NORTH NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Chapter 37 -by Peter Nolan Smith

THIRTY-SEVEN

The black-and-white images of a man running down a desert road played on the screen of the six-plate Steembeck flatbed with which Sherri and the editor were cutting ADAM AND TWO EVE's work print. Sherri was more than satisfied with the expansive desolation of the valley lending an eerie silver quality to the film and highlighting the man's desperate expression, yet she was uncertain of Sean's acting and asked the older female seated next to her, "So what do you think?"
"About what?"
"About the man?"
"While I hate men, this one has a character an audience could love." Charley answered, as she carefully rewound the scene to grease pencil the segments for entry into final print. "I've never seen him before. Who is he?"
"Some drifter Lena found on the street."
"An amateur?"
"A nobody." Sherri's eyes were reddened from exhaustion, last night's crying, and staring at the same scenes over and over again.
"You lucked out."
"How so?"
"I've seen too many films ruined by unknowns.” Charley regarded the man more closely and asked, "Those bruises on his face are real, aren't they?"
"Yes." Sherri examined Sean's face, which strangely appeared more human in the opening close-up than real life, and she shuddered, thinking that at this very moment Lena and he could be doing what she feared most.
"What was it like? Being near a man so much?” Like Sherri and her crew, the editor had ghettoized themselves from the male of the species.
"At first awful, then it got worst,” Sherri said jokingly, though she meant it.
"Just like I remember.” Normally an assistant editor would have performed this grunt work, however the editor wanted the post-production to be perfect for Sherri and she cued up another reel of 16mm film to be numbered and edge-coded.
Twenty minutes later their order from Jerry's Famous Deli on Ventura arrived and they took a small break before viewing the final reel. Not hungry Sherri went to the pay phone in the hallway to call her apartment, but instead pulled out the note Lena had left for Sean. It had taken all her resolve not to call throughout the editing session, but she couldn't resist anymore.
"Yes, SINSEX Productions,” a man's voice announced.
Sherri immediately recognized who it was and said, "I'd like to speak with Lena de Gama."
"Sherri, that you?"
"Yes, it's me."
"It's been a long time, this is Louie Sinreich."
"I know.” Sherri had little reason to exchange any pleasantries with this man. "Is Lena still there?"
"Like she's busy right now, but I can give her a message."
Hearing Louie's voice reopened up a vein of painful memories and Sherri's hands began to tremble, as she said, "I'm almost finished for the day. Is she going to be much longer?"
"No, only about fifteen minutes more. Like she was talking about picking you up. Just tell me where you are and I'll send her over."
Uneasy with his amicability, she stalled for a few seconds, then gave the address for the editing studio, after which Louie asked, "Anything else?"
"Did a man named Sean come over?"
"Sean? No one named Sean came here today."
"Really?” Somehow her plans to keep the man from nowhere away from Lena had succeeded and she breathed easy for the first time in hours.
"Yeah, like everything went perfectly. She really is a star. You're real lucky, Sherri. Very lucky indeed"
"Yes, that's what everyone tells me.” Maybe the man from nowhere had returned to nowhere and she cut the conversation short by saying, "Just give Lena my message, would you?"
"Sure, Sherri. Anything for you. You were always one of my favorites,” Louie said, but Sherri hung up before he could pitch her to make a comeback.
Upon returning to the editing room, Charley was already setting up the final reel on the cutting flatbed, but Sherri had been dreading this bedroom sequence from the ranch house and she owed the editor a warning. "This next scene shows me and Lena in very compromising situations with this man."
"How explicit?” The editor winced with disgust at seeing a man's naked body again.
"There's only one way to find out.” Sherri pressed the button and both women watched the eight minutes of film in silence.
There was no mistaking that the sex between Lena and the man had been staged, however the editor was shocked by his actual penetration of Sherri, though Charley saved her comments, until the reel finished. "Sherri, you are still a great actress, though how much of that was acting?"
"All of it," Sherri answered quietly, for watching the session had repulsed her.
"I can see where you're going to put this, but there's no way the film will get anything less than an X-rating with actual penetration.” Charley could have said a lot more, but other women's affiliations with the other half of the species were none of her business.
The sexual freedom of the 1970s had been suppressed by the fears of the 1980s to become a forgotten paradise by the 1990s and even less in the new millennium.. As much as Sherri wouldn't want to go back in time, she still supported the old way of life and said, "This film looks real and only because much of it was real."
"So it stays?" Charley asked, rewinding the reel.
"For now, yes." Sherri knew what she was losing by doing so, but she had never intended on making a Friday night date movie to sell teenagers popcorn.
"That's very courageous. Keeping this scene give the movie more body and let's face it, both you and Lena look great, but then you're pros."
"Thanks.” Sherri acknowledged the compliment and they discussed the rhythm of the film, until the telephone rang. Charley passed the handset to Sherri without saying a word.
"Yes?” Sherri asked.
"Yeah, this is Louie again. Lena left fifteen minutes ago and should be downstairs. Like I'd really be..."Louie started, but Sherri hung up abruptly. The less she spoke with him the better.
"You want to call it a day?” Charley asked sensing the director's sudden impatience.
"If you don't mind.” They had been at it over eight hours. Next week, when the real work began, their schedule would stretch even longer.
"Yeah, no sense burning ourselves out now.” Charley abstained from asking about who had called, though she was curious, if it might be the man from the movie. No matter what Sherri said there had been more to that scene than acting.
"So we'll meet tomorrow 8AM,"Sherri said and then asked, "Can you put this all away? Lena's outside."
The editor was already fantasizing what her ex-lover and Lena would be doing tonight and she decided to review the movie's two love scenes before going over to the 22 Bar on Lankershim. Maybe so inspired she would get lucky tonight and she answered, "You can return the favor later."
"I will.” Sherri leaned over to kiss Charley on the cheek, quickly exiting from the editing room.
She ran down the stairs with her heart pounding with happiness. Lena might have had sex with a man, but a faceless person was better than the man from nowhere, plus they had the money to finish editing the film, so their two sacrifices would cancel out each other.
Emerging from the studio, Sherri spotted the Skylark parked close to Ventura Boulevard and dashed through the cold rain to the passenger side. Inside the car she leaned over and kissed Lena, but while the lips meeting hers were warm and soft, the taste was all wrong. Sherri backed away and examined the woman behind the wheel. The black hair was the same. So were the clothes, but the skin was too white.
"Lena?" Sherri asked.
When a hand clamped over her mouth and nose, a chemical mist filled her lungs and Sherri fought to form a thought in her head, but soon slumped into the seat. Certain she was out cold, Louie Sinreich eased up on the cloth soaked with chloroform and grabbed hold of the driver's borrowed black jacket. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"
"No," Alice said through her chattering teeth and wished she was back in Kansas, but clicking both heels together would not get her there.
Not today or any day.
"Alice, no one's getting hurt. This will be just like that video I showed you. You know the one where the blonde is out cold."
"Oh." His explanation wasn't comforting, since no one had been shot in that film.
"Everything is going to be fine.” Louie’s hand slipped around Alice's neck, as he climbed into the front seat, squeezing the drugged brunette into the middle against Alice. Tossing the chloroform-drenched cloth out the window, he said to the frightened girl behind the wheel, "What you waiting for? Let's go."
Louie Sinreich leaned back and hummed a nameless tune, then recognized it was CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' by the Mamas and Papas. A stupid song, but then most of the ones about California were, because no one should believe too much in a dream.