alex. Susie screamed to William that she hated him. He reholstered his gun and said, “Now Alex will never have the ranch. That’s all that matters to me.”
The camera focused on Susie holding her beloved Alex. He weakly raised his hand to stroke her face. Susie bent down and kissed him, holding him close. The camera moved closer to Susie’s tear-streaked face. “No, don’t go, Alex. I love you, I need you.” Alex gathered his last breath and said, “I’ll always be with you, love.” His eyes closed and his body went limp.
Fury etched Susie’s features as she turned to her brother, Alex still in her arms. “You’ll never get this ranch. With my dying breath I swear you will never own this land.”
The camera pulled away and the picture slowly faded to black.
“Cut! That’s a wrap!” shouted Damon Westerly.
No one moved for a minute. Maggie felt a profound grief inside her. She still held Scott, but he had risen to a sitting position to hug her. She hugged him tight.
“What’s the matter, love?” he asked.
Maggie sucked in a deep breath. “It felt so real. I now know what it’ll be like to live without you.”
Scott wrapped his arms around Maggie and pulled her up. They stood together in each other’s arms for a while. Finally, he dusted off his jeans and said, “We’re planning our future together. This was just a movie.”
“I-I…know.” Maggie shook her head to clear away the sadness. “Let’s go change. There’s something I’d like to tell you.”
A crooked grin split Scott’s face. “What, again? The last time you made a confession—” A light burned in his eyes. Maggie laughed.
They went to their trailers, showered and changed. As soon as Maggie finished she rushed to Scott’s trailer not wanting to be away from him for too long. She felt as if a ghost had walked over her grave and couldn’t rid herself of the feeling.
He opened the door at her knock and pulled her inside with a laugh. Before he could kick the door closed Maggie rushed into his arms. “I love you. I love you with all my heart.” She ran her hands over his strong face, dipped her finger into the cleft in his chin and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“And I love you, sweetheart.” He kissed her then pulled away, studying her face. “That scene really spooked you, didn’t it?”
Maggie nodded her head. “I can’t seem to shake the feeling that something awful is going to happen.”
“Let me take you out for dinner. Once we get off this lot and the real world rushes back to us this feeling will pass.”
“I’d like that.” Maggie watched as Scott reached under the cushion of the sofa and brought out his BlackBerry. He pressed a button and some lights lit up the face of the phone. Then he shoved it in his pocket.
“Ready to go?” He reached his hand out to Maggie.
“I’m ready.”
Without a backward glance Maggie and Scott left the trailer and the lot of Artists Unlimited for the last time.
* * * * *
They drove Maggie’s car back to her apartment. “Let’s take your mother out to dinner with us,” Scott said. Maggie still looked pale and drawn. He wanted to take her mind off the last scene of The Gunslinger’s Wife.
“That’s a great idea.”
Violet opened the door for them when they arrived. “How did the last scene go?”
“Much better than we thought, Mother. Carey Chambers was actually sober.” Maggie dropped her purse onto the kitchen table and sank into the sofa. “Scott and I would like you to go to dinner with us to celebrate the end of the movie.”
“I’d love to,” Violet said. “Why don’t you freshen up, then we can go.”
“We already did at the studio,” Scott said. “If you two ladies are ready then I am.” He tipped an invisible hat to Maggie and Violet who laughed at his shenanigans.
Scott gathered the two new ladies in his life together and opened the door for them. Maggie gasped and Violet screeched.
“You didn’t think you were done with me, did you Forrester?” Carey Chambers drawled. “Looks like you’re going out. How about we have a little talk first?” He pointed a gun at them.
Scott moved to stand in front of Maggie and Violet. He heard Maggie’s shocked cry and knew she was seeing the last scene they had just finished filming where Alex stood in front of Susie to protect her.
“Scott, no!” Maggie’s words came out in a whisper.
Scott took Maggie’s hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Let’s go back inside. I think we can work this out to everybody’s satisfaction. Right, Carey?” Scott looked at the actor. His eyes were wide and his nose flared. His hand twitched on the gun.
“Sure, Forrester.” The group moved inside the apartment and Chambers slammed the door shut with his free hand. “Sit.” He waved the gun at the sofa.
They sat.
“What can we do for you, Carey?” Scott asked in a friendly, reasonable voice.
“Besides get out of town and never return? You can give me twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“I’d love to,” Scott said. “But I don’t have the money.”
“Then you’ll get your slut here to get it from her daddy,” Chambers growled as he waved the gun at Maggie. “I need that money.”
Scott’s heart tightened when he saw the gun waving toward Maggie. “Oh, yeah? What for?” His hands curled into fists. He wanted to kill Carey Chambers. But he thought it would be better to keep him talking. He hoped those movies he’d seen were right. Keep the criminal occupied and distract him.
“Not that it’s your business but I owe a few bucks to Bugs Moran for some liquor he got me.”
“The gangster from Chicago?” Scott remembered hearing about the two biggest mobsters during Prohibition, Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Both had made millions from illegal alcohol sales.
The apartment door burst open and a stocky man walked in. He raised the sawed-off shotgun in his hands and aimed it at Carey Chambers. Maggie and Violet screeched and clung to each other. “I followed you here, Chambers. Bugs says it’s time to pay up.”
“Give me another day, Mickey. I’ll get you the twenty-five grand.” The gun in Chambers hand shook.
“It’s now thirty grand. You owe Bugs interest.”
If it wasn’t happening right in front of him, Scott would think he was watching a bad B movie. “Look, why don’t you two take this outside?”
“Shut up,” roared Chambers.
“I’m not a patient man,” the gangster Mickey said.
No one noticed another man approach the open apartment door. “What’s going on in here?”
“Father!” Maggie gasped.
Chambers and Mickey turned around to look at the new member of this drama. Scott decided this was a good time to hustle Maggie and Violet out of the room.
“Don’t move or I’ll shoot,” Chambers hollered at Scott. He swung the still shaking gun around and pointed it at Maggie. “Sit those women back down.”
Maggie and Violet sank back to the sofa and huddled together again.
Anger simmered in Scott. He wanted this over. “If you need money, then there’s the man to ask.” He pointed to John Ingram.
“Who’re you?” Mickey the gangster asked.
“I’m her father,” John Ingram stated as he pointed to Maggie. “Though I regret the day she was born.”
Everyone gasped, including Chambers and Mickey.
“Get me thirty thousand dollars and you can have your kid back,” Chambers said.
“I don’t want her back, she’s nothing to me. I want my wife back,” Ingram said.
Violet rose off the couch in a rage. “I wouldn’t go back to you if you were the last man on earth.”
“Mother!” Maggie gasped.
“You’d rather stay here with that-
that hussy?” Ingram sputtered. “I saw the pictures in the newspaper, I know what she did while she was out here in Hollywood.”
“Don’t ever speak to Maggie like that again,” Scott roared. For the second time in his life a red haze covered his eyes. He moved toward John Ingram with the intent to teach him a lesson.
“Whoa, whoa,” Mickey said. “Things are a little out of control here.” He waved the shotgun at Carey Chambers. “It’s you and me that have business. I got no quarrel with these folks.” Mickey shoved the shotgun in Chambers’ back and said, “Let’s go someplace quiet.”
They turned to go out the door when the BlackBerry rang but turned back at the sound. “What’s that?” Mickey asked.
Scott couldn’t believe it. Once again the phone rang at the wrong time. He shook his head as he answered the phone, “Hello?”
“Hey there, brother-in-law,” Shauna said over the speaker. “How’s life in the Golden Age of Hollywood?”
John Ingram, Carey Chambers and Mickey the gangster shouted at the same time.
“What’s that?”
“Who’s he talkin’ to?”
“Is this some kind of a gimmick?”
“Uh…not so good right now, Shauna,” Scott said.
“Sounds like you’ve got a party going on,” his brother said.
“There’s another person! Where’re they hiding?” Mickey turned around to look for the other people he heard in the room.
Scott knew that everyone’s patience would run out soon. “Does this mean you can get me home?”
“Seems to be in a hurry, doesn’t he, Mike?” Shauna teased her husband.
“There’s no time to explain. It’s life or death. If you can get me back home I suggest you do it now,” Scott said with urgency.
Shauna’s voice lowered. “Grab your belongings and press the button on the bottom right of your phone.”
Scott looked at Maggie and Violet. His heart lodged in his throat. What if they wouldn’t come? He held out his hand and said, “Will you both come with me? I love you Maggie, I don’t want to live without you.”
“Oh, quit the rubbish,” Carey Chambers said. “What kind of game are you playing?”
“Wait a minute and you’ll see, Chambers,” Scott said to buy time.
Maggie and Violet rushed to Scott. He wrapped one arm around each them and held his finger over the button.
“Violet if you stand there with Maggie I’ll never see you again,” John Ingram said.
“No, you won’t John. But don’t worry, we’ll be safe where we’re going.”
Joy flooded Scott as he pushed the button.
A high-pitched whine filled the room as a tangerine light surrounded Scott, Maggie and Violet.
Chambers, Ingram and Mickey hollered and stepped back.
The whine grew louder and faster. Soon the walls began to tremble and the tangerine color turned gold.
Scott watched the faces of the three men staring open-mouthed at the spectacle before them. John Ingram stepped forward. He looked furious and frightened.
As the sound reached a fever pitch, Scott wrapped Maggie and Violet in his arms. Never taking his eyes off Carey Chambers the three of them disappeared from the room.
Epilogue
December 23, 2005
The house bustled with activity. Scott and his brother Mike opened bottles of champagne while Maggie and her new sister-in-law, Shauna, pulled the heavy turkey out of the oven. Scott’s Aunt Evelyn put the finishing touches on the sparkling table set with china and crystal and Maggie’s mother brought bowls of green beans, stuffing, roasted potatoes and salad to the table. Christmas music played in the background.
They sat down to an early Christmas dinner with a prayer from Scott’s older brother Mike. “Dear God. Thank you for our blessings today. Thank you for our food and thank you for enriching our family with new members to love.” He grinned at Scott and Maggie sitting across the table from him. “Oh, and thank you for bringing my baby brother back safely from his life-changing adventure in 1925.”
Amens were said around the table and everyone tucked into their food. At first the only sounds were the clink and clatter of utensils on plates and the holiday music in the background.
Finally, Scott broke the silence as he raised his champagne glass high in the air. “A toast to my beautiful bride, Maggie Forrester. Thank you for rushing with me to city hall this morning.” Hear, hears were said as glasses were raised and clinked together. “May we have a long and boring life,” Scott continued. Everyone laughed, “May we have many happy children, and a love that never dies.” No one said anything for a minute. Aunt Evelyn sniffed and Violet Ingram had tears in her eyes. “Well, drink up!”
Over dinner Scott and Maggie discussed in more detail the events that happened in 1925 elaborating on what they had already explained.
“So, we know from Turner Classic Movies that Carey Chambers never made another movie in Hollywood. But do we know what happened to him after he finished The Gunslinger’s Wife?” Shauna asked.
“No,” Mike answered. “I did some research a few days ago,” he gave a sheepish look to Shauna. “It seems that no one saw or heard from Chambers again.”
Maggie patted her lips with her napkin and said, “Well, I for one think he got what he deserved. He was an awful man.”
Scott smiled at his wife. “Think about this, love. We just left 1925 a couple of days ago, but to everyone here it’s been eighty years. Time has dulled, if not wiped out any feelings they may have toward an unheard-of silent screen star.”
“Just as I stated,” Maggie huffed. “He got what he deserved.” Mike and Shauna laughed.
Aunt Evelyn glanced sympathetically toward Violet Ingram. “I hope this won’t hurt too much to ask, Violet, but have you had time to look up and see what happened to your husband?”
Violet didn’t even flinch. “No. Mike did it for me.” She smiled at her son-in-law’s brother. “It seems that John’s company flourished without him. At first he tried to find me and Margaret, but when he’d exhausted all avenues he went into seclusion eventually becoming a hermit. No one ever saw him again.”
The only sound that could be heard was Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas”.
“Well, now, enough of that,” Aunt Evelyn said. “Why don’t we clear away the dishes before we have dessert?” She picked up the dishes and took them into the kitchen.
“Maggie and Violet how do you like the twenty-first century?” Shauna asked.
“What I’ve seen of it so far is amazing,” Maggie said. “There’s so much to learn. Scott told me what it was like, but seeing is believing. I’m overwhelmed at the pace of today’s world.”
“I never would have thought I’d see anything like this,” Violet said with enthusiasm. “Television. Airplanes, appliances and the automobiles. Everything is so sleek, so…new.”
They all laughed. “Well, there’s a lot more to learn,” Mike said as he pushed his chair back from the table. “Why don’t we go into the living room and watch some of that newfangled television Violet just spoke about.”
They relaxed on Mike and Shauna’s two sofas and watched the big screen TV. Shauna turned on Turner Classic Movies just as Robert Osborne said, “And now a rare and special silent film from 1925.”
Everyone gasped.
“It couldn’t be,” Scott murmured.
Osborne continued, “There’s a mystery to this film that’s never been solved. Carey Chambers, the biggest star of the silent film era at the time, finished this film then disappeared. So did his two co-stars, Scott Forrester and Maggie Ingram. The head of Artists Unlimited, Sid Goodman did everything he could to find them but they were never heard from again. Rumor said that Chambers died in a mental institution. That’s never been proven.
“The mystery continued with the disappearance of Scott Forrester and Maggie Ingram. Crew that worked on the set said that sexual tension steamed between them throughout the filming of the movie and that
Chambers and Forrester hated each other. Adding fuel to the fire, about five years after their disappearance steel magnate John Ingram came back to Hollywood looking for his daughter and wife. He supposedly told someone who worked on the film that Scott Forrester had asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage and he’d refused. John Ingram confronted the pair and Mrs. Ingram at their daughter’s apartment the night the movie finished filming.
“When the worker asked what happened, Ingram said that a black box rang and two voices came out, purported to be Forrester’s brother and sister-in-law from another time. Ingram turned into a laughingstock after that was released to the newspapers and never showed his face in public again.
“Now to the 1925 silent film, The Gunslinger’s Wife. This is Robert Osborn.”
No one spoke.
Scott pulled Maggie into a tight embrace. Violet stared at the television. The movie credits rolled and for the first time Scott and Maggie saw their names on the screen.
They watched the movie enthralled. When the last credit finished rolling Maggie said, “Well, it came out better than I expected. You couldn’t even tell that Carey was drunk most of the time.”
“Robert Osborne said how tragic this movie turned out for its actors,” Mike commented.
“It wasn’t tragic,” Scott said. “It was magic. I wouldn’t have found Maggie, and I wouldn’t have a future with her if it weren’t for a black box that spoke to another time.”
* * * * *
On Christmas morning Scott woke Maggie with a kiss. “Get up, sleepyhead. I have a surprise for you.” She grumbled and turned over. Scott laughed. “No you don’t.” He pulled the covers off her.
No Silent Christmas Page 21