Chapter 3: California
A few hours later, Massimo was in California, on his way to Beverly Hills. Arriving in front of the house of Elsa, he immediately saw all the journalists and fans of Elsa. He paid for Taxi and then headed to the palissade. He was quickly arrested by a security guard who stood guard in front of the large gates of the palisade.
"Sorry sir, no one is passing through." said the man in black suit.
"I'm really sorry sir, but actually I'm a friend of Elsa Mars. Can you tell her that Massimo Dolcefino would like to see her please?"
Yeah, you know Elsa Mars. Do you know how many times I've heard that in the last hour?
"I assure you that's the truth. Ask him."
"I don't have all day. Go, get out of the way."
Massimo was confused. How would he see Elsa? At the same time, a woman arrived in front of the big fences with her car. She got out of the vehicle and ran to the doors. The security guard advanced toward her. Massimo was attentive.
"Jim! How is she?"
"Hi Josefina. To be honest, not very well." answered the guard.
"Where is she?" asked the woman.
"In the main room," Jim replied, letting the woman in.
"Well I'm going. Thank you, Jim." Josefina ends as she runs home.
It was unfair. Massimo would have given a lot to get in too. He decided to go back to his hotel, to write a letter to Elsa. Hopefully, he could let her know that he was here.
The next day he returned to Elsa's house with his letter. There were still so many people outside his house. He saw the guard from the previous day.
"Hey! Hello, Jim? Humm could you please just give this letter to Elsa for me? I'm an old friend and I think she'd be happy to know that I'm in town, and I'd like to see her."
"But where do you think you are, friend? Here we are in a star district. Here you cannot communicate with the stars as you see fit. So break up now."
"What if I just want to let him know that I'm there?"
"Line up like everyone else!" Jim replied.
"This line? " asked Massimo, pointing to a queue of at least twenty people.
"Yes, that line. All those people have told us the same nonsense you've been telling us. They all want to talk to Elsa Mars." says Jim as he walks away. Massimo put the letter back in his jacket pocket, then headed back to his hotel, bewildered.
Meanwhile, in the house of Elsa.
"Elsa, you must take the time to eat a little." Josefina almost pleaded with her.
"Listen Josefina, I'm fine. You've been coming here every day since the Times Magazine released this rags. It's ridiculous, you have a family and a job." Elsa answered, lying on her couch with a glass of whiskey in her hand.
"Are you okay? Is that why you empty a bottle of Whisky in the morning?"
Elsa gave her a threatening look. Josefina quickly understood that it was better not to venture into this visibly slippery terrain. She decided to avoid the situation.
"In fact, I resigned from my job to Mr. Gable yesterday." Josefina announced.
"What!?" asked Elsa, getting up from the couch, clearly surprised. Then she continued.
"Why did you do that? You're crazy. You had a really good job at the World Broadcasting Network. Have you lost your mind?"
"I couldn't stay there, not after what they did to you."
"They did nothing." Elsa replied, taking a sip of her strong glass.
"They did nothing. You have been making them a lot of money for years. Then, following the publication of this article, not only did they do nothing to help you, but they let you down. They have broken your contract and refuse to give you the rights to the song you just finished writing. They are charlatans, Elsa. It's against my principles to work for people like that, and over time you became a friend, you know."
"I have no friends. In fact, I have more. They are all dead or about to die."
"What do you mean?" asked Josefina.
"Nothing, forget it. You're no different from the others. You were there to pay me every week." Say Elsa filling her glass.
"Remember, my husband makes at least 5 times my salary. I don't need to work. I do it because I like it. I'm your friend Elsa. You may not see it now, but I am your ally. I will never let you down. At first, when I started working on the Elsa Mars Hour 3 years ago, I thought you were a snob, but I quickly discovered who you really are under your shell. I knew you had suffered a lot in the past. I detect these things. But it is true that I did not expect this."
"Go home." Elsa says in a rather dry tone.
"No, I do not pity you. I have never done it. What I'm trying to say is that I got to know Elsa the human, hidden behind the mask of Elsa Mars, the star. You may not see it now, but you are a strong woman. I know that."
"Maybe, but not today. In fact, I feel anything but strong."
"That's fine. You have to give it time to settle down. But it will get better. I'm sure."
After a few hours of conversation, Elsa was growing more and more fond of Josefina. She had not felt understood in years. The more she listened to Josefina, the more she reminded her of Ethel, her best friend, who died eight years earlier.
"Well, I have to go home now, my son has homework to do, and knowing my husband, he's going to let Josh convince him to have some fun instead."
"Thank you, Josefina."
"I will be back tomorrow."
The next morning, Josefina parked her car near the palissades and then left. She noticed a man, Massimo, sitting on one of the high concrete edges. She smiled politely at him and walked to the doors. He gave her his smile back, then returned to his thoughts.
"Hello Elsa!" She screamed at Josefina as she entered the house.
"Hello." He answered a visibly unsound voice.
"Elsa, are you okay?" asked Josefina as she walked towards the kitchen voice.
"Please, I have a head that will explode." Elsa replied, sitting on one of the stools on the island, a coffee in front of her.
"Too much whiskey?" Asked Josefina?
"Yeah, exactly." complained Elsa.
"So today you're going to be more reasonable, are you?"
"No." Elsa answered, sliding a letter on the island to make Josefina understand to read it. Which she did.
"What exactly does that mean?" asked Josefina.
"This is a notarized letter from Michael, telling me that I have to leave the house in less than a month. This bastard is set up to sell the house as fast as possible to embarrass me even more. I thought I had more time. My lawyer had agreed with him that I could stay here until the sale, when I could find something else."
"Yes, but a mansion like that doesn't sell so fast. You put it up for sale yesterday.
"This bastard has arranged everything. The buyer is Mr. Gable. They have arranged it together, to harm me, of course."
"Of course, it's obvious. Damn, why does he come at you like that?
"They cannot stand being swindled by a prostitute."
"But let's see, Elsa, they don't think that of you. Unlike the rest of the world, they know you personally. That story doesn't make you a prostitute today. Even then if you ask me."
"Those are the words that Michael used on the phone earlier." Elsa explained.
"I can't believe it."
"It's nothing, I don't care what Michael thinks, nor what Mr. Gable thinks. That's what bothers me." Elsa explained by pointing the letter on the counter of the island.
"What are you going to do?" asked Josefina.
"Visit homes as quickly as possible. Fortunately, I have money in a bank account in my name. Enough money to find me something good, very good too. Because of course they're delaying my payment for the breakup."
"The bastards!" Josefina almost got carried away.
"I didn't think they would go that far," Elsa replied, visibly sad.
"I really don't understand."
Imagine me. I know that Michael feels cheated, I lied to him about what happened to me, but from there to hurt me at this point. I admit it's unexplained. That's why I think someone else is pulling the strings. Michael, angry or not, would never hurt me so much. OK, we may not be in love anymore, and it's been a long time, I'm not even sure we were. But he would never do that to me. We were great friends before. A love at first sight, that's what it was, a friendly and professional love at first sight. The biggest mistake we made was to confuse it with love."
"But you were happy anyway?" asked Josefina.
"Yes, at first. I would say that it was a few months after the wedding when everything started to go wrong. At the moment we realized, each on our own side, probably unconsciously, that we were not really in love with each other. But it was too late, we were already married, and my career was taking off at that time. It was too late to back down. We didn't want to ruin all the work that we had already done."
"Perhaps my question will seem strange, or even inappropriate, but Elsa, have you ever been in love? For real I mean. Have you ever experienced that?"
Yes, once. That was a long time ago. He was a wonderful man. I had never felt so confident before. I had never felt so loved and peaceful, he made me feel so beautiful, so woman, despite my difference."
"He knew about your legs."
"Of course. He made my prostheses. He saved my life. Not just physically, but emotionally. You see, I didn't want to live after that accident, but he showed me that life was worth living. When I was crying because I couldn't walk anymore, he helped me to re-learn how to take one step at a time. When I cried because I couldn't dance anymore, he took me in his arms to waltz. When I cried because I thought I was despicable, he looked at me with such a look that I could find myself beautiful in his eyes. Honestly, if it hadn't been for Massimo, I wouldn't have been here for a long time." Elsa explained, her eyes filled with tears.
"And then?" asked Josefina.
"And then what?" asked Elsa.
"Where is he? Why haven't you been together all this time?"
"He took care of me for 2 years, before we were a couple. We were together officially for 2 years. Two wonderful years. But we had to escape Germany. The rise of Nazism was becoming rapid. We had a plan. We had to leave for America. He had to finish a job, a contract, or so he wanted me to believe. Anyway, I was supposed to get on the next boat to the States and he was supposed to come and join me 2 or 3 months later. But he never came. I waited for him for months in New York before finally leaving to make my own life."
"And he never gave you any sign of life?"
"Yes, about ten years later. He wrote to me. I didn't answer."
"Why? " asked Josefina in surprise.
"I don't really know. I was a little angry, I think. He was supposed to come and join me a few weeks later, but I finally heard from him only 14 years later. I was a little ashamed too. I was sure that life in America would be much better. That I was going to, I don't know, have a better future, at least on the professional level! And I was just beginning to perfect my group of monsters at that time. I was focusing on that."
"But he never rewrote you?"
"No he probably wanted to respect my silence, in fact, I contacted him again. 2 years later. And I did not expect anything. I had not given him a sign of life following his letter. I wrote a letter to him explaining that I needed his services as an expert prosthetist in the field."
"And then?" asked Josefina, enthralled by the story.
"He came."
"He came?" And then what?"
Elsa laughs a little bit at her friend's enthusiasm.
"We didn't really have time to get back together, let's say. We had to heal Jimmy. He cut both his hands the fool. But it was like before. I watched him, we were close. I had only one desire, it was to take him in my tent, if you know what I mean. But in the discussion we had after all these years, I understood that he had lost some ability, let's say. Honestly, I didn't care about him at all, I wanted him to be, not for his intimate performances."
"And you didn't tell him?"
"No, I was taken from class. If he had been hurt, it was because of me."
Elsa noticed Josefina's questioning look and continued.
I had just learned that if he did not follow me to America as planned, it was because he wanted to avenge those monsters who had taken my legs. In fact, I was always afraid of accidentally falling on one of them, Massimo could see it. So he had a mission to kill them all, but it didn't go as planned. The gang leader took him prisoner and tortured him. It was because of this physical torture that he had this bloody sequela. And I could see how difficult it was for him. I felt terribly guilty. I didn't have time to talk to him after that, I had to leave quickly, my life depended on it, but I could have seen him again, I would have told him that I love him very much anyway."
"It's so sad."
"It's nothing. He came to see me here last week. I finally told him. I told him that I love him, that I just need to be loved, nothing more. But it's too late now, he's going to die. He's sick." Concludes Elsa by letting a tear flow.
"Shit. Why do the best stories always end badly? Says Josefina sadly.
"And you know the rest. That night I learned of the eminent publication of this damned article, and my life was blown."
"All of a sudden, I understand the whiskey glasses."
"Yeah. Well, I don't have to waste any more time, I need to find a new place or live before Michael hires people to put my stuff on the street."
"He wouldn't do that?" asked Josefina, stunned.
"I'd rather not wait to check. As I said, someone else is pulling the strings: Mr. Gable. He is so struck in his pride and he has power. He will want to harm me until the end. So the sooner I leave, the better."
"I understand. Okay, give me a few minutes, my husband has great real estate contacts. I'm just going to take a quick look." Say Josefina as she leaves the room.
After about ten minutes, Josefina returned to Elsa.
"Okay, one of my husband's business partners has a son in the high-end real estate business. He's waiting for us at his office. Get ready." Explained Josefina.
"Already? Okay. Give me 10 minutes." Elsa concludes.
Outside, Massimo was still sitting in front of the palisades of Elsa's house. He suddenly noticed that the security guards seemed to be preparing something. He then saw the paparazzi panic, the palissades open and a luxurious black car with tinted windows come out. He saw the lady, Josefina at the wheel and Elsa on the passenger side. The car passed by. He saw that Elsa was trying to hide her face, because the photographers were taking pictures of her despite the color of the windows. She had not noticed her Massimo, waiting desperately outside her house.