PART FOUR

The wood gate to the family backyard opened up and two girls came skipping inside excitedly. Ruby was carrying a tin coffee can with a plastic lid with a hole cut into it for the money that had been stuffed into it. Gracie had the plastic milk jug her father had thrown out in the trash. With her brother Kyle at her side, she had stood outside the corner market asking for donations to the needy except she had told no one that she was the needy. Gracie had told the same story door to door as she went through the neighborhood. Her eyes glinted with excitement and her hand gripped her can tightly to keep from dropping it under the weight of the coins in it. Ruby's plastic jug had to be so much heavier than she had done.

"We did so good today!" Ruby beamed as she lifted the money-filled jug to the top of the patio table.

"Yeah," Gracie remained a partnership with her sister. "I bet we clearly made well over a million dollars!"

"Yeah!" Kyle just wanted to be a part of their camaraderie.

"Okay," Ruby remained in charge. "Tomorrow, we hit the other part of town and I stand in front of the market. Kyle, do you remember the story we taught you?"

"My mommy lost her job…" Kyle pretended to be sad and upset. "And our daddy is in the hospital…. How's that!" He pepped up over his performance.

"Perfect!"

"Kids, where have you been?" Their mother appeared at the back door. "Get in here and wash up for dinner."

"How are you feeling, mommy?" Kyle reacted as one of his sisters quickly jerked him into the house and up the back stairs from the kitchen. Cheryl's heart went out to her little bundles of joy and turned to the vegetables boiling on the stove.

"What are we eating tonight, mommy?" Ruby called from the bathroom at the top of the stairs.

"I got liver and Brussels sprouts." Cheryl was happy at the way her dinner was coming, but her kids screamed out in distaste to that forbidden combination. Recalling her own childhood, she just ignored their juvenile tastes and carried her mashed potatoes out to place on the dinner table. Jim was actually fretting over the dinner arrangements by placing his would-be client as close to him and as far away from Dana as possible.

"Jim…" She mused romantically over this new aspect of her partner. "You are really nervous over this client. They must a big deal."

"Sure is." Jim checked the place mats and evened them all with the table. "This job could land me all sorts of contracts."

"You didn't call the number in the paper, did you?" She checked again.

"Cheryl…" Andy strolled over in his best white shirt and filled up on the deviled eggs laid out as hors deurves for the guest. "You have to believe Jim this time. He didn't call anyone this time."

"It's true." Jim appeared solemn. "I didn't call the number." He stood still as his wife looked him over for that same glint he had every time he had deceived her. She perused his expression, scrutinized his appearance and tried to mentally read his thoughts. For once, he seemed genuine.

"Okay, Jim," She kissed him. "I believe you. It's just that sometimes, you know…" Her husband just chuckled over her distrust of him. Sometimes, he did do as she wished, but she failed to realize that there was always a way around those whims. This time, he didn't have to go through the loophole. He was in the clear!

"I believe you." Cheryl beamed and backed into the kitchen for the rolls to go with dinner. His voice chuckling, Jim just turned into the living room with Andy. Dana was attired in her best informal attire. It was a form-fitting white sweater and black pleated skirt that hung down over her knees. She wanted to appear virginal and chaste, but her hair was styled to suggest unbridled wanton availability.

"So, Jim," She finished off her second deviled egg. "Is this guy cute? Single? Straight? Give me something here."

"Well," Jim adjusted the deviled eggs to a pattern to conceal the missing ones. "He just happens to be very up in the movie-making business. His name is James Danvers and…"

There was a crash in the kitchen as Cheryl felt a disturbance in space-time around and she came running out to face her husband in shock. Her face was white, her eyes widened in fear and her expression awash in fear. Her lips were turning pale while her jaw dropped, but her hands also curled into fists. Dana also became afraid for Cheryl, but her look was nowhere as stunned as her sister's.

"You lied!" Cheryl started pounding her husband's chest. "You called the number!"

"No, I didn't!" Her six-foot-three husband re-established her faith in him by holding her thin wrists from hitting him. "He came to me. He hired me to construct sets for his movie!"

"It's true, Cheryl." Andy was still eating deviled eggs. "He was at the site and everything. He even took one of my doughnuts."

"No, no, no, no…" The beautiful blonde wife and mother turned to hide in the kitchen.

"What's the big deal?" Jim wanted answers.

"Jim, she knows him!" Dana filled in the answers. "They used to date. She's been avoiding him for years."

The truth hit Jim with a mild blow to his heart. Feeling like a bit idiot, he also knew it wasn't his fault. Sighing and rolling his eyes, he realized what he had to do and pressed his way through the swinging door to the kitchen. Sitting at the breakfast table in her blue blouse and violet pants, she was faintly turning over the salad in the bowl on the table. At the sight of her idiot husband, she stood to avoid him and braced for strength at the sink.

"Why didn't you tell me from the start you knew Jimmy?" He asked.

"I was embarrassed." She spoke just under her breath. "I once loved him. I wanted to forget he ever existed."

"Did he ever hurt you?"

"No, I mean, he broke my heart, but he never hurt me." She shifted her weight defeatedly onto her left leg. "We were as close as I am now with you, but he wanted me to give up too much for him. I starred in one of his amateur films, and he tried to get me to skip college to live with him in Los Angeles. We ended things with a bad fight." She looked up to her spouse demurely crestfallen.

"I guess watching him become successful was a bit short of the revenge you wished on him." Jim guessed. "What sort of movie did you do with him?"

"Oh, just some stupid monster movie…." She incoherently mumbled the name of it embarrassingly under her breath.

"I didn't get that." Jim tilted his ears to her crumbling voice. "What was that again?"

"Attack of the…." Cheryl mumbled again.

"What? What?"

"Attack of the Fifty-Foot Cheerleaders!" Cheryl spoke up embarrassed. "He asked me to wear this skimpy little rag and to rip up all these little buildings and cars! I did it for him because I thought he loved me and that we'd be together forever, but instead he used me for his sick fantasy and vanished forever."

"So what ever happened to this movie?"

"Jim!" She heard activity out the corner of her ear. Peeking from the kitchen, she looked out the kitchen door and saw Andy letting James Danvers into the house. Clad in a dark shirt with a dark blue tie and black pants, he recognized Andy and asked about his hosts. Dana immediately started hitting on him romantically before draping her self over his side to practice being his wife.

"You know, Cheryl…" Jim thought it over. "Chances are… he doesn't even remember you."

"You think?"

"Come on…" He scoffed at the idea. "Who looks the same way they did in high school? That's a long time ago!"

"Yeah!" Cheryl perked up emotionally and grabbed the salad and bowl of rolls. Leading the way, Jim blocked her view of Danvers for the minute and looked to the empty hors d'oeuvre tray then shot a look at Andy finishing off the last deviled egg.

"Hey, Jimmy, you made it." He shook Danvers hand. "You met my in-laws."

"Yeah," Jimmy Danvers looked round the room. "It's a very nice place, Jim. Very nice, a lot nicer than a lot of movie sets I've used."

"So would you like to use it in your movie?" Jim saw a moment.

"Maybe, just maybe…"

"And this is the little lady who created it…" Andy started forcing Cheryl out to meet Danvers so she couldn't hide behind her husband. Jim tried to push him away, but the proud brother insisted on dragging his sister out to meet the director. "My sister…"

"Cheryl!" James Danvers was taken aback and he felt his heart start pumping again in her presence.

"You know her?"

"Wouldn't recognize me, huh!" Cheryl started swatting her husband and idiotic brother.

"My god, Cheryl…" Danvers forgot where he was and tried to hug her. Cheryl wasn't responsive at first, but then allowed herself to be gracious enough to allow Jimmy to hug her. "You look incredible… you haven't changed a bit. A day doesn't go by that I don't think of you."

"What?" She wasn't in the mood to be gracious. Looking over, she noticed her husband, brother and sister standing and replicating the see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil statues.

"Cheryl, we parted so badly I tried finding you several times to make things up with you." He realized she was now married and stepped back from her. "I don't think I ever fell out of love with you."

"Oh, Jimmy…." Cheryl finally forgave him and was now more into a mood to hug him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…." Jim started to remind his wife she was married to him. "Are you forgetting you're married here?"

"I'm sorry, Jim." Danvers placed his hand speechlessly over his mouth and tried to recompose himself. "But Cheryl was once so important to me. After my first movie was a success, I tried contacting her through her parents, and someone told me you was living in Russia." Danvers turned to Dana. "It was you!"

"Oh yeah…." Dana suddenly started recalling her college years. "Cheryl, Jimmy called while you were in the shower fifteen years ago."

"Someone else told me you were doing missionary work in Zimbabwe." Danvers recalled another call.

"Was that you?" Andy looked up surprised. "What a small world. Small world…." He started laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, a small world…" Jim started getting frustrated and jealous.

"So, Jimmy," Cheryl and Dana sat down on opposite sides of Jimmy. "What are you doing now?" Cheryl reacted interested in his current life.

"I'm working on a family-themed movie with Kate Winslet and Luke Wilson here in the area." He answered.

"Is there a role for me in it?" Dana was trying to bewitch him with her coquettish looks and tosses of her hair.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Andy hovered the back of the sofa. "Well, Jim and I want to know if we still got the job?"

"Absolutely." Jimmy promised. "Jim, I feel like we're simpatico here. You got the job."

"Really?" Jim perked up. "How about my house? Want to use it in the film?"

"Uh, maybe…." Jimmy looked around the room and liked what he saw. "I and my locations director will come by tomorrow to consider it."

"Well," Cheryl squeezed Jimmy's knee out of habit before realizing she was slipping into her old teenage ways. "Dana and I ought to get dinner out here. Jim, get the kids down here."

"You guys got kids?" Jimmy was interested. "Where are they?"

"They're somewhere around here…" Jim looked round.

"I'll give you an idea." Andy was pulling the front curtains open a bit wider as he looked out to the street. "Jimmy, I hope you got fifty bucks on you, because Jim's kids are out there washing your Beamer." Andy remembered what they had charged him to wash his car.