Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (44 page)

“Sometimes a person with a pig head has a
smart head, a smart head that could see right through a person’s
eyes,” said Darell, handing his ticket to the flight attendant.

“Just promise me one thing, Darell. Promise
me you’ll give it a second thought about switching agents. I’m
really a good agent. Would you at least think about it?” Mr. Fryer
asked with a low, pathetic voice, he sounded like he was literally
begging him to stay as his client.

“Tom, I have heard a lot of negative things
come out of you. You’re a jerk. If you were me and I was you, would
you stay as my client after you heard from a director that I was a
bad agent?”

They reached First Class, and sat down.
Looking out the window, Darell added, “I mean, it’s like hearing
that your own mother is a killer and me having to decide if I still
want to live in the same house with her.”

Tom tried to ignore Darell’s last question,
and even his analogy that was somewhat confusing to Tom’s ears.
“I’ve never said anything negative to you, Darell.”

“Tom, answer the question.”

Tom thought about it, what he should say,
what words he should and could do to make Darell’s question
satisfying to his ears. He watched a stewardess, with blonde hair,
and dark, red nail polish, as she was explaining the airplane
safety procedures to the passengers. He then looked back at Darell,
and finally responded, “Yeah, I would stay with you.”

“No, you wouldn’t. If you want me to give it
second thoughts, you have to promise me one thing,” Darell said,
seeing Mr. Fryer jumping out of his guilt and looking at Darell
with happy eyes.

Tom shouted with excitement, “Anything,
anything, you name it. What is it?” The flight attendant looked at
him in an appalled way, knowing that the loud noise came from him.
She put her finger up to her mouth and signaled for Mr. Fryer to be
quiet while she explains the safety procedures to them and the
other passengers. “Sorry for that,” Tom added to the attendant. He
stared at the attendant and then back at Darell, questioning again,
“Okay, what is it?”

“I want you to promise me that you’ll take it
slow with my fame and you’ll take it slow with my acting. I want to
be good in Hollywood. If I go too fast, I’ll only fall faster. You
got it?”

“Alright, Darell, if that’s what you want,
that’s what you get.” Tom suddenly was distracted by a light that
came on above them saying for them to fasten their seatbelts and
“no smoking.”

“One more thing, Tom, I want you to help my
friends out too. I don’t care if you think Damen’s ugly or Jose has
a big scar on his neck. They are still my friends, and I promised
them this a long time ago,” said Darell, watching Tom pause from
drinking his liquor and looked at him straight in the eyes. Tom
Fryer was afraid to answer him.

“Alright, I’ll help Jose out.” Tom hoped in
his mind that Darell wouldn’t catch on to him forgetting to say
Damen, but he did.

The plane started to move toward the runway,
feeling the vibrations of its body, caused Darell to look out the
window and see how far away it was till takeoff. He looked back at
Tom. “Damen too? Alright?”

Tom Fryer just stared at Darell with bemused
eyes. He thought of how Damen knew about him raping Vivian. Seeing
it in his mind once more, Mr. Fryer didn’t know how to get out of
this one, so he did what anyone else would have done in this
situation, lied. “Sure, sure, I promise you, I’ll help Damen and
Jose out in Hollywood. Plus, I’ll take it slow with you in
Hollywood. Now, if I do both of these things, you’ll have to
promise me you’ll stay as my client,” Tom spoke. The plane began to
move faster, it caused him to spill a little liquor on his newly
bought suit.

“I told you already, I’ll think about it.”
Darell said. The plane lifted its front wheel from the ground,
shaking the cabin in an upbeat rhythm.

“That’s only if I did one thing, you asked
for two things. That was the deal. So, will you stay?” Then Tom
held out his hand, waiting for Darell to shake it, wanting Darell
to grab it.

Darell stared at his hand and then thought of
Jose and Damen. He knew they would do the same thing in a situation
like this, the same thing that Darell was about to say. “Alright,
Tom, I’ll stay.” He grabbed Tom’s hand and shook it.

“You promise me?”

“Yeah, I promise you.”

“Good, just to make sure, once we reach
Hollywood, I’ll get some papers together for you to sign,” Tom said
in a laughing tone. What Darell didn’t realize was Mr. Fryer was
really serious about the papers.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny,” Darell spoke. Mr.
Fryer made sure to put his earphones on to block out Darell’s
comment to the paper’s subject. Tom did that so he wouldn’t know
for sure if he was joking or not, he just assumed it. Darell sat in
his seat, he stared at the champagne glass that he held in the palm
of his hand. Watching as Mr. Fryer slowly fell into a deep sleep,
Darell slowly took the headphones off Tom’s ears, shouting, “What’s
today’s date?”

Mr. Fryer jumped half way off his seat,
spilling his liquor all over, answering, “December 30.”

“What time is it?” he questioned while Tom
Fryer was trying to clean his liquor stains from his suit with a
little tissue.

“It’s 9:00 a.m. Would you like to know
anything else?” Mr. Fryer’s voice showed sarcasm, making Darell
bust out laughing.

Mr. O’Conner closed his eyes, reclined his
seat, and responded with, “No, at least not right now.”

“Oh, now you want to get some sleep. I wish
you would have done that a few minutes ago, you almost gave me a
heart attack,” he said with irritation, seeing Darell’s laugh
turning into a big grin.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, would you please be quiet?
I’m trying to sleep here.”

“Boy, having you as a client is going to be a
challenge for me. I hope you’re worth it,” Mr. Fryer mentioned,
reclining his chair back as well.

“Yeah, I know I’m worth it. The question is,
are you worth it?”

Tom turned to him, and saw his eyes closed,
sealed, they were already in the back of his head, his frontal
lobe, allowing Darell to have drifted off into a deep sleep. As he
watched him, Tom grinned a bit, knowing that Darell was already
asleep, and whispered, “Well, we will see. We will see.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Jumping around the grass-filled Valley,
feeling wind pulsating its beautiful texture against his body, Jose
ran through its foliage, even though the skies were darkened and
gray. “Am I dreaming?” he asked, seeing the Valley’s body, circling
his eyes around its darkened but attractive self. He felt the wind
growing stronger, and lightning shot from the heavens, startling
his figure, he ran toward the Valley’s side, thinking in his dream
that he better run home; it looked like a twister. He ran, hopped,
striking his rhythm with great speed, trying his hardest to escape
this Valley, suddenly seeing a twister developing in the skies
above him. He ran toward the lake, wanting to pass it, in order to
reach the side of the Valley he wanted to go, he stopped, seeing
something slowly lifting out of the lake; he eyed this thing, and
saw only a silhouette within the sinister darkness.

“Take my hand, I will guide you to safety,”
the thing whispered, Jose hearing its words through the grand wind,
and the harsh lightning that flickered on top of him.

Every flash that the lightning gave out
allowed him to see a bit of the thing’s figure. But, suddenly, the
twister came down, sucked him in, and shot him back into reality as
he woke up, asking in loudness, “Oh no, what time is it?” He woke
completely up from his sleep, asking again, “What time is it?”

Damen jumped out of his bed and ran to the
front room where Jose was yelling from. He ran over to the sofa and
saw him screaming at the top of his lungs. Damen yelled, “Where’s
the fire, where is it?”

“No, I asked, ‘what time is it?’ My alarm
clock is broke or something,” Jose replied. Vivian and Helen woke
up and entered into the room as well, looking at Damen and Jose as
if they were nuts for screaming so early in the morning.

Helen yawned in upset, “Do you guys have any
idea what time it is?”

“No, please tell me?”

Vivian gave Damen a morning kiss, as Helen
replied, “It is, wait a second.” She noticed that the clock in the
kitchen wasn’t working either, making a confused look appear on her
tired face.

“Well, what time is it?” Vivian suddenly
covered Jose’s mouth; she didn’t like his voice so early in the
morning.

With his mouth still sealed from her palm,
she spoke, “Would you please tell him the time? If I had my
contacts in, I would.” Vivian took her hand away from his mouth and
threw his head back. It was like she was his older sister.

“I know what’s wrong, the electricity is out.
We forgot to pay the bill,” Helen announced.

Jose looked at her with shocked eyes, rolling
them back in his head. Damen did the same roll, he was tired and
shouting, “Oh, that’s just great. Now what do we do about
electricity?”

Jose noticed Vivian’s watch, stating, “Hey,
you got a watch on.” He grabbed Vivian’s wrist and rubbed her scar
accidentally, causing pain to hit her in the morning’s air.

She punched Jose in the arm, yelling, “Ouch,
you idiot, don’t ever grab my wrist again.”

“Tell me what time it is.”

“This watch doesn’t work, it’s been broken
for a week now,” Vivian said. Jose looked at her with a puzzled
look on his stressed-out, tired image.

“Why do you wear it then?”

She looked at Damen, and then frittered back
toward Jose. She rubbed her scar, and walked away, heading toward
the kitchen, replying at the same time, “You know why, Jose.
Remember, I have a scar there?”

Damen went over to Vivian, and watched her
make some coffee over the stove, hearing Jose shouting and
pleading, “Well, does anyone in this godforsaken apartment know
what time it is?”

“Listen, dude, don’t you even care about us
having no electricity? Why do you want to know so bad anyway?”
asked Damen in a loud tone as Helen looked for a watch in her
room.

Jose lit up his morning cigarette, gazed at
Damen from a distance, and responded, “Don’t you even know what day
it is, Damen?”

“No, what day is it?”

Jose got up from the couch, and walked over
to them, blowing smoke into Damen’s face, and saying, “It’s
December 31. Today’s the day.”

Damen walked out from the cloud of smoke,
stepped over near the stove, smelled the nice and strong coffee
aroma, while asking, “Why do you smoke so much?”

“That’s not the point. The question was, do
you know what day it is?”

“No, alright, no, I don’t know and I don’t
care.”

Vivian poured Damen a cup of coffee. Smelling
its natural aroma, he took a pleasant sip while hearing Jose’s
irritating voice say, “Today I’m going over to see Julienne Wells,
I’m going to her house. She’s gonna get me ready for the dinner
tomorrow. Now do you remember?”

Vivian turned and saw Helen exiting her
bedroom once more, holding a watch that actually worked. “Oh,
that’s right. Well, you better get ready soon,” Vivian said.

Helen walked up behind Jose, replying with a
ticked-off voice, “Here, there’s a watch, it says 5:00 a.m.” She
showed him the time, and sarcastically added, “That means I would
have had three more hours left to sleep, thanks a lot.”

Jose walked over to the phone in panic,
leaving them in the kitchen, and picked it up, while dialing a
number. “I better give her a call now, you know, to tell her I’m
coming soon.”

“Um, the phone doesn’t work either, we forgot
to pay that bill too,” said Helen, Vivian poured her a cup of
coffee also.

Jose hit the phone hard against the wall,
yelling, “Why doesn’t anything work in this hellhole?”

Helen placed down her coffee gently, her
nerves were flying in an uproar, allowing her to try and clam down
herself. She looked at Vivian and Damen, then guided her eyes
toward Jose, saying, “Well, the electricity bill was high because
of you. The phone bill was high because of you.” She paused, looked
at Vivian, nodding her head and agreeing with her, then added,
“And, I woke up early, because of you. Doesn’t anyone notice a
pattern here?”

Jose put out his cigarette rapidly, pushing
it into a green ashtray on the coffee table, questioning, “Me? Why
is it my fault?”

Helen approached him, handed him the phone
bill, and explained, “You’re the one that doesn’t have a job. So
that’s why the electricity is shut off. All of us living here
causes a lot of electrical outlets to be used. With the phone bill,
all of these numbers are numbers that were not called by Damen or
Vivian. Are these all your numbers?”

“Well, yeah, but I’ll pay it. Don’t worry, I
will.” Jose then saw Helen’s watch in her other hand. Remembering
the time, he dropped the bill on the floor and started to walk to
the bathroom.

Helen, once again, sarcastically spoke,
“You’re damn right you’ll pay it. Jose, you don’t have a job yet.
How are you supposed to pay it, when you supposedly get discovered
tomorrow?”

Jose slammed the door to the bathroom and
gazed at his reflection in the mirror, shouting, “Listen, I’ll pay
it. Now, let me get ready in peace.”

Helen turned toward Vivian and Damen, seeing
them drinking their coffee, she walked up to them and questioned,
“Do you honestly think he’s gonna get discovered tomorrow?”

They thought about it for a fraction of a
second. Vivian answered, “I don’t think so; it’s way too easy for
him. If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t. That’s what my
father used to tell me all the time.”

“Well, the way things are going with Darell,
I think anything’s possible,” Damen whispered.

“Well, like I said, I don’t think it’s
possible. I mean come on, what are the odds of two guys making it
in Hollywood within a year’s time who are best friends?” asked
Vivian, hearing the shower go on in the bathroom.