A Starlit Summer

by Kate Frost

  The lights changed to green and Jenna started across the road. ‘Yeah, it was good, totally shattered now though. Although there are worse ways to spend a day than getting chased by a fit bloke for hours on end.’

  ‘I bet.’ Beth laughed, a throaty chuckle that always made Jenna smile. ‘Well, the reason I’m phoning out of hours is I’ve just heard back about the casting for the period feature film you went to.’

  ‘The Affair?’

  ‘That’s the one and they want you.’

  ‘Oh my God, Beth, that’s amazing. When’s the call-back?’

  ‘There isn’t one. They loved you, said you’ve got exactly the look they want. The job’s yours. A part like this is incredible, you never know what it might lead to. So, what do you think?’

  ‘It sounds too good to be true – what’s the catch?’

  ‘There’s no catch – honest! It’s an eight-week shoot and I need you to let me know ASAP. The only issue I can foresee is that it’s not in London. You’ll have to relocate for two months; it might not be something you’d want to do.’

  ‘Relocate where?’

  ‘Cornwall.’

  Chapter Four

  Jenna’s heart was racing by the time she reached her apartment building. Instead of going into her flat she made her way to the underground car park, got into her car and joined the tail-end of rush hour traffic heading out of London. The moment Beth had said the location was Cornwall, an idea began to formulate. She could have just gone into her flat and phoned her parents, but she was too excited. She needed to see them in person in case they needed persuading that her idea would work. If her mum would agree to it, more like. Her dad was pretty laid back about things, but her mum, an eternal worrier, would find reasons to say no to Jenna’s idea. She was already thinking about the cottage as a headache rather than an opportunity; the last thing Jenna wanted to do was make her stress about it even more.

  She pulled into her parents’ road and slowed down. It was half eight and not quite dark yet. How amazing would it be if Jenna got to spend the whole summer in Cornwall, by the sea, a world away from the choked-up streets of suburban London. Both work and her summer sorted. The combination could not be any better. If this worked out... The bubbling in the pit of her stomach was something she’d felt countless times before at auditions or call-backs for roles she really wanted. She was so disappointed when she didn’t get chosen. She knew she had to contain her excitement, and that her parents might not agree to her idea.

  She backed into the drive behind her parents’ car and got out. The lamp in the living room was on, the TV flashing, but she couldn’t see her parents. She rang the doorbell. Her palms felt sweaty, a completely irrational reaction. All she was going to do was ask her parents a simple question.

  Her mum opened the door. ‘Hiya, love. This is unexpected. Everything okay?’

  ‘Sorry, yes, I was on my way home but my agent phoned and she kinda got me thinking... I thought I’d come and ask you something.’

  ‘Okay,’ Kath said slowly. ‘Come on in. It’s just lovely to see you.’

  The sound of the TV filtered into the hallway as Jenna followed her mum through to the kitchen. Her dad was sitting at the kitchen table tucking into a half-eaten plate of spaghetti bolognese.

  ‘Hello. Well this is a nice surprise. Didn’t expect to see you.’ He shovelled a forkful of pasta into his mouth.

  ‘Have you eaten?’ Not waiting for a reply, Kath grabbed a plate from the cupboard.

  ‘I did, at lunchtime.’

  Kath dolloped a large spoonful of pasta on to the plate, topped it with meat sauce and placed it on the table. She sat down and patted the empty seat next to her. Jenna joined them.

  Kath picked up her fork, went to dip it into her pasta and looked again at Jenna. ‘Is that blood in your hair?’ She lifted Jenna’s fringe from out of her eyes.

  ‘Yes, fake blood, Mum.’

  ‘What on earth were you doing today?’

  ‘Getting beaten up by a six-foot bloke in front of a dumpster.’

  ‘Of course you were, why do I even ask!’ She laughed. ‘I’ll never get used to the strange days you have. And you call it work.’ She shook her head and sprinkled a handful of parmesan over her bolognese. ‘Will it be on TV at some point?’

  ‘Uh huh, not sure it’s the kind of programme you’ll fancy watching though.’

  ‘Lots of sex and violence is there?’ Tony asked.

  ‘Yeah, just a bit. Past the watershed type of programme.’

  ‘Just your dad’s cup of tea, then.’

  Tony wound spaghetti on to his fork and looked at his wife. ‘Not if my daughter’s getting beaten up, it’s not.’

  ‘I am playing a character you realise; I’m not actually getting hurt.’

  Her dad grinned at her.

  ‘You don’t do anything else, do you?’ Kath raised her eyebrows. ‘You know... S.E.X,’ she mouthed.

  ‘No, but it’s sort of implied, but not in a nice way if you know what I mean.’ Jenna frowned. She’d come over to ask them something and she was getting grilled about what her character had been getting up to. ‘I’ve got another day filming next week when they find my body.’

  ‘Oh right. No, I’m definitely not going to be watching that then.’ She touched Jenna’s hand. ‘You should eat, love, if you’ve not had anything since lunchtime.’

  Jenna sighed but stuck her fork in the spaghetti.

  ‘So, you wanted to ask us something?’ Kath reached for her glass of red wine.

  ‘Um yeah, so my agent phoned this evening to say I’ve been offered a part in a movie filming over the summer. It’s a featured character who crops up in various scenes, so it would be lots of work, really good money, and they hand-picked me.’ Jenna took a breath and chewed a mouthful of pasta. Her hands were sweating.

  ‘Well, that sounds fabulous, doesn’t it, Tony?’

  ‘It does. But why do you need to ask us – surely not permission to say yes to it – guaranteed work sounds bloody good to me.’

  ‘No, not your permission as such, it’s just, it’s filming down in Cornwall. The base is near the Lizard peninsular. I’d need to relocate there for the summer, and I just thought...’

  ‘You want to stay in the cottage, don’t you?’ Kath set down her wine.

  ‘It’s eight weeks’ constant work, Mum, the whole of July and August, with filming five days a week. It’s perfect. I’ve been thinking about it all the way over here. I can stay in the cottage and oversee the building work, film during the day and work on the garden in the evenings and weekends. Once the major stuff’s done I can even do the finishing bits like painting. I’d love to stay there and it saves you time and stress worrying about being miles away from the cottage while building work is going on.’

  Jenna sat back in her chair and folded her arms. She held her breath and waited. Her dad nodded; her mum frowned.

  ‘It would be easier to not have to project manage from two hundred miles away, love.’ Tony smiled at Jenna and looked at Kath.

  ‘But Jenna’s never project managed anything in her life, plus she’ll be out working most of the time.’

  Jenna decided not to give a smart-arse reply – she was confident that she’d be able to organise the work on the cottage by herself and work on set during the day, particularly if she was staying there. After all, she’d have a vested interest in getting the work finished and done on time if she was having to live in the mess. ‘You and Dad will be at the end of the phone if there are any issues or if I’m unsure about anything, won’t you?’

  ‘That’s true,’ Kath said slowly.

  ‘And it would be easier having Jenna down there keeping an eye on the place and how things are going – means you won’t worry quite so much. Helps her out too.’

  ‘Thanks, Dad.’

  ‘Well.’ Kath placed her wine on the table. ‘I suppose you two are right. If you think you can do film work and manage the building work, then you’re welcome to
try, love.’

  ~

  After more chatting, half-finishing her plate of spaghetti and being force-fed a bowl of strawberries and cream, Jenna made it home. She closed the door behind her, any last bit of energy dispersing the moment she slipped her aching feet out of her shoes. Her one-bed flat was small, but it was her sanctuary.

  It was dark and late and she was desperate for sleep. She went into her bedroom and looked in the mirror. Her blonde hair fell in waves around her shoulders, and she could see the red stain in her fringe from the fake blood. Her blue eyes, framed by long lashes, were her best feature, but tiredness showed in her pale face. She took her laptop and sat cross-legged on her bed, propped up by pillows. She had an email from Beth with more details about the role in the 1940s-set Cornish film including dates and filming locations. The role she’d been offered was for a natural blonde, pretty, bubbly twenty-something woman and apparently she was it. Getting parts really was pot luck at times, but luck had been on her side, landing her a role that would make her decent money over the summer and allow her to escape to Cornwall.

  ~

  Jenna was uncertain if the next few weeks dragged or flew by. They were filled with interspersed days filming mostly in or around London, but she had a night shoot in Brighton where she played a clubber, and spent four long hot sweaty nights dancing with and snogging a twenty-six-year-old called Liam. No wonder her parents thought she had a crazy job. But it paid the bills and was as far from a 9-5 office job as she could get; the complete opposite of her older brother.

  The plan was for Jenna to go down to the cottage the Friday before she started filming, so she’d have the weekend to get herself organised. The builders were due to start work that week too. It was all falling into place. She’d been to costume fittings in London, and by the middle of the week before she was due to start filming, she already had her bags packed. She’d given herself two days off before her Cornish adventure, although it felt wrong turning down work. It seemed to be a snowball effect, the more she worked, the more she was offered. It felt good getting her name and face out there.

  ~

  ‘I’m going to miss you.’ Carla wrapped Jenna in a bear-hug.

  The remains of their Indian takeaway littered the coffee table in Jenna’s apartment, their plates stained yellow and red from chicken pasanda and a lamb rogan josh.

  ‘I so wish you were working on this film too.’

  Carla pointed to her choppy pink hair, twisted into curls. ‘Was never going to happen – not a period film looking like this.’

  ‘You have to come and stay with me for a bit.’

  ‘I’ll try. You’re so effing jammy with this role. What a way to spend the summer. Filming on location in Cornwall, staying in a cute as anything cottage...’

  ‘It will be cute but it’s not at the moment.’

  ‘Beats living here and commuting into London.’

  ‘You’ve got stuff lined up though, haven’t you?’

  ‘Yeah, course.’ Carla reached for a poppadum and broke a piece off. Crumbs dropped on to her baggy black and white harem pants.

  ‘You sound down.’

  Carla shrugged. ‘Nah, not really, I’m being flaky. Just a bit fed up of the whole audition cycle, but we came into this knowing it’s a shit-hard way to make a living.’

  ‘I thought it’d get easier, the more auditions I went to but it doesn’t, does it?’

  ‘Gets fucking harder. More pressure that we should know what we’re doing.’

  ‘But you’re getting stuff, right? You’re always working.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m just being over sensitive. I get work as the kooky, weird friend, the raver, the homeless woman, the drug user, the crazy person going mental in a music video... I’m never going to get the kind of roles you or Heidi get.’

  Jenna’s fists clenched at the mention of Heidi. Despite everything that had happened, it was weird her not being here with them, saying goodbye, sharing their successes and fears.

  Carla sighed. ‘I just need my luck to change and get a role like yours, something permanent and secure for a few weeks.’

  ‘You’ll find something, you always do.’ Jenna reached for her friend’s hand. ‘I hate seeing you looking down. Remember at drama school you were so positive about getting to play the interesting characters and not the blonde girl-next-door type. I’m never going to get chosen for those quirky parts that you’re awesome at. The tutors loved you for that too.’

  ‘Yeah, I know. Like I said I’m being over sensitive. I turn up to an audition and there’s a sea of pretty blondes waiting to be called and I know I have no chance.’

  ‘You’ve dyed your hair pink; you know that’s not helping, right?’ Jenna laughed.

  Carla playfully whacked her arm and ran her fingers through her short choppy hair. ‘It was for a role, that quirky lesbian nightclub owner. I quite like it, although it’s fading pretty quick; almost back to blonde.’

  ‘There you go then, you’ll fit right in with that “sea of pretty blondes” soon enough.’

  ‘Yeah, right. I should get “quirky” tattooed on me.’ She reached for the bottles of Cobra and passed Jenna one. ‘Anyway, enough of me moaning. Congrats to you on getting a great job and here’s to you having an amazing summer in Cornwall.’ She knocked her bottle against Jenna’s. ‘You might find a cute guy down there...’ Carla winked. ‘I mean, you’re going to get to work with Milo Blake. He is so hot right now.’

  ‘He is, but...’

  ‘Yeah yeah, I know, this year’s all about you, but never say never...’

  Jenna tucked her legs beneath her on the sofa. ‘Going out with another actor, well you know, has its challenges...’

  ‘We’re all bloody neurotic, that’s why.’

  ‘And a “normal” bloke, well, they just don’t get what we do, that it’s acting. We play act for a living, for God’s sake, it doesn’t mean anything.’

  ‘Elijah was a prick.’ Carla sipped her beer. ‘Not every normal bloke will react the same way as he did. He was jealous as fuck with no good reason.’

  ‘He kinda did have a good reason though, didn’t he?’ Jenna folded her arms. ‘I spent a week filming half naked, writhing around with a male model.’

  ‘Yes, but you were acting.’

  Jenna glanced at the cloudy night tinged yellow from the street light right outside the kitchen window. ‘He didn’t see it that way.’

  ‘And that was his problem. He lost out big time because he lost you, all because he couldn’t handle what you do for a living. You’ve got to do what makes you happy. If acting’s it, then you need to find someone who understands that it’s a job and you have boundaries.’ She pointed her bottle at Jenna. ‘You know what, you’ve just cheered me up. I don’t have that problem. I never get to snog a hot man – or hot woman for that matter – seeing as though I always get cast as the quirky sidekick. They never get laid.’

  ~

  Early the next morning Jenna heaved her bags into the boot of her car. She crawled through traffic and regretted not waiting until after rush hour to get going. Despite the overcast morning, she kept her window open. The heat and humidity mixed with exhaust fumes made her long to leave suburbia behind and feel fresh air on her face. Cars splintered off at each junction, people dropping their kids off at school or heading to work, while Jenna followed her satnav for the M3 and the 260 more miles to Bramble Cottage in the depths of Cornwall.

  Although Jenna grew up within commuting distance of London, family holidays had always been in the country or close to the sea. Even when they went abroad, her parents opted for a village setting or somewhere away from built-up touristy areas. Work had kept her parents in Guildford, but their love of the countryside had influenced Jenna from an early age. To be successful as an actor she needed to be close to where auditions and the majority of roles were. Either that or she’d have to be prepared to travel a lot. This opportunity of a long shoot in Cornwall was rare and she couldn’t quite believe she
was on her way to a summer that promised so much.

  The motorway turned into a fast A-road and the clouds began to thin out revealing glimpses of blue sky and sunshine the further south-west she headed. Work commitments had meant she hadn’t been able to go with her parents when they’d gone down to the cottage for a second time to finish sorting things out. That had been three months ago in early spring. Now, the countryside was bursting with leafy greenness. The landscape changed dramatically during the nearly five-hour journey, from a cityscape to bright yellow fields of rape, grazing sheep and wooded hilly areas. The roads narrowed the further into Cornwall she drove, making Jenna’s heart pound every time she met a car coming the other way.

  Jenna slowed when she thought she was close to the turning to Bramble Cottage. The lanes all looked the same, a tunnel of trees casting patchy sunlight through gaps in the branches.

  A van pulled out up ahead. She caught the name on the back, ‘Harrison & Son Builders’ and realised it was the builders who would be working on the cottage. She slowed even more, indicated and turned into the narrow driveway that led to the cottage.

  The lane desperately needed clearing; brambles and weeds snagged the side of the car as she drove the short distance to the parking area. It seemed smaller than she remembered, but then after all the spring rain followed by the summer sun everything had grown like crazy. She turned off the engine and stepped from the car and on to a bramble snaking out from the undergrowth. It was easy to see how the cottage got its name.

  Silence.

  It was such an odd sensation, listening to, well, nothing. There wasn’t even a breeze to rustle the leaves. Jenna crunched her way along the path, pulled the keys from her bag, and opened the front door. Her parents had done a good job of emptying the place. Her mum had scrubbed the kitchen too, so although the old-fashioned units remained, it was now at least dust, dirt and cobweb free.

  Jenna set her bag on the kitchen table and did a quick tour, opening windows as she went to rid the cottage of the smell of bleach. Her mum had bought a few things for the cottage to replace lots of the old stuff they’d got rid of, so Jenna spent the next hour unloading the car and putting new saucepans, a frying pan, wok, toaster and a kettle away. She made the bed in the main bedroom, put her toothbrush in the bathroom, and slowly turned the place into her home from home.