Now a Major Motion Picture

by Cori McCarthy

  “I would never have taken off without Ryder,” I said, sitting on the bed, attempting to calm the situation. “You know I wouldn’t.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said sarcastically. “Did you or did you not just pull up from a Dublin bender with your new actor friends?”

  “That was because…”

  He sat on Ryder’s bed and crossed his arms. “I’m listening, Iris. This is going to be a brilliant work of fiction. I can already tell.”

  I glared at him. My dad looked like me. A lot. Or I think I’m supposed to say I looked like him. Either way, we both looked like M. E. Thorne. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Sharp features that belonged in fantasy illustrations. People said my dad looked manic in an attractive way. I had yet to grow into such a description.

  “I’m waiting.”

  “I had to help Eamon bring Shoshanna back to the set. I…I was the reason she left, sort of. I spoke with this reporter to help out, but I’m apparently terrible at talking to report—”

  “Yes, I’ve read your little interview,” he said. “You know better than to talk to the press.”

  “Yeah, well, I screwed up, but not as much as you think! And I went to get Shoshanna back because this movie needs her to stay alive!”

  My dad’s eyes flared. “You’ve got to be kidding me. One week and you’re falling in love with this fantasy crap all over again?”

  In love? Yes, I was, but not with Elementia. I pictured Eamon in his Nolan costume. Shoshanna’s frank banter. Julian’s best acting face melting into that fragile sincerity that proved he was actually a huge-hearted guy. Ryder flipping pancakes with Mr. Donato, and Cate grilling me as though she gave a sincere damn about my life.

  Be honest and don’t back down.

  My chest grew tight as I pulled Eamon’s camera out of his backpack. “I’m in love with something, but it’s not Elementia. Let me show you.”

  I opened the screen and pressed play. My pulse drummed. Would he get it? He wouldn’t.

  What if he did?

  My dad watched for about twenty seconds before he closed the flip screen and set the camera on Ryder’s bed. “Coldplay, Iris? Seriously?”

  “What?” I felt dazed. Tricked.

  “Coldplay is so…maudlin.”

  “But you made me listen to that album, remember?”

  His tone iced. “Playing someone else’s song is the literary equivalent of going to a poetry slam and reading Emily Dickinson.”

  “What?” The word barely escaped my lips. I’d been sure he’d be impressed. Or at least surprised. “But I got up there. I played in front of everyone. You said I should—”

  “I knew you lied.”

  “What?” The word kept tumbling out. “What?”

  “You weren’t rescuing some actor from the airport. You were at a bar, drinking heavily by the sound of this. And that’s why you didn’t come back until this morning. You were out drinking while your little brother was here, in a foreign land, in the hands of strangers.”

  “They’re not strangers! The crew loves Ryder. Ask anyone.”

  “I’m disappointed. You’re not half as mature or responsible as I thought you were.”

  “Not mature?”

  “You heard me, young lady.”

  I’m raising your kid! The words were like a bubble coming up through the black mud of my feelings. I could feel them rising, rising, rising…until I burst.

  “I’m raising your kid, you self-centered egomaniac!”

  “Iris!” He threw his hands in the air. “First of all, your insult is completely redundant. Secondly—”

  “Why don’t you go finish your draft so you can be a human again!”

  That hit a nerve. His stare drilled into the ground as he mentally reloaded, but I fired first.

  “Ryder has been brilliant since we got here. He’s been listening and helping. He’s been confident and trying new things. And then you show up and he lost his mind. Whose fault do you think that is, Dad? Your demands freak him out just like they’ve always freaked me out. And I might have learned way too early that the only way to make you happy was to do exactly what you wanted, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay either. We’re both messed up, and from what I’ve figured out since I arrived here, apparently screwing up your kids is the real Thorne family legacy!”

  His pale cheeks stormed red.

  I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. I stomped out of the trailer and past people who had most definitely heard every single word of our fight. I jumped in the rowboat that Shoshanna and Eamon had commandeered when we first arrived in Killykeen and rowed out to the tiny island with its crumbling tower.

  I stayed there until the sun went down. Alone with Eamon’s backpack—where I found his copy of Elementia, the same one I’d been leafing through on his brass bed the night before.

  And I read it. Every word.

  AS IT TURNS OUT, CALLING DOWN THE LIGHTNING IS EXHAUSTING

  Eamon swam out to my little island when the sky was on the edge of dark. The lake was too cold for such ridiculously romantic behavior, and he was a shivering mess when he crawled up the weedy, muddy shore. “I’m here. I made it.” He was breathing hard but otherwise in good shape.

  I wrapped him in my jacket, and we sat with our backs to the crumbling tower. “I’m shocked you did that.”

  “My da swam the Channel. That was nothing.” He coughed and grinned. “I am fit.”

  “You are,” I said, remembering how he’d deadlifted Shoshanna. “Despite being skinny.”

  “Hey, I’m wiry. As in strong like wire.” I laughed and leaned my head on his wet shoulder. The sun crept down into a red sliver and the floodlights around the trailers and picnic area turned on with a pop. “We didn’t shoot the scene,” he said, rubbing a hand through his hair. “We’re going to try again tomorrow. Cate is held up with the studio execs. They’re not happy. How’d it go with your da?”

  Thoughts streamed through my mind. I ran away again. My dad hated my playing. I told him off. I love you. I can’t believe you swam across the lake. You’re absolutely ridiculous. I read Elementia. I didn’t get it.

  “Your lips are blue,” I finally said.

  He got up and did some jumping jacks, his teeth chattering. When he sat back down, I crawled on his wet lap and pulled my jacket around both of us. “Your da left, by the way.”

  “He did?” I sat up fast. “Did he take Ryder?”

  “He left Ryder with Mr. Donato.”

  “Oh, good.” I couldn’t contain a huge sigh of relief. “It’s not surprising. My dad taught me this whole run from hard stuff policy.”

  “Did you tell him the truth? How’d it go?”

  “Good enough for me to maroon myself,” I joked. Eamon half smiled, and I kissed him. It was a sad kiss. “We should go back before it’s too dark and you get hypothermia.”

  In the middle of the lake—Eamon rowing in a way that showed off his arm muscles—I reached in his bag and held up his book. “I read it. All of it.”

  He frowned. “And now you’re wondering what the big deal is?”

  “Well…yeah. It was good, but I didn’t have an epiphany like everyone else. Cate discovered her driving force. Ryder forgave Moss. Julian fell in love with Nolan.”

  Eamon paused rowing. “He what?”

  “He thinks Nolan’s the best romantic role since Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You.”

  “Ah, okay.” He kept rowing. “Let the story sink in a bit, Iris. Also, you’ve got to read the whole trilogy before you make any firm judgments.”

  “Okay,” I said, but I flat-out doubted him. The book had been good, but it had felt like a story I already knew all the way through. Wasn’t it supposed to be groundbreaking? A feminist legend for the ages?

  I think Eamon could read my mind. “You should talk to Cate.”
/>   “What did you like when you first read it?” I asked.

  “Well, I was eleven, so I thought it was exciting and strange and much better than this world. I also had a huge crush on Sevyn. I told Mam the girl I married would be like her, and she said good luck finding a girl like Sevyn who wants to be tied down to a silly boy.” He rowed, the wind ruffling his hair until it looked more like when I’d first met him. “Took a bit, but I found you.”

  “I’m like Sevyn to you? Why? Because I electrocute people who get too close? Or I cause great grief for my family?”

  “No. You’re headstrong and motivated. You’re clever and kind.” He saw me rolling my eyes and added, “Plus you’re so damn positive. My own personal ray of sunshine.”

  “Ha! I’m a black cloud.”

  “The kind that shoots out lightning?”

  I pointed at him. “Watch it, elf.”

  “Certainly, mistress.” He smiled, kept rowing. “You do remember you’re also the person who charged onstage in a foreign country and tore into a song like Chris Martin himself.”

  “That was unusual.”

  “So you didn’t verbally tackle that reporter for doubting the people working on this film?”

  “That was a terrible idea.”

  “How about when you singlehandedly saved the teaser trailer?”

  “How about when I choked in the recording studio?”

  “How about when you saved your brother’s life from a man in the middle of a psychotic break?” He stopped rowing. “Don’t discount your bravery just because it doesn’t always pay off, Iris.”

  I folded my arms, wanting to believe him. “So wise, Eamon O’Brien.”

  “Not wise. Irish. Genetically endowed with cleverness and freckles.”

  I turned to the copy of Elementia. “You know the weirdest part? My dad kept me from reading this like he was guarding a wicked family secret, but I can’t tell what he’s so afraid of.”

  “I think you have to ask him, then.”

  “Yeah. That would go over awesome.” I rubbed my face, braided back my hair. The shore was close, and my brother’s dim-lit silhouette grew closer. The bottom of the rowboat slid against the silt and Eamon jumped out to haul us the rest of the way. I stepped out, and Ryder was hugging my waist before both of my feet were on the shore.

  “I’m sorry, Ry,” I said. “I was mad. Had to take off for a few hours.” I ruffled his hair. When he didn’t let go, I knelt down to look in his face. Well, not quite, because he wasn’t six anymore. When I knelt, his head was a solid foot above mine.

  He looked down at me. “I’m sorry I hit you. I’m sorry I got upset.”

  “Dad wouldn’t listen. That was his fault.”

  “He’s horrible and I don’t ever want to go home.”

  “Oh God, Ry.” I snuggled him into a hug. “We can’t go down that road. We can’t.” I pulled back and stared into his eyes. “Think about Sevyn and Evyn’s dad. He wasn’t great, but he was important to the story.” I held up Eamon’s copy of Elementia.

  “You read it?” His voice quivered. “You understand now?”

  “Some,” I admitted. “The rest you can explain to me.” He hugged me all over again, and we walked back to the center of the action. “I have to talk to Cate, Ry. I don’t know what’s going on with Dad, but I’m sure he set something in motion before he left.”

  Eamon put a light hand on my back. “Love, I’ve got to find a hot shower.”

  “Uh, yeah, you should do that,” I managed.

  He grinned like he knew I was picturing him naked. Good Lord. “I’ll come to your trailer later.” He kissed me and walked off, and when I looked down, Ryder was squinting.

  “You’ve been kissing Nolan.”

  “He’s Eamon to me, Ry.”

  “No, he’s Nolan. That makes you Sevyn.”

  “Ha!” Apparently there was a conspiracy, but you know what? I knew this reference now, and if I was going to live up to it, I’d have to find some more lightning.

  • • •

  I knocked on Cate’s door, and she hollered, “Come in, Iris!”

  Cate sat in the back, surrounded by script pages and computers.

  “How do you always know when it’s me?” I asked, climbing the steps.

  “Well, usually I’ve sent for you. But this time I was waiting for you to come to your senses and leave your sulking island.” She paused. “Literally.”

  “I wasn’t sulking. I was reading.” I dropped Eamon’s book beside her laptop. She pushed her screen away and picked it up.

  “Look at this. I’m telling you, the UK knows how to make a cover. The American cover’s all about grabbing attention, but look at this.” She turned it toward me. “This is a cover to fall in love with and treasure for the rest of your life.”

  “It’s Eamon’s.”

  “I’m not surprised. I’ve been informed by Shoshanna that you two are embarking on puppy love together.” Her mouth quirked with amusement.

  “I am about one puppy joke away from barking at people.”

  “All right then.” Her words were light, but I could feel the current underneath them.

  “How’s the…boycott?”

  “Thirty thousand signatures. If it hits fifty, we’re done.”

  I stalked around Cate’s trailer, too angry to be still. “Those idiot Thornians with their tattoos and their cats named after all the characters! They could actually help this fantasy become reality, and yet they’re doing the opposite. Why don’t they want this movie? You’d think they’d die for it.”

  “They’re afraid, Iris. Books are endlessly interpretable. Movies are set. The odds that this movie is not what the book means to each one of them is high. Very high.” She sounded like a professor who’d given this class too many times. “That is the vast gamble of movie adaptation.”

  I studied the woman I’d grown to respect against my will. “Help me understand?”

  She grinned ever so slightly. “Say that the book is a sculpture. You can walk around the story. You can touch it. You can view it up close or far away. That is why people love books. The stories interact with your memories, your experiences. They’re personalized. Movies? Movies are a picture of that same statue. The parameters are set. The characters have defined faces. The scenes artistically rendered to one person’s vision.”

  “But your vision for this book is good! So what if some people have to see the book differently? Who cares? It’s a movie! A gateway to my grandmother’s story.”

  “Iris.” Cate stood and took my shoulders in both hands. Her face was lined with the kind of exhaustion that kills people, and yet her eyes still held that spark. “We’re moving forward. Hoping for the best. If nothing else goes wrong, we may yet pull off this impossible dream.”

  I wanted her to be right, but there was still an ugly fly in the ointment. “My dad—”

  “Is an absolute nightmare. I didn’t fully understand your attitude before I talked with him today, and now I understand too well.”

  “Did he say anything before he left?”

  “Only that he was going to stay in Dublin for the remainder of the shoot. I am to contact him if you guys put one toe out of line. As if I would rat you out to that tyrant.”

  “He wants to finish his draft,” I said coolly. “Typical.”

  “I don’t think he wants to leave you and your brother, but he sure as hell doesn’t want to stay here either. He’s going to ping around our lights like a moth, I fear.”

  Cate really did get my dad; I was impressed.

  “You know everything,” I said, but that wasn’t it. “You say everything.”

  “Be as sharp as you are, Iris. It’s a lot more fun than acting like you’re catching up. Lead. Be opinionated. Don’t say you’re sorry unless you did something wrong.” She touched the
streak of lightning on the Elementia cover in my hands. “That’s what your grandmother’s story gave me. That’s what I hope it gives to its audience. To you. Be your own power source.”

  “My dad would love that,” I tried to joke.

  “He won’t understand because men don’t have this problem. They grow up learning to think outward. Act on their impulses. Women are taught to think inward, act rarely. Women who don’t stay underground? Well, they have about as easy a time as I’ve had.”

  Henrik knocked and opened the door. “Cate, I—” His eyes narrowed on me, and I waited for a Done having a tantrum on your island? remark. “Iris, your dad is an asshat.”

  Cate clapped and pointed at Henrik. “See, Iris? Case in point. He never doubted for a second that he should say that.” I laughed so hard that Cate laughed too.

  Henrik stood in the doorway with a confused expression until Cate beckoned him in. “Bad news,” he grumbled as though he didn’t want me to hear. “They’re going to stay around for the Cashel filming. They’ve decided to make the move with us tomorrow.”

  “They’re spooking my actors!” She glanced at me before adding, “The studio execs.”

  Henrik scowled. “The boycott was the last straw. What if they shelve the sequels?”

  “They already have.”

  “What?”

  That was me and Henrik. Jinx.

  Cate sat down, straightening the pages around her. “They’ve shelved them. I’m sure the news will leak tomorrow or the next day. I’m not letting that shake us. I’m not.” The trailer filled with the sound of Cate’s shuffled papers. “They want us to lose steam. Then they can pull the plug and say it happened naturally. I’m not giving that to them.”

  I hated the way Cate’s expression fought itself, determination wrestling back despair. “If the movie is good, they’ll revive the sequels, so we just need to make the movie really good,” I said.

  Cate snapped her fingers and pointed at me without taking her eyes of Henrik. “She gets it, Henrik. Tell me you’re with me.”