A quick note: A character from a previous Project: Wagner story shows up at the end of this tale.  If you have not read "Platform 3," I strongly recommend reading that before you read this last bit.

And … here it is!  The end!  It's been a pleasure writing for you all.  I want to give a generalized shout-out to everybody who has read and reviewed this.  You all rock!  Since I'm now posting the last bit of the last story, I will wait a week and see who weighs in.  Then there will be one last chapter of Project: Wagner, with many specific shout-outs, some rambling, and a couple of happy announcements.  Enjoy!

=== I VANT TO DIRECT ===

Part 5: The Legend of Sandy Gulch

Kurt filmed the professor doing his narration, which thankfully presented no problems, and then spent five nights editing, in between playing catch-up with all his other classes.  If he wasn't working with the footage on his computer, he was pacing around his room muttering to himself.  And if he wasn't pacing, he was doing other homework.   

Finally, the Saturday before the due date arrived.  It was six o'clock in the morning.  The rest of the Institute was asleep.  But Kurt had been up all night putting the finishing touches on his film.  He rubbed his tired eyes, scratched his itchy scalp, and suddenly realized that something strange and wonderful had happened to him.  He was exhausted but elated, completely spent but ready to burst with accomplishment. 

This tizzy of work had come on like a fever.  He had never felt this way before in his life.  It was a passion so strong, so all-consuming, that every other reasonable thing had been put aside.  And it was all because this dinky little film, this glorified English paper, had become so … important.

Lacing his six long fingers behind his head, he leaned back in his computer chair and stared thoughtfully at his desktop, where his film was playing out for the fifth straight time.  The thing made sense --- an achievement in itself.  But beyond that, it actually seemed to be palatable.  His heart thudded with excitement.  Dawn broke outside his window.  Just for a brief moment, he was not Kurt Wagner, X-Man.  He was Kurt Wagner, filmmaker.  Someone with ideas.  Master of his own creative destiny.   

What a feeling. 

~ X ~

Monday came all too soon.  Fourth period began.  Ms. Enkler smiled at her class and said the words that some had been dreading for three weeks: "Papers, please."

A whole stack of thick papers were passed to the front of the room.  And then the teacher smiled again and said the words that others had been dreading for three weeks: "Films, please."

Kurt nervously passed his converted VHS tape forward with the rest of the submissions and glanced at his fellow classmates.  They were all wrecks, bleary-eyed from editing too long and twitching from too much caffeine and stress.  The boys had their shirts un-tucked.  A few girls were sporting glasses instead of contacts, and wore no make-up.  Kurt was as exhausted as they were. His inducer had picked up on it that morning and much to his annoyance his computer-generated eyelids refused to rise above half-mast.  He couldn't look surprised today if the Apocalypse came.

"Okay, everybody!  First off, I'm very pleased with you all.  Secondly, as a reward for completing this big project, we're going to have a treat.  Instead of a lecture, we will watch all the films that were turned in!"

All of the students who had written papers cheered.  All of the "directors" blanched.  Their work was going to be put out and judged by their fellow students.  But Ms. Enkler had wisely brought food.  The microwave in the back of the class was quickly put to work nuking bags of popcorn, and she passed out treats --- Jujubes, Junior Mints, licorice, big bags of Mike and Ike and Hot Tamales, and some Snickers bars. ®

Kurt munched popcorn, chewed licorice, and watched the films of his compatriots.  Some were amusing, some were dramatic, some were weird, some were intensely bad, and one seemed to be a toothpaste commercial.  But nobody seemed to care about the quality.  Every film got a round of applause.

"And our last film is by Kurt Wagner," Ms. Enkler said.  "Hit the lights, would you, Suzie?"  The girl nearest the wall switch hit the lights.  The teacher popped in the videotape.  The film began to roll.  Everyone applauded.  They'd been getting increasingly enthusiastic throughout the period.  It was mostly due to the sugar.

Kurt crossed himself.

- X - X - X -

The screen was dark, and suddenly there was a thumping Western drum beat.  A guitar began to play a haunting, sultry melody.  Then the "town" slammed into view and the words "The Legend of Sandy Gulch" appeared on the screen.  After a few seconds, the "H" at the end of Gulch swung and fell off the row, and the music crashed to a halt.  (A few girls giggled.)

The camera panned down to Professor X, sitting on a bench outside the "bank" in his Western wear, with a cowboy hat and gray wig covering his bald head.  He smiled at camera.

"Howdy, you all!  My name is Joe," he said crisply.  (Ms. Enkler stifled a laugh.  She'd met the professor once at a parent-teacher conference and recognized him immediately.)  "And this is my town, Sandy Gulch.  Sleepy little pueblo, isn't it?  Well, it wasn't always this quiet.  When I was young, it was quite an exciting place to live."  English accent aside, the professor was doing quite a respectable job. 

The shot dissolved to the "opening scene" Kurt had filmed.  People were smashing into each other like morons and square dancing on the main drag.  This was interspersed with shots of the saloon, the bank, and The Striped Tabby.  Some twangy, fast music was going in the background, and "Joe" was heard as a voice-over. 

"Yes, we were a happy little town."

The senseless dancing continued.  (The class laughed.)  Jamie popped into shot and waved at the camera.

"That's me, by the way.  But Sandy Gulch was not devoid of problems.  Oh, no.  You see, our peaceful little town was constantly being overrun by …"  (Ms. Enkler was smiling.)

Dramatic music kicked in.  Dun dun DUUUN!

"Bandits!"

And the opening scene burst apart at the entrance of Logan and his band.  People screamed and ran every which way, although the shot mostly followed a frightened young woman in a pink dress, who dashed into the saloon.  It completely missed Evan making his hole.  The shot snapped to the close-up of Logan, who thundered, "Citizens of Sandy Gulch, we've come for whatever you've got!  Yeee HAW!"  He fired off his prop gun into the air.  After menacing the camera some more he turned to face someone out of shot. 

The shot switched to Scott, who was standing outside the saloon in his chaps and hat.  It was just a random bit of footage that Kurt had picked up early during the filming, when Scott was still disgusted with the whole idea of being on camera.  The unsuspecting actor put his hands on his hips and angrily stalked off out of shot.  The two combined shots made it look like his character was walking towards the bandits.

"And our brave sheriff wasn't having a whole lot of luck with them."

The shot switched to the interior of the saloon, with a dust cloud building outside the window.

"He tried giving them a stern talking to, but …"

"aaaaaaaAAAAAAH!"

Scott went crashing through the window and landed out of shot.

"It wasn't very effective."  (The class laughed.  Someone yelled "ah yeeeeh!  Go Sheriff!" in the back.) 

The shot shifted.  Kitty ran onto screen, put her hands on her hips and said, "Lord!  Them bandits must be givin' ya a rough time, huh, sheriff!"  She helped Scott up and they launched into the whole "no guns allowed / here's why / they're going to rip us apart / what the hell are we going to do" scene. 

"What do you think those dumb bandits have come for this time?"

"I don't know.  Maybe our souls."

Kitty looked out the window for a second.  The shot immediately cut to the bandits outside, acting like lunatics and forcing Rahne, Jubilee, and Amara to square dance.  Then it cut back to Kitty, who deadpanned, "Somehow I doubt that."

Kitty and Scott went about their business and the professor's voice over came back.

"But this last assault was taking its toll.  Without any means of defending ourselves, we were out of luck."

Scott perked up.

"That was, of course, until our sheriff had a brilliant idea."

"Miss Tina?"

"Yes, Sheriff?" Kitty asked, coming close to him.

"What would you say to a little trickery to end this bandit disaster?"

Kitty smiled shyly.  "Just so long as it ends and you're still here, I'll be happy," she said, and ran a finger gently down his chest.  "You know that."  (Someone said, 'Whoooo!')

Scott smiled and gently drew Kitty into an embrace.  Then he modestly removed his hat and covered both of their faces for a second.  Kurt edited in the kissing noise.  When he put his hat back on, Kitty's cheeks looked like they were on fire.  (Most of the class was giggling.)

"Why I declare, Sheriff!" she said.  "You go get 'em!"

"Aye ma'am!" Scott replied, and left the saloon in a hurry.  "I'll go round up all the other folks."

The next shot was of all the citizens running around in the town square.  Kurt caught Jubilee, Rahne, and Amara running by with the talcum powder, and most people just milling about talking.  The professor's voice was heard.

"Our sheriff's plan was to scare the bandits away by pretending that our town was haunted.  Thus, the talcum powder.  We were all getting ready to disguise ourselves as ghosts and scare them out of their wits when the sun went down.

Logan and the Bandits came running into view, with the Brotherhood right behind them.  All the townspeople looked shocked and mad.

"Unfortunately, they were early."

Logan snarled.

The shot cut to the Brotherhood, dancing around in their cowboy hats and making faces at the camera.

"They brought reinforcements."

The angle widened to catch the whole crowd, and Scott's voice came through loud and clear.

"Oh, that's IT!" he yelled.

"But we had solid leadership.  And lots of fruit."

The food fight began.  It was crazy, loud, and violently colorful.  The reds of apple slices, the yellows of pineapple chunks and the purples of grapes, caught between the swirling skirts of the women and the brown, solid tones of the men's clothing made quite a tableau.  Kurt got several excellent shots of people on both sides taking fruit in the face, and one shot of Evan doing his He-Man impression.  He got the Jamie falling off the balcony.  He did not catch Scott charging up, thankfully, but he caught Lance's reaction.

"Retreat!" the would-be scene-wrecker yelled.  The Bandits made a hasty exit. 

He caught the exhaustion and relief, and finally the celebration.  Scott was held up on the shoulders of about five people and triumphant music started to play in the background.

"The day was saved!  The Bandits, terrified of our willpower and considerable stash of Vitamin C, never returned again."

The music continued to play over a shot of Scott kneeling on the floor and smiling up at camera, which flowed seamlessly into a mistake --- an outtake of Kitty being dramatic and holding her hands over her mouth in shock.

"The Sheriff proposed to Miss Tina…"

The next shot was of Scott and Kitty walking off hand in hand, sillhouetted in the dwindling daylight.  Some people went running into shot waving handkerchiefs as though saying goodbye.  It had come out quite well. 

"And they rode … well, walked … off into the sunset."

The shot dissolved back to "Joe," sitting on his bench. 

"As for the rest of us, we rebuilt our lives and our town.  And that, my friends, is the Legend of Sandy Gulch."

The screen went to black and the same sultry Western tune began to play.  "THE END" showed up in big white letters and some simple credits began to roll.

- X - X - X -

The class went nuts.  Ms. Enkler took out the tape and beamed briefly at Kurt.  And sugar had nothing to do with it.  The bell rang, signaling the end of fourth period.  It was time for lunch.  The lights went up and the students, relieved of their burdens, packed up their things and their movie treats and left, still laughing about Kurt's film.   

Kurt was the last one out.  He was about to walk out the door when there was a sudden pressure on his shoulder.  He froze in fear and turned around, only to see it was just Ms. Enkler's hand.  Fortunately, she'd only touched his shirt.

"Hold up, there, Coppola," she said, with a smile.  "I need to talk to you."

Kurt was bewildered.  Usually when teachers wanted to talk to him, it was about him doing something stupid.  He followed his teacher over to her desk.  She sat down with a grunt and stared off into space for a moment, as if she were trying to figure out what to say.  Then she looked up and regarded him.

"Congratulations, kid," she said finally.  "That's a big fat A, right there.  Great job."

Kurt couldn't think of anything to say, so he just smiled.  

"I want to ask you something.  Every year at the end of June, all the art-focused high schools in upstate New York have a small student film festival called In The Know.  And I was wondering … would you allow me to submit your work?"

Kurt was stunned.  His induced eyelids defied their computer program and went up all the way.

~ X ~

The summer sun beat down on the fields of Ersterweizen, half-swollen with barley and tiny berries.  It was the beginning of July, approaching the peak of the growing season.  Elsa Wagner swiped a hand across her sweaty forehead and wandered through her slightly dusty, comfortable house.  Her husband Gustav was taking a nap in the living room before going out to work again, and if she spent one more second with a thimble on her thumb stitching together her new winter quilt, she would go nuts.  She heard the clack of letters falling through the slot on the door and went to retrieve them.  Kurt had been out of school for a few days and would be coming home in a week to spend the summer, but she was expecting a letter from him and Heinrich, in his usual fashion, was late with the post.  Instead of delivering early in the morning before the sun came out, the fool had slept in until noon and was just getting started. 

So by the time Elsa got to the door and opened it, their ersatz mailman was already on his way, hurrying down the road to make up for lost time.  She wanted to invite him in for some lemonade, but thought better of it.  Whenever Heinrich sat down to chat he tended to complain, and he was very difficult to get rid of.  "Could I have some more lemonade, Elsa?  How about some more of those cookies?"

She bent down and picked up the piles of letters.  There were two bills, a letter from Gustav's mother, who Kurt called "Nana," and a letter from Kurt.

Putting the other letters aside, she sat down to read her son's.  The envelope was heavy, for some reason.  She pulled out the letter and grinned at the unruly scrawl.

Dear Mamma,

Remember when I told you about making that film in English class, with all of my friends at the Institute?  Well, the teacher, Ms. Enkler, entered it in a contest, and look!  I want you to have these, because I'm afraid I'll lose them.  The article is in English, but I translated on the back.  I can't wait to come home and see you and Vati.

I love you,

Kurt

Elsa emptied the envelope onto the table.  Out tumbled a pair of medals spray painted to look like gold, a photograph, and a bit of newsprint.

"Oh, my!"

The medals said something in English that she didn't understand.  The photo made sense, though.  It was a wide shot of Kurt and most everyone else from the Institute, hanging out on the back lawn.  It looked as though they were in the midst of a big party.  By the date on the back, they were probably celebrating the end of school.  Everyone was holding glasses of punch and toasting the camera.  Kurt had one arm draped around Kitty, who was laughing.  Elsa smiled.  Kurt had made some great friends in America.

The article was short.  It was a blurb from The Bayville News.  She flipped the clipping over to read what her son had translated into German:

June 31, Ridgemont.  The winners of the In The Know film contest were announced today at a spectacular reception in the grand ballroom of the House on the Green country club.  Taking first place was John Beaumann, a senior at the prestigious Ridge Point High School for the Arts, for his film "Ride."  Taking second place was Natalie Shrubb, a senior at Fillmore Girls Academy, noted for its film program, with "The Joys of Being Irene."  And a surprising third place was awarded to young Kurt Wagner, a junior at Bayville High School, with his film "The Legend of Sandy Gulch," which also won for Best Comedy.

Elsa sat there for a long time playing with the two medals while she stared at her son's translation.  She had a quilt to make and a husband to inform, but for the moment she was too pleased to move and too proud to think straight.

THE END

~ X ~

I hope you liked this.  I certainly had fun writing it!  Please review and let me know what you thought.  I'll be back in a week with shout-outs, comments, explanations, announcements, etc.  :)

Kiki