Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (58 page)

Darell’s eyes widened for a brief half a
second. Walking away and leaving the room, he stopped, turned
around and spoke, “Oh really? That’s another thing, I have to
discuss something with you later on.”

Tom’s eyes showed some fear, mixed with
confusion, watching Darell leave his presence. Tom suddenly
followed Mr. O’Conner, questioning, “What is it? Just tell me
now.”

Darell walked faster; his motion showed Tom
that he had a form of rage mixed with some passionate craving that
he needed, or else felt, in each footstep he took. Feeling this
hallway’s breath, walking with his undefined craving in his rhythm,
Tom watched Darell’s back, trying to figure out what he meant by
what he said. He still didn’t respond to Tom’s last words and still
kept on walking, now with a more upbeat rhythm, toward a bathroom
that was right next to Peter’s studio. Before Darell entered it, he
finally soared his head around, facing Tom’s eyes, and responded,
“No, I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

He walked into the bathroom and closed the
door in Tom’s face, feeling the pressure of wind pressing against
his image, due to the thrust Darell put into the door’s body. Tom
stared at it, watching the little figure of a man, showing that it
was the men’s room. He then pressed the door and entered into as
well. “No, tell me now,” Tom said again, gawking at Darell’s back
as it faced a vanity.

“Listen, at the present time I don’t work for
you, you work for me. So, I’ll discuss it with you tomorrow.”
Darell guided Mr. Fryer out of the bathroom like a little child and
added, “You stay here, I would like to be in the bathroom alone.
Tell Peter I’ll be right there.” Darell closed the bathroom door on
Mr. Fryer once again and put his back to it, acting like a guard,
so Tom couldn’t enter into his presence again.

“Alright, but hurry up,” Tom shouted. He
walked down the hallway with a confused look on his face, glaring
at the bathroom door while walking, and then looking ahead so he
wouldn’t trip and fall. Entering into the studio, Tom spoke in a
very low voice, “What the hell does he have to discuss with
me?”

Darell stared at his reflection in the mirror
and thought about what his father told him, how he said that Darell
caused a lot of pain toward his family. The depression and
homesickness shielded Darell’s thoughts about Hollywood and why he
was here, filling his mind with a negative rapture, entwined in
guilt and tangled in sadness. That’s when he took out his bottle of
sinus medicine, looked toward the door for a glance, to see if
anyone was about to walk in, and placed it down on the white
marbled sink. For a moment, he got down on all fours, and looked
under each stall, to see if anyone was present; he saw no one. So,
he got up again, picked up the bottle, peered at his reflection,
and said, “Alright, I know this is wrong, and extremely foolish,
but for some reason I just...” He stopped for a brief second,
smiling, and added, “Man this is so stupid, but I need you to help
me feel better. Okay? I need you to calm my nerves once again.” He
took off the cap from the bottle and inserted it into his nose,
squeezing it gently, and inhaled through his right nostril. Darell
took two sniffs of the medicine and inserted it into his other
nostril. That’s when he heard a knock at the door. The knock scared
him and caused the bottle to drop from his hand. “Hold on. Um, who
is it?”

“It’s Tom. You know, your agent?”

“I told you that I’m gonna to be there in
just a few,” Darell said, running to the door, pushing his body
against it, causing him to turn into a door lock.

Tom tried to push the door open, but Darell’s
body was stopping this normal exercise. So he spoke, “Peter said to
hurry up.”

“Alright, I’ll be right there,” Darell
blared. He waited to hear Mr. Fryer’s footsteps, walking away from
the door, but heard nothing yet.

Tom still looked at the door, as if he was
trying to see through it, but then walked away from it, saying,
“Alright.”

Darell ran back to the mirror and picked up
his bottle of medicine, noticing the bottle broke and a white
substance fell from it; it was like sand rushing down a hill. “Oh
no, my coke.” Darell tried to sniff some of it from his hand.
“Great, now where am I gonna get some?” That’s when he realized the
cocaine, he inserted into his nose, was already beginning to work,
feeling the effects from it, hearing singing in his ears of a
prosperous nature.

Well, I’ll just get some tomorrow.

After he picked up most of the cocaine from
the floor, he then brushed the rest of it away and blew it under
the sink. He exited the bathroom and walked down to Mr. Simpson’s
studio, feeling the full effects of the drug, looking as if the
hallway was moving to his sight.

Darell entered the studio, hearing Tom say in
a sarcastic way, “Well, it’s about time.”

Mr. O’Conner sat down next to the white
blankets and lighting of a candle’s flame, and spoke with highness
to his voice, “Alright, Peter, let’s do this.”

Chapter Forty-Three

Julienne watched Jose’s sleeping image,
staring at him by the morning sunlight’s brightness, waiting to see
Jose’s eyes, and smile. She lay in her bed, seeing how close she
could get to his face, before he woke up; it was a challenge. She
moved up to his image, feeling, hearing and smelling Jose’s breath
as it exhaled in her room, and wondering what he was dreaming at
that moment. She then put her lips up to his, without touching
them, and waited for his eyes to open; but they didn’t. So, she
placed her lips on his, and his eyes opened, awakening to the
beautiful sight of Julienne. “Alright, Jose, guess what today is,
baby?”

He smiled, stretching his arms to the back of
the bed, feeling the warm California sun baking against his flesh,
waking up his whole body with its natural warmth. He looked at her,
smiling still, and responded with sarcasm, “Let me guess, um, oh,
isn’t today Saturday?”

“Yes it is, and guess where we’re going
today?”

He gave her another kiss, holding her
tightly, and answered with even stronger sarcasm than before, “Um,
I don’t know, Disneyland?”

“No, today’s your screen test, silly,” she
laughed out.

“Oh, that’s right,” he said with a bit of
laughter mixed in with his words. Getting out of bed, he walked
over to the bathroom that was connected to her bedroom, adding,
“What time do I have to go at?”

“Well, I called Dennis yesterday, and he said
it’s at 12:00 p.m. So, you better get in the shower and get ready,
you only have a few hours left.

Ring, ring, ring, ring.

The cordless phone started to ring. Julienne
picked it up while Jose was putting shaving cream on his face,
saying, “Hello, this is Julienne Wells speaking.” She looked at
Jose through the half-closed door and began to walk away from it,
adding into the phone again, “hello?”

“Hello, Julienne, it’s Mike Sullivan
calling.”

Jose walked toward the bathroom door, and
looked at Julienne standing in the middle of the room, talking on
the phone in a secretive way. “Who is it?” Jose asked as the
shaving cream dripped off his face like melted ice cream.

“It’s my agent.” She put the phone up to her
ear again, watching Jose as he entered completely into the
bathroom, beginning his shaving ritual.

Mike said, “Listen, Julienne, I have to
discuss something with you today.”

Julienne saw Jose’s reflection in the vanity,
briefly, and saw that he was making funny faces toward her,
sticking his tongue out, and crossing his eyes. So, she started
laughing, giggling over the phone, “Sure, but what time?”

“Let’s get together at 12:30 today.”

“I can’t, I have to be somewhere else at
12:00 o’clock noon today. How about we get together after 4:00
p.m.?” she questioned with laughter, still seeing Jose making funny
faces at her from the bathroom.

“No, we have to get together at 12:30, it’s
very important.”

Her laughter came to a halt, stopped at a
moment’s notice, and turned away from Jose’s face, sitting down on
the bed in a leisurely way. She didn’t respond yet, still holding
the phone to her ear, noticing that her agent, Mike, said those
words with magnitude. “What do you mean, Mike, why do you have to
talk to me so urgently?”

“I’ll explain it to you when you come here.
Goodbye.” Mike hung up the phone on her, leaving nothing but
silence to the phone’s receiver.

“Hello, hello?” She heard a dial tone coming
from the phone, and a blanket of fright came over her eyes,
wondering why he needed to talk to her so badly, and what the
outcome was going to be when he finished his discussion with
her.

She looked down at her Chinese rug and began
to feel sick to her stomach, butterflies were soaring through her
intestines, fluttering against her lining. She got up from the bed
and hung up the phone while thinking in her mind, He got me an
audition.

She sat back on her bed with a smile upon her
face, knowing for sure that it was that, and the nervousness caused
her fright to make the butterflies swarm even faster, bouncing up
and down inside of her body.

Jose finished shaving and splashed some green
aftershave onto his face. He glanced into the mirror to the sight
of Julienne, sitting on the bed, staring at the floor, so he
questioned, “What happened with your agent? What did he want?”

“Um, listen, Jose, I can’t make the screen
test, you’re going to have to go alone. I’ll have my chauffeur
drive you there and pick you up later.” Julienne sat there with a
nervous but happy look on her face, but still didn’t look at him;
she just lurked at the floor.

“What happened? Why can’t you make it?” Jose
exited the bathroom and sat next to her, adding, “I mean, I don’t
know anything about this, and I don’t even know anything about the
contract I’m hopefully gonna sign today.”

“Listen to me, just sign anything you get
offered, but only sign it if Mr. Schultz offers it to you, no one
else.” She then got up from the bed and entered the bathroom.

“Alright, but I don’t--”

She cut off Jose’s voice, saying, “Listen,
I’ll discuss it all to you later, I don’t even know myself what he
wants.”

Julienne closed the bathroom door, and left
Jose with a feeling that this matter was very important to her; the
way she avoided this important day so casually, he knew that it had
something to do with her career.

“Alright, I’ll get ready in the downstairs
bathroom.” Jose tried to stay out of Julienne’s way, adding to the
closed door, “I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

Julienne ogled at her beauty in the bathroom
mirror’s reflection. She opened the drawer to her vanity and took
out a rolled up fifty-dollar bill, still gazing at her beautiful
image, smiling at herself. She picked up a miniature bottle filled
with cocaine and began to drop the white powder in the palm of her
shaky hand. “This is it, Julienne, you know Mike got you a big
part, maybe it’s an Oscar role. Oh, please let Mike tell me
something good,” she spoke to her reflection right before she took
a sniff of the white substance with the rolled-up fifty. Staring at
a picture of Jose sitting on top of the bathroom sink, she
whispered to it, “Some director probably saw me at the premiere
with Jose, and they probably heard he was going to be in a Dennis
Schultz movie.”

Chapter Forty-Four

Damen woke up in a deep sweat, flashing open
his eyes because of a nightmare he had while he was sleeping, and
turned to look at Vivian; but she wasn’t there. He took a deep
breath and got up from the bed. He ran to his dresser and opened it
in a speedy fashion. Damen began looking for a particular object as
he threw all of his clothes and Vivian’s onto the ground, reaching
deep into the drawer, suddenly feeling a flat object. A smile came
over his face as he pulled out the object that he was searching
for; it was a picture of him, Jose, Darell, and the Valley. He sat
down on the bed and kept on staring at it, that’s when he said out
loud, “It was only a nightmare.” The flashbacks came to his
thoughts about the dream, seeing Jose and Darell walking by him and
not saying “hi” to him. In his dream, they didn’t know him, and
that was what made it a nightmare. He kept on staring at the photo,
gawking at it, trying to take this dream that manifested his mind
into believing it was reality for a moment, and then came back into
reality; it was only a dream. As he gazed at it, Vivian entered the
bedroom with her apron and waitress uniform on.

She looked at Damen’s sweaty face, seeing his
eyes only staring at a photo, and questioned, “What’s wrong with
you, Damen?”

He still dazed at the photo, whispering,
“Nothing, I was just thinking about something.” He placed the photo
in his wallet and still looked at it, like he wanted that moment to
be real again.

That’s when he looked closer to the photo,
seeing these three figures, the trees and the Valley in the
background, colored with green pastures and foliage that seemed
like a painting, and suddenly saw that moment again. The trees in
the photo started to sway with the wind, and the figures started
moving about, laughing; a flashback began.

“Come on, Maria, just take the photo,” Jose’s
young self laughed out, standing on the side of Damen.

She flashed the camera once, and put it down,
saying, “Alright, I took it, now let’s just get this over
with.”

They stood around in a circle, feeling the
wind winding around their images, blowing against it in a peaceful
force, and all held one needle in their hands.

Damen pricked his finger with the needle
first, saying, “Alright, guys, prick your fingers.”

Darell and Jose pricked theirs, but Maria
didn’t, stating, “Listen, you boys do your little testosterone
thing, I’ll just watch.”