September 30, 2016

6:57pm

Logan Echolls stood outside the doorway to his mansion and wondered how his existence had come to this. To most of the world, of course, Logan seemed to have the perfect life. Nine years previously, just out of college, he had spent more than a third of his inheritance from his mother to film, in black-and-white, an independent picture. Made, obviously, on the proverbial shoe-string budget, Logan's Faust had used the gothic campus of the University of Chicago as the setting for the story of a brilliantly gifted young scholar, who, offered easy knowledge, health, wealth, and power by Mephistopheles, not in exchange for his soul, but rather for free, went on, spoiled rotten by not having to earn any of his success, to damn himself by his own actions.

The movie's initial release was very limited, and normally, despite rave reviews from the critics, it would have been consigned to the oblivion reserved for pretentious art-house flicks. The Echolls name, however, and the whiff of scandal attached thereto, had created that elusive thing known only as buzz. Everyone wanted to see what the troubled son of the tragic Lynn and villainous Aaron had produced. Even before Faust's box-office grosses hit the nontuple digits, people were calling it the next Blair Witch, except actually good, Logan had always insisted. Then came the little gold balls and statuettes.

Offers followed from all the major studios, but Logan turned them down. Even if he had not, as the sole owner of Faust, just become independently wealthy in his own right for the first time, he would have refused. Instead, he set out to duplicate the success of his first movie. Again with his own money, and a very small amount at that, and again using black-and-white film and unknown albeit actually talented actors, Logan remade 12 Angry Men, with the twist that, just as the jury became ten-to-two for acquittal, one of the two holdouts pointed out that, even if every single thing the other jurors were saying were reasonably possible, it was not reasonable to believe that all of them were true. Soon, the momentum had swung back the other way, until the jury voted to convict.

It was a gamble to alter a classic that way, but it paid off, artistically and financially. More money and more accolades came pouring in. Still in his twenties, if only barely, and with just two films, Logan had made more money than his father ever had, and he had done it without selling out. By all rights, he should have been happy. And yet, as he stood, exhausted and miserable outside the door to his house, his shoulders stooped and his brow furrowed, he considered for the hundredth time that day getting out of the movie business for good.

At the sight that greeted him when he opened the door, he felt the happiness that most would have imagined was his constantly. "Dad! Dad!" shouted Jason and Stephen, his seven- and six-year-olds, respectively, as they abandoned their checker game and raced toward him. Benjamin, their four-year-old brother, scampered off the couch where he had been sitting next to his mother as she read to him, and toddled after his older brothers.

"Boys, am I glad to see you," said Logan with a smile, as he crouched down to scoop his three sons into his arms. "Ugh," he mock-groaned as he lifted them all up to carry them back to couch. "You're all getting so big. Soon I won't be able to lift you at all."

"You always say that," answered Jason.

"Well, someday it'll be true," replied his father collapsing onto the couch next to his wife. Turning to her, he greeted her with a peck on the lips.

"Yuck!" shouted Stephen.

"No mush!" added Jason.

"You know, kids," Logan answered as he released them from his arms so that they could return to their game, then handing Benjamin back to his mother, in whose arms he promptly fell asleep, "someday you won't think mushiness is so terrible."

"Never," answered Jason.

"It's your move," interjected Stephen.

Turning back to his wife, Logan caressed her swollen middle and asked "how's Jennifer?"

"Very excited," answered Veronica Echolls. "She's been kicking me all day."

"Aww," answered Logan, bending toward Veronica's belly, "has someone been kicking her mommy?"

"Just think," answered Veronica, "in another two months she'll be out here, and she can boot you in the stomach." Logan knew that, for all her jokes, she was ecstatic to finally be having a daughter. Veronica adored all their children, but after three boys, she had been hoping for a girl, and after all the difficulty they'd had in conceiving Jennifer, Veronica had been glowing for the past seven months.

"She'll have to get in line."

"Rough day, huh?" asked Veronica, stroking Logan's forehead.

"You have no idea. And it's actually not even over."

"What happened?"

"Caroline walked off the set."

"Again? Why did you hire that witch?"

"Why did I ever decide to make this movie?"

"Anyway, I thought the whole point of using unknown actors was that they couldn't act like spoiled primadonnas."

"That was the theory, and it worked at first, except now that everyone knows that she's the star of a 'Logan Echolls' production," said Logan archly, "the press is treating her like a celebrity already, and, since she knows that the film is ninety percent in the can, she also knows I can't just fire her."

"That's too bad. What did you mean, though, when you said your day wasn't over yet though?"

"Ah, I have to drive over to Caroline's apartment later to talk to her, you know, patch things up, calm her down, get her to come back to work tomorrow."

"Are you going to miss dinner? Consuela's making lasagna, and—"

"Yeah!" interrupted Jason. "I love lasagna night!"

"Well, I can hardly miss lasagna night, now can I?" Turning back to Veronica, he continued, "don't worry, I won't go until after the kids are in bed."

"Oh, Dad, I just remembered," added Stephen, before running off to his room.

"What's gotten into him?" Logan asked Veronica.

"Good question, but I think we're about to find out." Stephen had returned, waving something in his hand.

"Mom, Dad, is this me or Jason in this picture?" Stephen asked, handing them the photograph.

"I told you, it's me," said Jason.

In truth, it could almost have been any of the three Echolls boys in the photograph. Jason and Stephen, despite being thirteen months apart, were often mistaken for being identical twins, and only because Benjamin was visibly smaller than his two older brothers were they not often mistaken for triplets. Logan and Veronica looked at the photograph and then at each other for several moments before Logan answered. "Actually," he began, "that's me when I was your age."

"No way," replied Stephen.

"Really?" queried Jason.

"Yup. Believe it or not, I was once as little as you two."

"Wait, does that mean," started Stephen, "that if you looked just like us when you were little, we'll look just like you when we're older?"

"I'm afraid so," answered their father.

"You should consider yourselves lucky," said their mother playfully. "You'll be as handsome when you're all grown up as you are adorable now."

"But who are these people in the picture with Dad?" asked Jason.

"Well, those are my parents," answered Logan.

"Really? How come we never go visit them like we do Grandpa Keith and Grandma Alicia?"

"Well, kids," began their father, "it's…."

"Complicated," finished their mother.

"We'll explain it to you when you're older."

"I want to know now!" shouted Stephen.

"Yeah, you always say you'll tell us things when we're older!" echoed Jason. Their shouting has roused their brother, and Benjamin was sitting up in his mother's lap, blinking sleepily as he looked from his two older brothers to his parents.

"Shh," said Veronica. "You've woken up your brother."

"Sorry," said Jason.

"But we still want to know," continued Stephen.

Veronica turned to her husband: "they're going to find out sooner or later. We may as well tell them."

"Maybe you're right. Do you want to do it?"

"Okay." Turning to her children, who, realizing they were about to get their way, were staring wide-eyed at their mother. Even Benjamin, having missed much of the conversation, was eagerly gazing at his mother. "Your daddy's mommy was named Lynn, and his father is Aaron. Now, you have to understand that Grandpa Aaron wasn't like Grandpa Keith at all."

"What do you mean?" asked Jason.

"Well, your Grandpa Aaron was a very bad man. He treated your Grandma Lynn and your daddy very badly."

"What did he do?" asked Stephen.

"Well, he would beat your Daddy terribly. And I don't just mean spankings. He would beat him with a belt, and sometimes he would burn him, and once he even broke his nose." Benjamin almost began to cry, until Veronica hugged him close and stroked his head softly.

"Did he hurt Grandma Lynn too?" asked Jason.

"Yes, but, not in the same way. He would sometimes…be mushy with other women." Jason and Stephen were not clear on exactly what that meant, but they understood that, as bad as being mushy was in itself, there was something even more wrong with Daddy being mushy with anyone but Mommy.

"So what happened?" asked Stephen.

"Well, eventually Grandma Lynn became so sad because of the way that Grandpa Aaron treated her and Daddy that she killed herself."

"Did Grandpa Aaron go to jail?" asked Jason.

"Not for that. You see, before Grandma Lynn killed herself, someone killed Mommy's best friend."

"Someone killed Uncle Wallace?" Stephen asked in horror.

"No. If someone had killed Uncle Wallace, how could he be alive now, dummy?" answered Jason.

"Jason, don't call your brother dumb, or Mommy won't finish the story and you can have Brussels sprouts instead of lasagna tonight!" shot back Logan.

"Sorry," answered Jason sheepishly.

"Yeah, don't stop the story Mommy," replied Stephen, by way of accepting his older brother's apology.

"Okay, so where was I? Right, no, it wasn't Uncle Wallace; this was before Mommy ever even met Uncle Wallace. Back then, Mommy's best friend was a girl named Lilly. She was your Uncle Duncan's twin sister."

"Uncle Duncan had a sister? Who killed her?" asked Jason.

"Was it Grandpa Aaron?" asked Stephen.

"As a matter of fact, it was, but no one knew it at the time. It took more than a year for Mommy to figure it out, and when she did…." Veronica paused for dramatic effect; her three sons stared at her, their mouths gaping open. "Grandpa Aaron tried to kill her too." At this, Benjamin almost started crying again, and it appeared as if his two brothers might join him.

"W-what happened?" asked Jason.

"Well, your Grandpa Keith got there just in the nick of time and saved Mommy, and beat up Grandpa Aaron."

"Yay!" shouted Stephen.

"I love Grandpa Keith!" said Jason.

"Well good, because he loves you too," answered Veronica. "Anyway, after that, Grandpa Aaron was finally put in prison where he belongs, and he's still there now."

"Good," said Stephen.

"They should put all the bad guys in jail," said Jason.

"Yes they should," responded Logan.

Just then, Consuela came in. "Pardon me, Mrs. Echolls, but dinner is ready."

"Thank you Consuela," replied Veronica. "Come on," she continued as her husband helped her up. "Let's go wash up for dinner."

To be continued….