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"The optimists are incapable of understanding what it means to adore the impossible." - Orson Welles

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Jade laid on the bed closest to the window while her dad was passed out on the other one. He had been to 2 job interviews and filled applications to about a dozen other places. No call backs.

She stared out through the cheap, shabby curtains to the night sky. Jade liked cloudy days but preferred the way the sky looked at night. Grey tufts of clouds, looking like smoke and the sky behind them was a deep purplish brown. No stars visible past the artificial lights of L.A. below but the moon was out. Ever since she was very little Jade enjoyed tracking the moon. If you focused hard enough on it, the rock looked like it was moving and not the clouds in the opposite direction.

It took her mind off things for a while.

Jade laid out the scenario in her head. Not every movie was made the same way but they had common traits. The two biggest things were money and people.

I'm broke and alone.

Fuck.

A review for a movie from one of those critic books she had stuck in her mind. In said that when perhaps the reason this particular movie didn't work was that the director was blind to his lack of talent. His insistence that he was meant to do something was so strong he believed it. He ignored everyone else and went on his gut. And his career fizzled and was never revived.

Jade really started thinking about this. Could she have been wrong? Was an encyclopedic fascination mistaken for ambition? Was she really equipped to become a great filmmaker or was she fooling herself? Clearly the odds were stacked against her.

Maybe she was one of the millions who leave a theatre thinking I can make a better one and never follow through.

Sticking out of her backpack Jade noticed a book she surprisingly hadn't read before. It was a movie book her Nana gave her shortly before she passed. It was about independent film. She shrugged and laid back down to read it by the meager lamplight.

Jade was absolutely inspired. She read a chapter about how Kevin Smith funded his first movie for $27,000 through loans and credit cards. She then read about how Robert Rodriguez got the money to help make El Mariachi by selling his body to science in the form of testing out pharmaceuticals. And before Roger& Me was picked up for distribution by Warner Bros. Michael Moore raised the money for his documentary by having basement bingo games.

The book was filled with creative ways about how these nobodies with no formal education or connections managed to get their films made and some of them were sold to major studios. But the important thing is that they were made. These directors had an itch to make a movie and they didn't give up.

Jade decided then and there that neither was she. It wasn't going to happen tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next day. But sometime down the line she will make it. She can't think of how yet but maybe that's the fun of it. After all, it helps to look forward to something.

Life was certainly not going to get any easier.

Jade was woken up with the sound of metallic clicking sounds. She looked at the door and saw that someone was trying to get in. Her dad had already left for another job interview so she was by herself. Jade, lost for a weapon, unplugged the alarm clock and wrapped the cord around her arm. The clock dangled like a medieval mace.

She held it up high and opened the door with her free hand. Jade screams like a madwoman and is startled by a redheaded girl screaming right back at her.

"Who the hell are you?" Jade pressed.

"Cat." She tried to look past Jade. "Why are you in my room?"

Jade looked at the door and back at the very confused girl. "This isn't your room."

"Oh, my god, that must be why my key doesn't work."

Is this girl for real?

"Sorry if I woke you and scared you," she said cheerily. "Bye."

Jade leans her head outside, watching the bubbly fiery-haired girl skipping down to the next cabin.

"Okay," Jade said to herself. "That was my daily dose of weird this morning."

Jade watched TV into the afternoon. She was achingly bored. Checking the time on her phone again, she wondered what was keeping her father.

A knock at the door made Jade mute the TV and walk toward it.

"Who is it?" she yelled, not ready to open it yet.

"It's Cat."

"Who?"

"You know, from this morning…"

What the hell?

"Hang on," Jade responded while unlocking the door.

The petite girl was still wearing that goofy grin.

"Hey…I didn't get your name."

"Jade."

"Hey, Jade! It's a nice name."

"Thanks…Cat, right?"

She nods.

"So," Jade began.

"So," Cat parroted.

"Why did you come over here?"

"Oh, right! I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out."

Jade squinted her eyes. "Why?"

"I'm bored," she sighed. "I didn't see anyone else around here my age except for you." Her happy face began to melt. "But you're probably busy…"

"You know what?" Jade looked around, searching for her own sanity. "I'm bored, too. What'd you have in mind?"

Cat took Jade to a new mall. It was all indoors like the larger ones but this one was very tiny. It had only twenty stores in it. There was an arcade, a music store, eight clothing stores, a pet store, a phone store, a bookstore, and even a pharmacy. The rest of the units were closed off, either under construction or haven't been rented yet.

"So," Cat asked after finding Jade in the promenade. she hands her one of the ice creams she was holding. "You on vacation?"

"Huh?"

"The motel; you on vacation here?"

Jade looked down at the floor. "Uh…no. My dad and I are kinda in between houses right now."

"Oh," Cat simply responded and started diligently eating her ice cream.

"And what about you?"

"Well, my brother brought home an ant farm." She licked her frozen treat. "But they weren't ants."

"What were they?"

"I dunno," Cat shrugged. "All I know is that they were poisonous and all over the house so they had to spray it."

"Mm-hmm. So how much longer you have to stay away?"

"My mom says we can move back in at the end of the week. You should totally come over!"

"I might do that," Jade lied. She had no idea where she was going to end up but she figured to let the redhead think she made a friend. Hell, the space case was kind of growing on her.

They actually had a decent time, mostly window-shopping. Jade was actually happy for a change, at least for a little while. She frowned when Cat walked her back to her door and her dad's car still wasn't there.

What is going on?

"Excuse me, Miss?"

Jade turned around and saw the motel manager walking up the way.

"I noticed you were entering this room. We've been trying to call it all day."

"I was out," Jade said softly. "What's this about?"

"Mr. West, the man who rented this cabin, he is relation to you right?"

"Yeah," Jade dragged out the word, stating the obvious. "He's my father. Why?"

"You might want to come with me."

Cat grabbed Jade's arm. "I'll go with you."

"Alright," Jade said. She figured it was probably a good idea to have company. She turned back to the manager. "Is he okay?"

"Something happened," he gravely stated. "Let's talk in my office where it's private."