Authors Note: FINALLY! I've been so pumped to finally finish writing this. College work has been absolutely taking me out, so I'm super happy that you guys stuck with me :)
Also: little side note. You guys need to have an account set up in order for authors to answer your questions! I had someone ask me something and I wasn't able to answer them because it's labeled as a "guest" account. But I'm gonna answer it here!
Someone had asked me why Jessica keeps looking around in "random places" and I'd like to explain that she did that because she didn't want to look at him.
She wakes Roger up early in the morning because she's worried about something, and it gives her a nightmare, so she wakes him up. When he goes to look at the alarm clock, she looks away because she knows he will ask her, and she wasn't ready to talk about it. She also does this when she lies.
I'd also like to know, that Roger picks up on this, but he doesn't say anything to give her time to process things.
Anyways, Onward!
I sit at the kitchen table with my head down as I try to catch my breath and put my thumb up when Jess asks me if I'm okay.
I've never ran so fast in my life.
"Why do you insist on trying so hard, honey? You already know you're faster than me." she says
We both hate making breakfast in the morning. Neither of us are morning people, we're both absolute grumps. It always ends up with one of us telling the other how to do something, or getting angry when something isn't cooking the way we want. So, we made it a point to get some fun out of it. Not only does racing to the kitchen wake us up, it creates a game. Whoever wins doesn't have to make breakfast, and is forced to sit down at the table so we don't get in each other's way and end up fighting. But it doesn't really matter if it happens or not, we still get to eat breakfast together when I'm not working super early. Also, we're pretty good at communicating with each other, so the anger usually only lasts about five minutes if it does happen.
"What are you talking about? You've beaten me a couple of times." I call over to her, knowing exactly what she's gonna say next.
"Yeah, when you'd let me win."
Annnd there it is.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I joke, but I want to see where this'll go.
She pokes her head out from the kitchen.
"The day of my audition a while back?" She recalls sadly, as she appears around the corner with a big steaming plate of pancakes.
"Oh yeah," I pick up my fork to stab one and toss it on my plate. "Those guys were the worst." I shot my first movie at the beginning of 1936. Maroon was so pissed that I had to put my slapstick days on hold for a year to fly out to Michigan, but it was time to finally spread out for a bit. One of the guys I met before I moved out to California was doing a short film and asked me if I wanted to be a part of it, of course I said yes. It was the coolest thing I've ever done. At that time, Jessica was still trying to find her footing as a performer as well so she decided to try for this play that she was interested in while we were out there. It did not go well to say the least.
She immediately continues the conversation and sits down at the table across from me. I'm already cutting up my pancake when she does and I feel a bit guilty for starting without her, but I know she'd never bat an eyelash. She continues.
"So then you offered to take me to that new restaurant."
I'm shoving pancakes in my face, but I look up at her. Luckily I remember to swallow this time before I try to talk, I can't die from it obviously, but choking is not exactly fun.
"Yeah, Buddy's!" I smiled, and I asked "Do you remember the joke I told you?"
I watch as she thinks for a moment, then she grins. "Something like, 'Gee I wonder if the owners are friends!'"
I nod. "I can't believe you remember that."
"It was funny." she says, and then we both look up at each other and say,
"But stupid." and crack up laughing.
We calm down a bit, and then she continues.
"It was raining that day," I stop to look at her.
"So when we were walking out you decided to race me to the car. But halfway there you," she uses her fingers as quotation marks "'tripped' and fell face first into this huge puddle." she says, chuckling. "I made it to the car and turned around to see you covered in mud.
"Okay, you got me. I might have let you win." I say, pushing the cut up pancake on my plate around with my fork, then I look up at her.
Gosh she's so pretty.
After a moment, she realizes I am, and does the same. I tell her, "I'd fall in a thousand puddles if it kept you smiling like that."
"I needed it that day." She nods.
We both finish without another word. But in between those few minutes I remember something else. I knew I was forgetting something. I'm always forgetting something.
I grab my plate and her's and put them in the sink, then I quickly walk down to our bedroom to grab my wallet. I'm looking for a few minutes, when I spot it on the dresser, right near the door. I must've walked by it over twelve times, if it had teeth it would've jumped out and bit me.
Good thing it's made for humans.
I walk back down the hall, and I'm climbing up the stairs when I trip. The wallet falls open a couple steps down from where I end up, so I lean down to grab it. Then I see it.
There's three pictures inside: One from our wedding, one from our honeymoon, and one from that day at Buddy's. I never really noticed it until now, but I thought it was kinda sweet that this picture out of the millions we have is the one I decided to put in here. So I walk back up the stairs to show her, and she's still sitting at the table.
She does this thing whenever she's deep in thought, just kinda stares off into space, completely unaware of the world around her. Right now, she's picked a spot at the table.
Whether her reasoning for this is due to a specific emotion, I don't know, she seems to do it all the time in any type of situation. I walk over to her, tap her on the shoulder, and she looks right up at me. I show her the wallet, and she just looks at it all confused.
"Open it." I say as she takes it, and does so. She immediately beams, and as she's scanning the pictures, she sees it and points.
"Wow, you still have this?"
I nod. "I put those in when you first bought the wallet for me, because it was a bit obvious that they would have to be the first." I say, pointing to the first two. "But it took me a while to pick this one because we have a million different pictures, so it was hard to choose. Then, I realized that it's kind of a good representation of us. Not only is it a great picture, but it was a bad day that was fixed because we were together. So now, I can look at this and remember that I have you."
She turns to me. "I seem to recall there was a bit more significance to that day."
Is she mad at me?
It's okay if you don't remember, you will at some point. Just pretend like you do.
But I don't want to lie.
You just can't remember right now. She's not even going to ask you directly, she probably already knows. If she does ask you, then you can be honest. I promise it'll come back to you.
Alright.
"I know. I remember." I say
Liar.
Shut up.
She stands up and fixes my outfit. There's always something out of place. "Good, just wanted to make sure."
What are you talking about woman?! Why can't I remember?!
She gestures towards the clock on the wall. "You'd better get going, it's almost 8."
I look over, she's right. She bends down, and I see it, but my panic overwhelms me for a second. "Jeepers, I gotta go!"
As I go to head towards the door, she puts her hand on my shoulder. "Are you forgetting something, honey?" I turn back around. "...no?"
Jessica cocks her head to the side and frowns a bit.
Wrong answer.
What does she mean?
Calm down.
I am calm.
Then why is your heart beating so fast?
I don't know, stop nagging and help me!
Look at her, what is she doing?
Bending down?
…
SHES BENDING DOWN!
STOP. FREAKING. OUT.
OKAY.
KISS HER!
OKAY!
*SLAM*
Fail. I just end up head butting her, and we both sprawl out on the floor. We both sit up.
"Well, close enough." Jessica says, pointing at the birds above my head. I groan, and slump over between my legs, holding my head. I see her shadow move, and her leg kick towards me as she stands up. She clears her throat as if to say, "Hey look at me." so I do.
Her hand reaches down towards me. I shake off the birds and take her hand, she pulls me up easily. I mean, I weigh just about nothing. It's not just about strength though, she's just used to picking me up off the floor. I mean not that she's not strong, just because she doesn't do what I do doesn't mean-
She's kissing you.
Oh.
You blew it.
I know.
Just as I'm about to close mine, she opens her eyes.
"Did you have your eyes open the entire time?"
I nod, I'm not looking at her now.
"Spacing out?"
I nod again. She cups her hand around my face so that I look up at her. "It's alright, it was out of your control." she tells me, and lets go. "Okay, now you need to go." I have my hand on the doorknob, when she calls out to me.
"Roger!" I flip around.
Did she just call me by my first name?
What's going on with her lately?
It's like I'm a stranger.
"I'm working late tonight, so you might not see me."
"No worries, I am too." I reassure her, and smile before I walk out.
Weird.
On my way to work I am greeted by everyone. Including one of the houses on my street.
No, that is not a joke. His name is Billy and everything.
"Mornin', Roger!" He says.
I spin around and wave. "Hiya, Billy! How's the family?"
"The wifes doing great! She says hi by the way."
His wife is a bulldozer who usually leaves for work early to the construction site. Again, don't think about it too much.
"Aww!" I say smiling like an idiot and blushing.
I love his wife, she's so nice.
"As for the kids, they're pretty good as far as I know." He says sort of sadly.
Yes, he has kids. Don't think about it too much.
"Whaddya mean?"
It's "convenient" to remember after I asked that question that Billy tends to go off on tangents, and that's saying something coming from me. He's an old guy and he's alone with his wife now that his kids are grown up, and he rarely sees her too. It's not his fault, but I find myself having a lot of trouble paying attention to his stories cuz they never really seem to have an end. So usually I try to come up with an excuse to get out of talking to him. I feel bad for admitting it, but it's true.
"Well I haven't seen much of my kids lately, I'm not sure they want us around now that they've moved on, y'know? We've been giving them space to go and live their lives like they wanted, but I don't want them to think we don't care about them anymore."
Wow, I'm a jerk.
"Billy, I'm sure they know you guys care about them, it's not a bad thing for them to want some space. All that means is when you do see them again, you'll have lots more to talk about since there'll be so much to catch up on!"
He smiles. "Thanks, kid. That means a lot."
I smile back. "Anytime. Have a good one, okay pal?" I say as I wave.
"You too!"
I look behind me to the clock tower that reads 8:23.
7 minutes…
7 MINUTES.
I book it down the street, calling out "Sorry!" to anyone I bump into. I see the billboard for the studio and make it up the stairs. I turn around to see the tower again.
8:34…..
I'm late.
My hand goes to the doorknob, and just as I'm about to turn it, the door swings open and smashes me in the face.
"Where is that kid?" A toon donning only a diaper and a cigar in his mouth, Baby Herman stands at a staggering 3 feet tall. He has the physique of a baby, including the bow holding his one tuft of hair up, but in every other respect he is anything but. He peaks behind the door where I am.
"What the hell are you doing?" He asks me.
"Oh, you know, just admiring this door. With my face. What does it look like, Herman?" I retort back, making it clear that I am not in the mood.
"You are so weird. Hurry up and get your ass in here, Raoul is not happy."
"What else is new?"
Once I clock in and get an earful from my boss, Raoul, we finally go through the motions and start on the next cartoon we're working on. I get my script, which is only a few lines for the parts we're filming today, so it's easy for me to quickly memorize and get the ball rolling. Normally, we do need to get them early so that we can just go memorize for a couple of days, but this time the main focus is getting the stunts correctly and safely. Raoul goes over the blocking and explains the precautions we have to take since the entire crew is human, and things could go really bad really quickly. I'm noticing that I'm tense right away, which is not good. Once you realize it, that's all you think about.
The first couple of takes, Herman messes up first, but it's very rare that anyone gets it on the first try. I remember when I first started, I did end up getting everything right on the first try, and Raoul just sat there with his mouth open. Herman was sooo mad.
It was awesome.
Anyways, after those first couple of takes, things start going downhill.
The worst part is that this scene is the easiest, and I'm completely failing.
One after another.
In between each take I'm thinking about what I messed up on and not focusing on what I need to be doing.
This continues until I'm told there's no room to edit since it needs to be done today.
He agrees to one more take.
I run into the kitchen.
I slip on the rolling pin.
The pot falls on my head.
I get rolled into the oven.
I race around the walls.
I slip on the soap.
I get launched towards the outlet.
I get electrocuted and bang my head against the wall.
The crack forms.
Everything falls on my head
Hot sauce.
Ironing board.
Knives.
Plunger.
Vacuum.
I fly around the room.
I pick up the fridge.
I grab Baby Herman.
Yes!
I look up.
I look to the camera.
It falls.
YESSS!
The door opens.
…..Birds.
NO!
"CUT!" I hear Raoul call out.
Someone says, "Alright, that's the shot!"
"Cut, cut, cut, cut, CUT!" Raoul stomps over and slams the script down in front of me.
I see Herman get up out of the corner of my eye. "What the hell was wrong with THAT take?!"
Did he just defend me? That's a new one.
Raoul immediately turns to him and starts kissing butt. I'm beginning to wonder who's in charge, Herman has always had him wrapped around his finger.
"Nothing with you Baby Herman, you were great, you were perfect, you were better than perfect!" Oh give me a break. "It's Roger, he keeps BLOWING HIS LINES."
See what I have to deal with? I nail everything else, and this is what they yell at me for? A couple of birds? But did anyone notice that Baby Herman nearly drowned himself when he slipped while crossing the sink? No, of course not, because he recovered from it easily and they think everything he does is amazing no matter what. I hide in my arms, but he turns to me anyway. Raoul grabs a bird from above my head. "Roger, what's this?"
"A tweeting bird?" I say with a smile, trying to hide my terror.
I'm dead...I'm so very dead.
He mocks me and then throws the tiny thing to the ground. I watch wide eyed as the poor thing skitters away.
Gosh, I wish I could right now.
"Roger, read the script, look what it says." I look with him. "It says, 'Rabbit takes clunk, Rabbit sees stars. Not birds, STARS."
Baby Herman looks like he's about to explode.
Raoul calls out behind him. "Can we lose the playback please?!"
The music stops and someone calls out, "Cut the playback!"
He turns back to me, "Roger, you're killing me. Killing me!" and he walks back to his chair to complain to someone else. Baby Herman turns to yell at me.
"For crying out loud, Roger! How the hell many times do we have to do this damn scene?!" He turns to walk off, "Raoul! I'll be in my trailer, taking a nap!" and walks right under the lady that plays Mama Dearest. She screams, and I hear him excuse himself as I attempt to grab at the rest of the birds flying over my head. Raoul walks back on set.
"My stomach can't take this, this set is a mess. Clean this set up!" Two men come over to help. He gestures to me. "And get him out of there, or seal him up in it. Lose the lights," He gestures to the assistant. "And say 'lunch'!"
The man calls it.
"That's lunch, we're on a half!" The bell rings, and I climb out of the fridge after him. I hate how panicked I sound.
"Please, Raoul! I can give you stars!" I dodge the cords under my feet, and reach out to grab his coat. "Just drop the refrigerator on my head one more time!"
He turns around to face me. "Roger, I dropped that on your head 23 times already!" I glance behind nervously, as he goes to walk away.
23 times?
I walk back up to him and grab his coat again. "I can take it! Don't worry about me!" I reassure him.
"I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about the refrigerator!" He says and yanks his coat back again, walking into his trailer.
I grab a frying pan from the prop box, at this point I'm absolutely desperate. "I can give ya stars, look!" I hit my head. Nope. "Look!" Nope. He disappears into his trailer. "Look!"
Nope, nope, nope.
At this point I'm panicking. "Please, Raoul! I can do it, I swear!"
"No, Roger." He says, sitting at his desk.
"Well, come on, Raoul! Look Raoul, watch Raoul! Please, ya gotta give me another chance!"
He rubs his temples.
"Come on, Raoul!" He slams his fists on the desk and I jump.
"STOP IT!" He yells, "God, I swear you toons are gonna drive me up the goddamn wall one day!"
He spins in his chair to me and his face is beat red. I'm shaking like a leaf. He meets my gaze and softens a bit.
"Sorry." He breathes out. "I didn't mean to scare you." He motions to the chair behind me. "Sit down." I take a seat.
"Look. I know that you're working hard and you're trying your best, but you can't keep asking for all these chances. Each take costs a certain amount of money and right now we're 25 grand over budget, do you realize how much that is?"
"A lot." I answer.
"Exactly. I get that you're stressed, kid, trust me I do. But you can't keep using that as an excuse every single time. It gets old, and all of us know that you're better than that."
I nod. "I just don't know what to do about this, but I'm trying, honest!" I say.
"Look, I hate to say this, but I'm gonna have to talk to Maroon about this." My eyes go wide and my mouth drops open. He puts his hand up to stop me from interrupting and reassures me. "I'll try to put in as good of a word as I possibly can, but I can't promise it'll end well. He needs to know what's going on, or we can't help you and this scene will continue to go nowhere. Okay?"
"Okay." I say and walk towards the door. "Hey," he calls after me, I turn around. "If it helps, you've got talent. I wouldn't worry about finding a new place if that's the direction he chooses to go in."
My heart drops down to my stomach. A new place? "That doesn't help." I say honestly, and shut the door behind me. As soon as it's shut, I turn to see Baby Herman sitting in his director's chair.
"So, what happened?" He asks. I raise an eyebrow and walk towards my trailer.
"I don't see why that's your business." I fire back.
"Geez, what's got your overalls in a bunch? I'm just kidding."
I resist the urge not to let loose on him, and roll my eyes. "Why do you feel the need to antagonize me now, you know why, I told you." I continue to walk away, he follows me.
He thinks about it for a second, then he says, "You're still going on about that thing in the paper?"
"What do you mean, still? She's my wife."
"Yeah, and? You have a job to keep, and whining about it is not going to change anything." I have my hand over the door knob when he says,
"It's not like we didn't all see it coming."
I see red, and I spin around. I grab his arm, and pull him out of the way. All the while he's yelling at me. "OW! Roger, let me go!" I finally let him go.
"You are so lucky I didn't just sock you right there."
"Pfft. There's no way you ever would."
"Try me."
He gets up in my face. "I'm not afraid of you." Then he smiles. "You know, we're not all that different."
I laugh. "You're insane!"
"No, I'm really not." He's serious. I stop laughing. "You try to act tough when it counts but your outside shows it all. You're just a scared little baby."
I drop my gaze, he's right.
"You can't seriously look at everyone and say that you didn't even have a thought that something like this would happen.
"What do you know about Jessica? She's not like that, and it's not her fault that all anyone can see is what she looks like. And besides, they haven't even proved anything. It's just a stupid rumor someone put in the paper."
"Open your eyes kid!" He yells, some people look over, he drops down to a whisper. "I'm only being hard on you because I don't want to see you get hurt!" he sighs. "I care about you, okay?"
For a second I almost believe him. "Well, you have a bad way of showing it." I walk past him and inside.
I sit down at my desk, ready to get some memorizing done. I read through my next script which this time is thirty pages long.
Whoopee…
Sometimes the crew takes a long time to get prepared for the next scene because they're going over things with the director, or equipment broke, things like that. When that happens, you have to stay back to make sure that they don't need you for anything, and most of the time they dont. So you have 8-10 hour work days and half the time all you do is nothing. After a while of working, I look at the clock, half expecting twenty minutes to have gone by. But it's been 2 hours. Whoa.
I hear the door knock and I jump a little bit, it's been so quiet.
"Yeah?" I call out.
"It's Daisy, Mr. Rabbit."
Daisy is a younger woman with short curly hair. She's always dressed nicely, and super sweet. Herman says its part of her job, but I've always liked to think that that's just how she is.
She also happens to be Maroon's secretary. Gulp.
"It's open!" I say after a minute, and she opens the door.
"Hi, honey, how are you?" She asks.
"I'm okay."
She smiles and then says. "Mr. Maroon would like to see you, he says it will only take a minute, and then you guys are all set to go home, okay?"
"Okay. I'll be out in a minute."
She smiles and closes the door.
I am so fired.