Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (11 page)

“So, you think you’re going to make it in
Hollywood?” the man asked, taking his glasses off and cleaning
them. Darell watched him clean his glasses very closely, while
thinking of what to say.

He watched the man blow toward the glasses,
and saw the fog develop on them. “Yes, I think we will, we’ve
always thought that way,” Darell responded. The man put his glasses
back on and reached into his wallet. He grabbed a business card out
of it and handed it to Darell.

Darell read the words on the card as the man
placed it into his hand. “Here,” the man said.

“You’re an agent?” asked Darell. A smile came
upon his face; he couldn’t believe his luck. He was still a little
nervous from the airplane ride, but the business card made Darell’s
phobia forget that he was presently riding on the flying
contraption.

“Yes ... my name is Tom Fryer. I’m a talent
agent,” he replied. Darell grew a smile in his head, his mind; a
sort of glowing, positive aura surrounded his body, and showed
itself to the man, the agent. Darell chuckled, began to laugh like
a little child; he felt like he won the lottery.

“No way,” laughed Darell. He held onto the
card tight, it was as if he was holding a block of gold. This card,
this piece of paper with numbers on it, symbolized a key, a way
into Hollywood’s body, a way into the reality of his dream; a way
in through the fence that was surrounding it.

“Yes way, I guess you can consider this your
lucky day,” Tom announced. He started to explain to Darell that he
was looking for new actors, searching the states to find new looks
and show them to the business of acting, as well as modeling.

They talked all through the plane ride,
laughing and getting to know each other’s characters. Mr. Fryer
talked to Darell about coming in for an interview. He told Darell
that he definitely wanted him to be in his agency, his family of
faces that he used to make money off of. Darell couldn’t believe
what he was hearing, couldn’t accept that this was real, was in
reality, instead of in his mind. It was like a script Darell
studied his whole life; he imagined this moment, everything about
it, every time he went to the Valley. Everything was perfect, every
word that Mr. Fryer spoke, and every answer that Darell gave was
just right. But, the perfection of the conversation died as the
plane came closer to the ground. Mr. Fryer asked Darell just before
the plane landed, “Do you have a composite or a photo of
yourself?”

Darell looked at him with confusion,
puzzlement in his eyes. But as an actor, he made his confusion
vanish, yet answered truthfully, “No.” Darell felt like he said
something wrong, like he was going to get punished by Mr. Fryer for
not having photos of himself.

Suddenly, they felt the plane’s wheels hit
the runway, and Darell just stared at Tom, realizing he had only a
few more minutes to capture Tom’s interest in him. He knew, that
once the plane’s door open, Tom Fryer would leave him be, either
with his interest in Darell still fresh, or without it, due to him
not having the things Tom asked for.

“Do you have a resume of any acting roles
you’ve done in the past?”

Darell didn’t know how to answer, he was
afraid of replying. The plane came closer to the terminal, and Mr.
O’Conner’s anxiety, of losing this agent, ran through his mind like
water falling down from the sky. “No,” he confirmed with a scared
tone. He knew that this was strike two, and two was good enough to
lose interest in anything.

“Do you have an S.A.G. card?” Darell looked
at him with perplexity on his face again. He was about to make two
strikes, jump up to three, and the fear of that happening raced
through his mind.

“What’s an S.A.G. card?” questioned Darell.
This was it, he screwed up, didn’t have the material that this man,
this agent, asked for, and that would mean that Darell was going to
lose him, lose his interest in him. But, suddenly, a small smile
appeared on Tom’s face, and that positive, physical emotion caused
Darell’s anxiety to vanish, a little, to cease and cause a smile to
appear on his face as well.

“Do your friends have any photos or
composites of themselves?” Mr. Fryer asked, seeing that the plane
came to a complete stop through the window.

Darell knew that this was it, if he didn’t
answer the question with a “yes”, then the agent would either get
upset, or lose interest altogether. Yet, what Darell didn’t know
was that Mr. Fryer wanted his face only, not a photo or resume of
his talent.

“No, but we can get those things,” he replied
with a moaning tone. He still wanted to answer the question
truthfully. He didn’t want to lie, to change his character into a
form that was immoral and uncivilized.

Darell watched very closely how Mr. Fryer’s
reactions were. He didn’t show any emotion on his face, and that
frightened Darell. Yet, his fear vanished and excitement took over
his soul when Mr. Fryer explained, “How about this for starters?
Call me tomorrow and my secretary will set an appointment up for
you.” Tom then got up from his seat, and Darell still sat in
amazement, with his speech impaired by happiness coming too
fast.

Darell then sprung from his seat, cutting
into the line of people, trying to exit this plane. “What about my
friends?” Darell followed Tom out of the plane, while knocking and
bumping into people, like a car trying to get out of a traffic jam.
Darell didn’t want to leave out his friends, he didn’t want to
abandon them, but this was another learning experience that he was
going to feel and see very soon; every man for himself. He
questioned again, “So, what about my friends?”

“Well ... tell them to get photos of
themselves and mail them to my office. Listen, right now I just
want you to be in my agency, I feel very strongly that you’ve got
the look for this business. I’ll set you and your friends up with a
very good photographer... but right now I’m focusing on you, Mr.
Darell O’Conner.”

He then walked away from Darell and left him
with happiness, mixed with guilt. Yet, his guilt somehow lessened
because Mr. Fryer still said that he would help them out as well,
and that helped Darell, in a sense, to trick his mind into
believing that Damen and Jose were positively going to be in Mr.
Fryer’s agency. But, that wasn’t good enough for Darell’s mental
state, and he had to hear Tom Fryer actually say positive things
about his friends from Ridge Crest.

So, Darell pointed his mouth toward Tom
Fryer’s silhouette, and yelled, “But you will give them a chance,
won’t you?” Darell stopped his words, his vocal cords from speaking
anymore, and concentrated on the question he just asked. Darell
couldn’t believe, couldn’t begin to imagine that he could be so
pushy into asking about his friends. He realized that he just met
this man, just got discovered in an instant, and now he was asking
about Damen and Jose’s careers. He knew that Tom gave him an inch,
and now he was asking for a mile.

Mr. Fryer turned around only for a brief
moment and affirmed, “We’ll talk about it later, don’t worry.”

This made Darell feel better; it made his
mind rest at ease, a little. He just stood there while watching Mr.
Fryer walk away, through all the people that passed in his view; he
still was able to keep Tom’s silhouette in his sight. It was like
he was watching God walk away from him after saying, “Darell,
you’re going to Heaven, but Jose and Damen might not; we’ll talk
about it.”

Jose Rodrigo and Damen Schultz met up with
Darell finally. Darell told them what happened, he explained
everything down to the last question. The boys walked out of the
airport and caught a taxi; the desert heat was already beginning to
burn their Southern skin. Jose told the taxi driver their
destination. “Take us to Hollywood.” He then turned around really
fast and looked at Darell. “So, what happened next?” questioned
Jose.

“Well ... he said that we need some
composites of ourselves.”

“What are composites?” questioned Damen. He
looked at Jose with a confused look on his face, not knowing a word
that all actors should know. Then Damen looked out his window, and
buildings that resembled architecture of a tropical place caught
his sight. Such as buildings with palm trees on them, brown
hay-like decorations that hung on their roofs. Then he saw how they
became bigger buildings as the cab drove deeper into the tropical
setting’s land.

“Photos, I guess,” Darell answered in an
unsure manner. This caused Damen’s attention to focus on Darell
once again.

“So, Mr. Fritter said,” began Jose before he
was cut off by Darell’s voice.

Darell rolled his eyes and stated, “His name
is Mr. Fryer, not Fritter.”

Jose stared at Damen and laughed; he thought
it was funny. “Oh, excuse me. So, Mr. Fr-yer said that we all get
to go in and meet with him?” Jose’s laughter seized along with
Damen’s, waiting for a reply. This moment of Darell’s reply was a
serious one; it was a moment that would change their lives.

“No, not exactly. He said that I get to go in
for an appointment, but he’ll talk to me about getting you guys in
too. Jose, don’t worry, I’ll get you guys in. After all, we’ve only
been in California for about twenty minutes.” His voice was
reassuring, but yet it had shakiness mixed in.

“Don’t worry, Jose,” spoke Damen. He put his
journal back in his bag, and started to pack it in deep within his
belongings.

“Why do you carry that journal wherever you
go? Why don’t you just keep it in your bag?” Jose asked out of
nowhere. Damen was surprised at his change in conversation, and how
it was so abrupt.

Damen thought it was rude, uncalled for, that
such a question would be brought up, shown to him with such an
attitude. So he answered with a bigger attitude. “I was writing on
the plane, that’s why I had it out.”

“Anyway ... let’s get back to the story, go
on, Darell,” Jose rudely said. Damen blew a big gasp of air from
his lungs, he was upset at Jose, and angered that he totally was in
control of the conversation, and even of the criticisms toward
Damen’s journal. But, that was just it, he didn’t criticize his
journal, he just asked a question in a criticizing form, an
ignorant way. So Damen couldn’t say anything, or else he would look
like the ass.

Damen chose the high road and decided to keep
his anger inside. But then, he thought that it would be foolish to
not let Jose know that he was angry for such a question, to be
brought out with such a tone. After analyzing it, Damen turned to
Jose, and opened his mouth, but Darell caused him to forget what he
was going to say to Jose, by speaking something of grand
interest.

“Okay, he said that we need to have a resume
of our acting that we did in the past,” explained Darell. Damen
turned to him with interest on his face, and then looked at Jose
with a smile.

“We have lots of acting experience, that
resume is no problem to us,” Jose stated with a smile. Damen and
Jose were happy; they both realized that they’d had more
experience, probably, than any other actor can get.

“No, he said we need some sort of resume of
things we did either on film or in the theater,” explained Darell.
He stuck a piece of gum in his mouth and waited for one of them to
say something.

“But, we don’t have any of those things,”
Damen slurred. He pulled a piece of candy out of his shorts, and
popped it in his mouth, while waiting for one of the guys to say
something.

“Oh ... that’s just great,” Jose said in a
sarcasm. Putting his arms in the air and slapping his hands hard
against his thighs, Jose showed that he was angry toward the
situation.

“Calm down. All we need to do is get
professional acting experience. How hard can that be?” questioned
Darell.

“Oh, it’s easy for you to say, you already
have an agent wanting your ass to be in his agency,” Jose shouted.
His jealousy glistened through at that moment, and gave Darell an
uncomfortable feeling.

Darell felt guilty: he felt bad for what Jose
was feeling, and showing toward him. He looked at Jose, with puppy
eyes, and said in a whiny fashion, “I said I would help you guys
out too.”

“Yeah, whatever,” spoke Jose with a strong
attitude. He was acting like a five year old. The cabdriver just
smiled toward them, looking at this argument through his rearview
mirror; he clearly found it amusing. Jose was already losing his
trust in Darell, and that was something they all never thought
would happen. So, Damen had to bring the situation down a degree,
and show Jose that everything would be alright.

“Guys, guys, calm down... It’s gonna be okay.
We’ll all make it to the top, however corny it may sound. After
all, we’re blood brothers. Right?” Damen questioned, putting his
hand over his backpack, on his lap, and awaiting an answer.

“Right,” Darell replied, putting his hand on
top of Damen’s.

Darell looked at Jose, hoping he would do the
same in placing his hand down. Jose saw the sincerity in Darell’s
eyes, saw how much he wanted him to place his hand down on his.
“Fine,” whispered Jose. He slapped his hand on Darell’s and added,
“I’m sorry, Darell ... I was wrong for barking at you like
that.”

“More like bitching,” laughed Damen. Jose
began to laugh as well, and the cabdriver just kept on smiling at
this interesting entertainment.

“It’s okay, Jose, I understand. Apology
accepted,” Darell spoke with a gracious smile.

The guys finally reached Hollywood, after
getting to be in a traffic jam and a little protest for Women’s
Rights. They stepped out of the cab and looked straight up at the
tall buildings; this sight was new to them as well. They’d never
seen a traffic jam, they’d never seen protesters, and they’d never
seen the structures of Hollywood; they were captivated once again.
Jose said, “We’ve made it, we’ve actually made it.”