“All the more reason to get some quality time now,” Moira said. “So, Elmer—”
“Please stop calling me that!” he begged one more time.
“That’s your name, buster. Can you get a couple of days off and take these guys? If you have three days there, that’ll allow one day for travel back. You’ll get some time to relax on the beach, which you could use—you’re getting as pale as Casper the ghost. And they’ll get to see the most beautiful place on the planet. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.”
He thought for a minute and then said, “Fine. But they’re probably not prepared for the nightmare of traveling with somebody who is recognizable wherever he goes.”
“Boys,” Moira said, addressing Bill and me, “I need you two to wear really dark sunglasses, look hulking, and act as his bodyguards. You’ll pretend to be running interference for him everywhere you go. Your mission is to keep him sheltered and safe from the masses of humanity. Think you can do that?”
Bill and I nodded our heads. “I think we can do that.”
“Good. I’ll set it up.” And just like my mother, she took charge of it and set it all up. And a few days later we found ourselves on another airplane, this time flying from Los Angeles to Kahului on the island of Maui. Even with sunglasses and a baseball cap and scruffy clothes, Derrick had been spotted repeatedly. So far, we’d been successful in fending off the fans who wanted to get close to him, to touch him, to say hello to him. It was totally contrary to his nature to be standoffish. Derrick was friendly and outgoing and talkative, but he knew that if he said hello to one person, there would immediately be twenty more right there wanting and expecting the same, and by the time you said hello to those twenty-one people there were ten times as many more waiting to take their place. It was a situation that knew no end, so he had to fight his nature and keep his head down.
On the airplane we sat in first class (nice!) and put Derrick in the window seat with Bill next to him. I sat immediately behind them so that I could keep an eye on things and be a first line of defense. When we got off the plane five hours later in Hawaii, Moira had a car and driver waiting for us, which made our exit much more efficient than it would have been if we’d had to go and rent a car and deal with more people. We were off the plane and out of the airport in under five minutes.
Twenty minutes after that we were walking in the front door of Derrick’s Maui house which was… well, spectacular! The house was massive. The views were simply stunning. The mountains on one side, the ocean on the other, islands dotting the horizon. Sun, surf, gently swaying palm trees. Oh yes, this was good.
Derrick got us settled into our part of the house and then gave us the grand tour of the house and the grounds. It really was an impressive property, and a lovely retreat to enjoy the sun and get away from it all. We arrived in the islands in early afternoon, so we had several hours of sunlight to enjoy. Derrick had the driver take us for a quick drive around some of the more central parts of the island to give us a sense of what was there. We also stopped at one place, but Derrick was mobbed instantly by an especially aggressive group of tourists.
From there we were driven to a restaurant partway back toward the house. They knew Derrick there and had dealt with people hounding him before, so they knew how to handle the situation. They put us at a table that was separated from the rest of the restaurant and free from traffic so that we could enjoy our dinner without being constantly interrupted.
The food was phenomenal. The fish was so fresh that it could have been in the water swimming around just an hour ago. This was so different than the fish that my mother had been able to get when we lived in upstate New York. Given a choice, I’d take the fish there in Hawaii and the way that this place prepared it.
Since we were dealing with three hours of time change, we wore down hours earlier than others who were accustomed to the local time. We returned to the house, and all were in bed and asleep very early.
The three days we spent on Maui were wonderful. Derrick left us alone each day if we wanted and was available to go and play if we wanted to go. We sat by the pool, we walked the beaches, we got to some fabulous restaurants, and we talked together for countless hours. It really was remarkable how much background we all had in common, even though he was ten years older than us.
All too soon it was time to leave the island and head back home. Even though we’d made the flight out, and I knew how long it would take to get back to California, it still amazed me that it was as long to go from Hawaii to California as it was to go from California to New York. It was remarkable how far we had come in experience in such a short period of time. Just a few short months ago, we had left New York unsure about the road ahead of us, and here we were, riding in first class from Hawaii with one of America’s number one movie stars, a man who was instantly recognizable practically anywhere he went. Quite a change from our days of hauling barbed wire and getting beaten up in the men’s room at school.
Chapter 14
Start of College
WHEN we got back to LA, we had a couple of additional days to relax and prepare for the start of school. We used one of those days to go to campus and buy some of the textbooks we would need for our classes. No one ever told me how expensive textbooks were for college! We both nearly fell over as we started to pick up our books and checked out the prices.
UCLA worked on a quarter system, so fall quarter classes didn’t start until the end of September. By that point, most other schools on a more traditional semester schedule had already been in session for a month. What the quarter system meant is that we had one quarter in the fall, one in the winter, and one in the spring.
The quarter started on September 24, but classes didn’t begin until Monday, September 27. We were scheduled to have three days off during the quarter, one for Veterans Day in November and two days at Thanksgiving, before finals December 10 through 14. Then we had a couple of weeks off before classes for the next quarter started on January 7. That quarter wrapped up March 22, we had another week off, and then the spring quarter started on April 1, wrapping up on June 14.
Our first day of classes was upon us before it seemed possible. Even though we would have preferred taking the same classes at the same time, the truth was that we were on dramatically different pathways at school. I was focusing my studies on mathematics, and Bill, well, he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to do yet so he was taking some intro classes and a couple of art classes. The one thing that was definite was that Bill did not want to take math classes, so I was alone on that pursuit.
So our classes didn’t overlap much at all, and there was rarely a time when we could even go to campus together. We found the amount of material that was covered in a course was intense and took a lot of attention in order to not fall behind. Before, in high school, we had been near the top of our classes in our favorite subjects, but here we were surrounded by people who were at least as good if not better than we were, so we were once again back in the pack rather than out in front as we had become accustomed.
I continued working part-time at Starbucks to keep some cash coming in, and Bill kept his job at the studio doing tours, although on a much-reduced schedule. It quickly became apparent that we were going to rarely see each other, and aside from sleeping in the same bed, we sometimes barely knew the other person was around. While the classes were challenging and great, and everyone who was there was eager to learn, it was frustrating to see so little of my boyfriend.
From the beginning, we had both tried to keep Sundays unscheduled and uncommitted so that we could have some time to just be together, do some errands, do homework, study, buy groceries, things like that. That plan lasted for about three weeks before one thing or another intruded on our time. So by the time we got near the end of the first quarter, I was more anxious to be finished and have three uninterrupted weeks with my boyfriend than I can begin to tell you.
Ha! So much for that plan too. That carefully laid plan went out the window when Derrick got
Bill another part in another picture, his next picture. And because any picture featuring Derrick St. James was a big deal, people threw a lot of money into the project, and a lot of time and attention was given to it.
Bill’s part in this one was again not huge, but it was a bit more than his thirty second sword fight and his one line in his first movie. This time he was scripted to be in front of the camera for three minutes, and had about a dozen lines.
I was delighted for both of them. For his part, Derrick was ecstatic about the script. He felt that it was a real, meaty, substantive drama that told a good story. He had felt that some of his recent pictures had been more light fluff (as he called them), but this one, no, this one was “real,” to use his own words.
But my delight was short-lived when I learned that, unlike the last movie, which had been filmed in Los Angeles, this movie was to be filmed in Australia. At first I was convinced that Bill’s small part could be filmed anywhere, and that flying someone to Australia for a dozen lines was ridiculous and even a motion picture studio wouldn’t do something like that. Wrong.
Not only did his lines have to be given on set in Australia, but he had to be there ahead of time for rehearsals. I was totally bummed to hear that Bill would take his last final exam on December 12 and then immediately get on an airplane to fly all the way across the Pacific Ocean to do his part. He was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on January 2, assuming everything went as scheduled and that there were no interruptions in filming—no weather delays, no natural disasters, no actresses who had temper tantrums, no power failures, no one who flubbed their lines over and over and over again.
He suggested that I go with him, since this trip was, one, an opportunity to go to Australia, two, going to be over the Christmas and New Year holiday, and three, would be a fun change of pace. But Derrick and Moira quickly squashed that idea when they described the tedious nature of filming a major motion picture. Yes, I might be there with Bill, but he could be off on a closed set for up to sixteen hours at a stretch, leaving me alone in the middle of nowhere, Australia to fend for myself. Good idea, but it died a fast and ugly death.
Bill considered not going, but I told him that he needed to do this. I asked how many other people got personal invitations from the main actor and director of a major motion picture to appear in their next movie. When I read the script, it was absolutely clear to me that Derrick was right—this was destined to be a big deal. This could be one of those pictures that was remembered for decades, no, generations, to come, assuming it was done right. For Bill to have a role in something of this nature, that could be around for years and years to come, was an opportunity not to be missed.
So it was decided that Bill would go, albeit reluctantly, and I would stay, again, reluctantly. A major complication for me was that this whole movie thing came up quite suddenly and rather late in the game. By the time we learned of the film part for Bill, I had already agreed to work at my Starbucks job during the break. I wasn’t going to work full time, but I had agreed to double my hours and help them get through the usual crazy pre-Christmas shopping days. The volume of traffic that they saw in the weeks leading up to Christmas was apparently significant, given their location, so the manager, upon hearing that I was going to be in town over the holidays, practically begged me to work. She knew that I was a reliable worker, a hard worker, and that when I worked the register the volume of tips we all split at the end of the day significantly increased. I had committed to work, and I didn’t feel comfortable backing out now so that I could go home to New York. Also, after living in the sun of Southern California for a while, I also had no great desire to go back to the cold of the northeast in December.
It looked like I would be spending a quiet, lonely Christmas all by myself in our empty and quiet apartment. Even Moira was going to be away over Christmas, flying to visit her daughter for the holidays. So I was really going to be left alone. But I made sure to not share any of this with Bill for fear of ruining his trip, or worse.
Bill quickly applied for a passport and was fast-tracked for that. The studio provided the plane ticket and got everything set up for the Australia end. Bill had read the script before agreeing to take the part, so he already knew his lines.
Our plans to have me take Bill to the airport for his flight to Australia went out the window—why shouldn’t they? Everything else had—when at the last minute the studio informed us that they would have a car pick him up. It looked like what I was going to get for Christmas that year was a major case of depression, all so that the American public could have a blockbuster movie come next summer.
Therefore, I worked especially hard to maintain a positive front for the world, while inside I was anything but positive or happy or upbeat. Inside, I was miserable and crying copious tears. But I consider myself to have honed my acting talents along with Bill, since no one picked up on what I was really feeling. The morning of Bill’s last final exam, we overslept because we’d been up too late studying (I think they called it cramming). As a result, he had to dash out of the apartment in a huge rush in order to get to the exam on time. What I had envisioned as a leisurely good-bye turned out to be a two-second drive-by kiss. He was moving so fast that I’m not even sure my lips connected with any part of his body when I went to kiss him.
And suddenly Bill was gone—and I was alone. But I couldn’t allow myself to slip into total depression yet. I still had a final exam that afternoon and another one tomorrow morning. After showering and waking up more fully, I spent a couple of hours studying for my last final before I left the apartment to head to campus. Of course, timing was such that Bill was just finishing his final when I was starting mine. After he finished he went home, grabbed his suitcase, and the studio car picked him up to take him to LAX. He was excited about the trip, and I was excited for him. This was an absolutely huge opportunity to be a part of history and to see someplace new in the process, so even though I was down and spiraling ever downward, I was also happy for him.
And really, I told myself, it wasn’t going to be that bad! It was only for a couple of weeks, and then he’d be back. And once he was back, I would absolutely enforce some personal time for the two of us on our schedules. I didn’t care if we had to skip a couple of classes (not likely), we were going to have a couple of days to get reacquainted with each other properly.
Once my last exam was finished, I felt a huge relief. My first quarter had been challenging but also good. I had learned a lot, and I was excited about that. By then I knew what I was taking the next quarter, so I was beginning to get a sense of how things would build on one another into a bigger picture.
Since I suddenly and unexpectedly had a lot of time on my hands, I swung by the campus bookstore and picked up the textbooks for the next quarter’s classes and planned to get a head start on my reading. I was determined to make good use of the time and make something positive and constructive come out of this abysmal situation.
I worked at Starbucks, which was good because it was every bit as crazy busy as the manager had told me it would be. The busyness was a good thing because it kept my mind occupied and kept me worn out from running constantly. My hours turned out to be more than I had anticipated because, for some strange reason, people suddenly began to get sick just before Christmas. Imagine that. Fortunately, they all seemed to heal quickly and were miraculously in perfect health immediately after Christmas. Modern science is such a wonderful thing.
So my days were full. I worked hard, I earned some money, and when I wasn’t working I was reading calculus textbooks and reading about my first computer science class. I even had time to do some test programming in the “language” we would be using. By the time I walked into class, I was going to be almost halfway through the class, at least in terms of the textbook material.
Chapter 15
First Christmas Away from Home
EVEN though my coworkers at Starbucks seemed to come and go at a regular pace—in other words, there was a lo
t of turnover—there were a few of us who hung on through thick and thin. I was on good terms with everyone on the workforce, including the two other long-timers like me. It seemed very odd to have only been there for six months but to be considered by everyone, including myself, to be a long-timer.
One of the other long-timers was another guy, a little older than me and also a student, just in some other field. We were friendly, but I realized that I didn’t know anything about him. I didn’t know where he lived, I didn’t know what he studied, I didn’t know if he was gay or straight. One night just before Christmas, after we finished work at just about the same time, we both sat in the crew rest room, each trying to work up the energy to get up and head home. Since I didn’t know much about him, he was friendly enough and kind of cute and I was too tired to move, I thought, why not?
“Slatter, we’ve worked together for what? Six months now? I don’t know anything about you? What do you study? What year are you? Where are you from originally? Are you married? Where do you live? Anything at all.”
He had to agree with me that he also didn’t really know much about me. “I’ll answer the easy ones first. Where am I from? Illinois. Am I married? No. I’m gay. No girlfriend and unfortunately no boyfriend at the moment. I had one until October when we broke up.”
“Are you heading home to Illinois for the holidays?”
“No way. You couldn’t pay me enough money to go back there. For one, it’s freezing back there right now with snow nuts deep. For another, since I came out, my dad is not super pleased to have me around. Put all that together and I’m staying right where I am for the break. I’m not thinking of it as a holiday—it would just make me too depressed—so I’m just thinking of this as a break in school.”
“I hear you.”
Go West Young Man Page 12
