Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (37 page)

They’d adjusted to the Hollywood lifestyle, a
style that they didn’t ever think they would live in, the lifestyle
that they were in now; the cliché that actors have. They were known
as ‘starving artists’ presently, artists that literally go down to
the lowest form of living, but always think that one day they’ll
get discovered and become stars. Damen didn’t ever imagine that he
would become a part of this certain way of living, but reality has
a weird way of showing itself. Pipe dreams are what cause that
style to occur; yet to Damen, it wasn’t a pipe dream, it was a
dream that was real in his mind, soul, and heart. Every moment that
passed by, every day that flashed through his eyes, Damen knew that
one day, his moment would come for him, and dreams of visions that
he wanted to take on, would present themselves to him, a
reality.

They both thought that they were accustomed
to this form of life; slaving and working at the jobs they got,
living in a California dream but in California’s realism. Yet,
nothing could prepare them for what the future held, and what the
near future would bring. What they didn’t know, was in order to see
the reality of their ambition, they would have to see the reality
of pain, sadness, and overall, the deepest physique of evil
life.

It was December now; the heat was low, but
still there. Remembering what snow used to look like, Jose and
Damen felt homesick for Ridge Crest. The boys, and Vivian received
jobs at the same place; they worked in Wood Café. It was a coffee
shop where actors of all kinds come in to have a bit of cappuccino
before their auditions and look over their scripts, practicing and
rehearsing for that crucial moment when a casting director was
present.

They liked the job a lot, at least Damen and
Vivian did. Jose was still looking for an actor or an agent to
discover him; he wanted fame the easy way and Damen saw it too.
Working fulltime at the café, getting paid minimum wage, only to
have it spent in one day on bills and rent, they were finally in
the true meaning of “being on your own.”

They saw actors come in there all the time.
When Damen and Vivian saw a famous actor, they acted happy. But
when Jose noticed a famous actor, he acted jealous; he was very
envious toward them, especially when it was an actor his age. Damen
noticed all the signals that Jose gave, the signs of jealousy
toward a famous actor, and he doesn’t know why he acted like that,
but he’d soon find out, very soon.

Their boss’ name was Chuck. He’d been in
Hollywood all of his life, seeing all the famous people, from Judy
Garland, to Fred Astaire; he’d been around the block. He said that
all actors were different in their own way, especially the
successful ones. Chuck always said that some successful actors were
conceited, evil, snotty, or even nice; after all, he’d seen a
lot.

He’s a sixty-five year old grump, acting mean
toward his workers for no reason at all. But, he shows his meanness
mostly toward Damen, yelling at him for no reason, swearing at him,
not often, but sporadically in a month’s time, and always acts like
a tyrant around him. Damen never knew why Chuck’s character was
sinister toward him, at least not for the time being.

One night on December 24, Jose, Damen and
Vivian worked late. Seeing it was 10:00 p.m., Jose Rodrigo decided
to go across the street to a magazine store; he wanted to pick up
the newspaper. As he crossed the street he noticed four men on top
of a big billboard, they were putting up a poster, pasting it up
while smoking a joint that could be smelled a block away. He walked
into the magazine store and picked up what he needed, still
smelling the sweet aroma of hemp, and then walked out of the store,
noticing a piece of the poster; it was an eye and a nose. He said
to himself, “I don’t believe it.”

Jose ran back to the café, dropping the
newspaper he just bought, and paraded into the coffee shop as if he
had just seen a mushroom cloud. He stopped for a moment, trying to
catch his breath in this little café, filled now with drunks trying
to get sobered up for the next day. Jose could still smell the
aroma of marijuana in his nose, yelling, “Damen, Vivian, come
outside, you’re not going to believe this.”

Damen was pouring some coffee for an old
woman, smelling the marijuana on Jose’s clothes, Damen thought he
wanted to take him outside and have a joint break. “I got a
customer here, Jose, just wait.”

Jose then ran up to Vivian, shouting with
excitement, “Vivian, are you busy?” Smelling the marijuana as well,
Vivian rolled her eyes at him, and tried to say, through her roll
of eyes, that she didn’t want to go with him.

But, before she could answer, before she
could say anything, Jose pulled her arm toward the door, literally
dragging her feet. She pulled back, saying, “No, why? Listen, Jose,
I don’t want to smoke any bud.” He grabbed her arm again and pulled
her body outside the door, without even answering her question, her
statement.

They both went outside to the billboard and
slowly looked up upon it. Vivian couldn’t believe her sight,
smelling the hemp as well, and seeing the half-made poster, she
said, “Get Damen now.”

Jose ran into the café once more, grabbed
ahold of Damen and whipped past the old woman. He pulled him with
all of his might, causing Damen to drop the coffee bowl on the
ground, shattering it into a million pieces. All the drunks lifted
their heads up—hard at the time—but they did, and watched them
both. That’s when Damen asked in a puzzled voice, “What the hell do
you think you’re doing?”

Jose got Damen halfway out the door, wanting
to surprise him, instead of telling him before he saw it, Jose
spoke, “Listen, after you see this, you’ll understand, that’s all
I’m telling you.”

Damen stood there by the glass door to the
café. Stubborn as all, he didn’t want to move from this spot until
Mr. Rodrigo told him the reason. But, he then followed Jose’s
jumping body, saying, “Okay, fine, what is it you want me to
see?”

Damen reached Vivian, and she gave him a hug
with a smile. Jose ran up behind them, shouting, “Look up
there.”

Damen slowly looked up at the billboard,
following its pulsating light to the sight of a face; a face that
resembled Darell. Damen couldn’t believe it. “My God, is that who I
think it is?”

They stood there for an hour and a half,
watching as the four stoned men assembled the image of a person on
the poster. Standing there speechless in the middle of the street,
their boss, Chuck, went over to them inconspicuously. Chuck
followed their eyesight to the poster; he made sure he stood behind
them, that way he could surprise and yell at them for being out of
the café.

They finally finished the poster, slowly but
surely, and Damen whispered in amazement, “He did it, he actually
did it. That’s Darell’s movie.”

Vivian stared at the poster, wishing that was
her own face upon it, and stated, “Yeah, and that’s Darell’s face
too.”

Suddenly Jose’s jealousy came back, showing
itself through his tone. “Well, Damen, at least we know he’s alive
still, ever since he went away he hasn’t called us once.”

“Don’t forget, Jose, he’s been busy, he was
in a movie for crying out loud.” Seriousness, the strictest form,
was mixed with a bit of laughter as Damen tried to stick up for
Darell. Yet, he lost the battle when Jose said something to
himself.

“What are you mumbling, Jose?”

“Nothing, I was just humming to myself.”

Damen stared and fixed his sight on him,
knowing that Jose was lying to him, he explained, “No, I heard you
mumble something about Darell. I know for a fact that I heard
Darell’s name come from your mouth. What did you say?”

“You really want to know?”

Chuck sat down on the curb. He found them
amusing, plus he knew a fight was brewing. Chuck’s mouth grew a
smile at this sight, seeing two guys and a girl looking at a
billboard in the dead of night; he was highly amused.

“Yes, I want to know.”

“Okay, I think Darell’s a jerk. All this time
we’ve been busting our butts working at this cheap café and he
hasn’t called us once,” Jose explained. Chuck got upset at the name
he used for the café, his smile slowly vanishing into anger. “I
also think he’s not going to help us at all, he just cares for
himself. He’s probably in New York right now living it up. He
probably forgot about us. I mean look at his face,” he added,
pointing toward the poster. “That face does not look like an
innocent face. Look at the way he’s smiling, it makes me sick.”

“Listen, Jose, you have got a big problem.
He’s not a jerk and he doesn’t care only for himself. We should
know, he’s our best friend. I’m happy to see that at least one of
us made it in film so quickly, I’m happy to see he’s smiling on the
billboard. Why can’t you look at it the same, man?” After Damen’s
voice stopped, a small beeping noise was heard by Vivian, sounding
like it was coming from a pager nearby.

“What’s that noise?” Vivian asked. Jose and
Damen looked around them, trying to figure out where the noise is
coming from. “It sounds like a pager,” she added, following the
noise to Jose’s pants’ pocket.

“My God.” Jose’s words went on mute. Grabbing
onto the pager from his pocket, his face lit up with shock,
happiness, and overwhelming excitement. The pager that he’d been
waiting for so long to hear the beeping noise from, finally showed
itself, made itself heard, and now it was time for him to answer
it.

“Wait a second, you mean that pager actually
works? I thought you just found it somewhere, I thought you were
just wearing it to look cool,” said Damen. Jose looked at the
number on the pager, knowing it was Julienne Wells, coming to
rescue him from this low-class lifestyle, he still didn’t say a
thing.

Jose was speechless, but somehow, someway, he
was able to squeeze his words out and muttered, “Listen you guys, I
have to find a phone.” He sped toward the café but ran into Chuck
in the process.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Chuck’s
question stopped Jose from entering into his café, his words
literally pushing him back. Then, to make Jose more frightened of
him, Chuck pushed him back with his hand, thrusting him with great
force away from the café’s doors.

Jose broke through Chuck’s second push,
stating, “I’m going to make a call.”

Chuck ran over to Jose and grabbed his shirt
collar, allowing him to choke for a second, while Chuck pulled him
back like a whip. “First, I want to ask you something, Jose.”

“Okay, what?”

Damen and Vivian walked up slowly to this
conversation, seeing that Chuck developed a fake grin on his face,
hearing him ask, “So, you think my café’s a dump?”

“No, I never said it was a dump. I said it
was a piece of shit.”

Damen and Vivian looked at him in shock,
causing Damen to kick Jose in the leg, and explain, “He’s just
kidding, Mr. Fritter, he doesn’t think it’s a piece of shit. Right,
Jose?” Damen kicked him unnoticeably in the leg once more, hoping
that he would get the message to lie.

“Fine, fine, I don’t think it’s a piece of
shit, not at all. You make us work here on Christmas Eve and slave
us to the bone, I think it’s great. So, like I said, I don’t think
it’s shit.” Suddenly, Jose’s pager went off once more.

“Good, good.”

Jose looked at the number on his pager once
again and stated with a huge smile, “I think it’s a dump.”

“How dare you.”

“If I may add, I think the coffee here
sucks.” Jose then ran into the café, feeling like a free man,
knowing that he was about to quit this job that he despised.

Chuck yelled, “You’re fir--,” not being able
to finish his sentence, due to Jose slamming the entrance door in
his face.

Chuck thrashed open the door and ran over to
Jose. Before Chuck could open his mouth, Mr. Rodrigo added, “Oh,
and another thing, I quit.” He dialed the number on Julienne’s
pager, finishing with, “I should have quit a long time ago.”

Damen passed by Chuck and walked up to Jose,
watching him hold the phone up to his ears, and asking why he quit
through his eyes. “Jose, what are you doing?”

“Damen, I’ll explain it all later.”

“Do you realize you’re not going to be able
to pay the rent, plus, you’re not going to be able to eat?” Damen
questioned, seeing Vivian walking in the café and standing by the
door. “You need this job.”

“Hey, I’m going on to better things. Right
after I make this phone call, I’m not going to work in any more
cafes again, Damen,” he announced, hearing the operator’s annoying
voice coming on the line. “Damn, I dialed the wrong number.”

“Listen, Vivian and Helen were nice enough to
allow us to live with them, the rent is cheaper now. Without this
job, you’re not going to be able to pay for the rent,” stated
Damen, seeing Jose redialing the number.

Some time ago, they couldn’t make ends meet,
so they were forced to move in with Vivian and Helen, but Jose
never liked the situation. With Jose, he wanted more out of life;
mansions, fancy cars, he lived for the fairytale, craving it in his
imagination, and flaunting it through his talks about his
ambitions. Nevertheless, Jose’s money situation was just like
Damen’s, he had to keep this job, to pay the rent on time, and now
since he quit, either he’ll be on the streets or else living
somewhere else.

Jose shouted, while waiting for someone to
pick up on the phone, “You listen to me, I didn’t like living there
anyway. Plus, I’m going to be living in mansions and driving nice
cars after this phone call. So please, back off.” The operator came
over the phone, again, and Damen just watched Jose’s undefined
anger, build up through the way he tapped his foot against the
brown hardwood floor of the café.

During the tapping, Vivian heard what he said
about how he didn’t like living in her apartment. The anger slowly
built up inside of her as well, but she didn’t explode yet.