Waterfalls (32 page)

Surfacing for a breath of warm air, Meri found to her surprise that Jake was right beside her. Kyle had taken Travis from him, and Jonathan was on his way out of the water.

“Come with me to the waterfall,” Jake said. His wet hair was slicked straight back, and drops of water glistened on his eyelashes. Meri thought she had never seen a more appealing sight. It was all she could do not to take that handsome face in her hands and kiss those perfect lips.

They swam together in steady rhythm, the roar of the waterfall growing louder as they approached. Jake pointed to
the side and then yelled, “Let’s try to go behind it.”

Meri followed. They broke through the pounding water, receiving a full, freezing scalp massage in the process. Then they discovered a little pocket where the stones were worn away. A space of about a foot lay between the cold, gray rock wall and the sheet of water. Meri and Jake shivered, treading water while the pounding waterfall echoed in their numb skulls.

Meredith laughed. She couldn’t help it. This was such a wild, invigorating experience. Jake laughed with her. They didn’t say a word.

Unable to stand the cold another minute, Meri bobbed her way out, under the pelting water. She swam as fast as she could with Jake right behind her, both eager to get out and warm up. Shelly tossed Meri a tablecloth they hadn’t used, and she wrapped herself in it. She sat on the shore shivering.

“What a rush!” Jake said, flipping his hair back and wiping his face with his hands. Jonathan tossed him a towel.

“It’s used,” Jonathan said. “Better than nothing.”

Jake dried off and wrapped the towel around his shoulders. “Could you hear us laughing?”

“It sounded really strange,” Jess said. “As if the waterfall had come to life and was laughing.”

“That’s it,” Jake said, looking to Meri for support. “We’ll have Tom do that. We’ll record your laughter and get him to mix it with the sound of the waterfall. What a great idea.” He sat down beside Meredith, closer than he ever had before. “What would this project have been like without you? I don’t want to know.” He put his arm around her shoulder appreciatively and gave her a buddy squeeze the way a coach congratulates the kid who just made the best play of the day.

Everyone was watching. The women gave Meri subtle sympathetic glances. They could now see for themselves how
close she and Jake were. It was all business and no romance at all. “Such a pity,” Meri could almost hear them say.

“Yeah, Jake,” Shelly said, jumping in with both feet, “where would you have been on this project without Meredith? And a bigger question is, where will you be the rest of your life without her as your partner?”

Everyone looked at Shelly, surprised at her bluntness. Then they looked at Jake, then back at Shelly.

“You’ll have to excuse my wife,” Jonathan said. “She was absent on subtlety day.”

“Jonathan!” Shelly said, swatting him. “Why did you say that?”

“Why did you say what you said?”

A spat ensued. Meredith thought,
Oh, great! Instead of helping nudge Jake in my direction, these two are only proving his theory that falling in love is a chemical reaction that wears off, and these two are about to hit their expiration date
.

“We’re ready to head back,” Jessica said. Travis was sitting contentedly in her lap, sucking his first two fingers. “I have a sleepy boy here.”

“Yeah,” Kenton quipped, “and Travis should probably get to bed, too.”

The gang gathered up the remains of the picnic and made their way back down the trail to the cars. Shelly and Jonathan emerged from the hushed forest trail holding hands and appearing to have made up. Not that it mattered to Meri if Jake noticed their starry eyes. She had a calm, settled confidence that when the time was right, Jake would wake up. If they were going to get together, it would be God’s doing and not anyone else’s.

A
s the days wore on, Meredith was beginning to rethink her option of having her sister help out a little on this going-nowhere romance. Maybe with a few extracurricular lessons in subtlety, Shelly could have a more positive influence on Jake.

The crew arrived Saturday with the new actress and her mom. Filming began Monday, and Jake was on the go all day, every day. Meri used the time to catch up on her work for the publishing house. With the changes in the script, Jake didn’t plan to film the waterfall scene with Meri until the fourth day of shooting. It turned out to be the fifth day because it rained on Wednesday.

The cast all hung out at the lodge on Wednesday, waiting for the rain to clear and acting thoroughly bored. Meri took Guard Man Fred out of her car and thought she could play a little joke on Chad. She had intended to use Fred to surprise Shelly, but teasing Chad would be much more fun. They told Chad a cast member was waiting in the van for a ride to the airport.
Everyone watched as Chad ran outside the lodge in the rain and got into the driver’s seat with Fred strapped into the passenger’s seat. Chad started up the van and pulled out.

“He’s not much of a conversationalist,” Meredith said with a giggle. “Chad probably won’t notice that Fred doesn’t talk until they reach the airport and he finds out that Fred doesn’t move either.”

The crew peered through the curtains at the lodge. Brendon, the child actor who played Young Heart, was the first one to see the returning van. Chad drove back up to the lodge, parked the van, got out, came inside without a word to any of them, and went back to work on his newspaper crossword puzzle. Everyone busted up. Everyone but Chad.

The next day they were filming in the woods. Brendon and Emilie, the girl cast as Hope, played a trick on Jake. They had gotten into the helium tanks in props, filled some balloons, and then sucked in the helium. When they took their mark, and Jake called action, their words came out as squeaky mouse sounds. Meredith noticed how well Jake rolled with the joke in the midst of all the frenzy to get back on schedule.

Meredith liked Brendon and Emilie and thought they were perfect for their parts. When they asked to borrow Fred to play a joke on someone, she agreed and handed him over to them.

Thursday night during dinner at the lodge, Jake sought out Meri to ask if he could speak to her. They stepped out of the dining room into the hallway.

“How are you doing?” Jake asked.

“Great. How are you doing?”

Jake nodded. “It’s coming together.” He looked down at his feet and then back up at Meri. “It’s been so busy, I haven’t had a chance to talk with you in more than a week. I mean, I’ve seen you around, but it’s not at all like it was the week before.”

“No, it’s not. You’ve been running at full speed. I didn’t want to get in the way.”

Jake’s eyes searched hers. “Thanks,” he said.

“For what?”

“Thanks for coauthoring the screenplay with me. Thanks for being honest and telling me what was wrong with it, even though you probably knew I didn’t want to hear it. Thanks for being there for me.”

“It was all my pleasure,” Meri said. “I’m sure you have many more stories in you that need to come out. This is only the beginning for you. I honestly feel honored to have been a part of the process.”

He looked thoughtful. “You’re amazing. You know that, don’t you?”

“Sometimes I forget,” Meri said playfully. “So it’s nice to be reminded every now and then. Thanks.”

Jake smiled. “Hey, I wanted to tell you I was able to get the budget adjusted. There’s a check coming for you to cover your time and work as a consultant on the project.”

“I didn’t expect any payment.”

“I know. But you earned it. You earned twice what I have to pay you. Three times.”

“Thanks,” Meredith said. “I appreciate it.”

It was silent for a moment. He kept looking at her as if he had something more he wanted to say but couldn’t figure out how to say it. He was like an actor who had forgotten his lines and was keeping his eye on the target but had an ear to the prompter in the orchestra pit, waiting for a cue.

When no words came to his lips, Meredith said, “Have you had a chance to eat yet? It’s pretty good tonight. Pork chops.”

“No. I’ll be there in a minute. Could you tell them to hold some dinner for me?”

“Sure.” She turned to go. If he thought this close encounter was easy for her, he was mistaken. Her heart was pounding, and her eyes were tearing up. How could he be so close and not be able to say anything personal like “I’ve missed you. I want to be with you”? Those phrases burned the roof of her mouth as she kept them inside.

“Meri?” he said.

She turned, blinking away the tears and putting on a smile. He was standing where she had left him, looking lost and unable to move from that spot until she released him.

“What kind of perfume are you wearing? I’ve wanted to ask you that for a long time.”

“Beautiful,” she said.

A thin smile played across his lips. He took a step forward from his spot and said with a nod, “And I think you are.”

He turned and walked back into the lodge. Now she was the one with her shoes glued to the floor. That was the closest he had ever come to anything romantic. Her hopes soared.

At 3:00
A.M.
on Friday, Meredith showed up at the camp, ready for makeup. It promised to be a perfect day, and everyone was in good spirits. It took almost an hour to apply her makeup and to secure her wig. She waited in line at the wardrobe trailer until Muriel was ready to help her into the beautiful blue dress. Chad met her at the trailer door and drove her to the end of the waterfall trail in a golf cart. He didn’t say anything.

Two stagehands were at the end of the trail ready to help her down to the platform they had built at the water’s edge. She walked slowly and carefully, terrified that she would step on the end of her long wig and pull it off her head.

She took her mark at six o’clock. The early sunlight was filtering through the trees at a perfect angle. More than thirty people were gathered around the lake, all with a specific task. One camera was mounted on a tall crane with a cameraman
seated behind it. Another was strapped to the shoulder of a man in orange shorts. She wondered if there was some significance to the color of his shorts. She didn’t see Jake anywhere.

Meri had to stand in place for what seemed like a long time. Muriel came over and fluffed up her shoulders. Gina came over and touched up her makeup. Shelly came over and offered her a drink of water through a straw in a paper cup.

“You look incredible,” Shelly said. “I know you described this outfit to me, but when I saw you, I felt like asking you to grant me a wish! You look beautiful.”

Meri smiled. “What is your wish?”

“I think you already know,” Shelly said.

Meri nodded. “A baby,” she whispered.

“No,” Shelly said, looking surprised. “We can wait on that. It’s actually a lot better that we’re not expecting a baby now. My wish is for you and Jake to get together.”

Meredith hadn’t expected her sister to say that, and she was deeply touched. “One wish, and you wish it for me! What a sweet sister you are.”

A loud voice boomed through a megaphone, “Quiet on the set.” The man handed the megaphone to Jake.

“Okay. Good morning. Is everyone here?” His eyes scanned the area until he spotted Meredith across the lake from him, standing on her platform. Jake lowered the megaphone and stared at her. Everyone watched his reaction and then looked at Meredith to see if something was wrong. She stood in her spot, feeling self-conscious because of the outfit and wig.

Tom called over to Jake, “Oh, Captain, our Captain, are you still with us?”

Jake pulled his eyes off of Meredith. He seemed dazed and not quite sure where he was. To Meredith, it seemed he was acting the same way he had the two times she had seen him wake up from a nap.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think we’re ready to roll,” Jake said into the megaphone. “Are you all set, Maiden of the Waterfall?”

“Yes,” Meri called out across the water.

“Young Heart and Hope? Are you two ready?”

“We’re ready,” Brendon called out from the edge of the woods.

“Quiet on the set.”

The crew went through all the usual pre-roll-’em routine, and for the first time, Meri felt nervous. She quickly went over the lines in her head. She swallowed rapidly and licked her lips. Tom, the sound man, was only a few feet away, holding a microphone on a long boom out of camera range.

Jake called, “Action,” and Young Heart and Hope came trudging from the woods in ragged costumes. They played well the parts of two children who had been on a long journey and were startled to find such a pleasant haven at the end of the trail. Stopping, they looked at each other, not sure what to make of the glorious waterfall and lake.

“Hail, young travelers.” Meredith began her lines. Her voice came out clear and not at all quavering like she felt. “From where have you come?”

“We’ve been through the Forest of Truth,” Young Heart said. “Each of our words was weighed, and we found many of them too heavy to carry.”

“Please tell us who you are,” Hope said. “And what is this beautiful place?”