I didn’t think this through too well...
Dorothy went into her bedroom and searched through one of her drawers. She pulled out a little tin box that used to hold candy. She held it, feeling if this was what she needed, and then put it down on the dresser, placing the plant beside it. It seemed the right size.
“Oh, but will you suffocate in there?” Dorothy looked at the little plant and then at the box. The plant pulsed and rustled its leaves.
“Ah, yes. Air holes.” Dorothy said. “I’ll give you some air holes.”
Dorothy went back to the bathroom and into the side drawer that held a large rectangle organizer with several small boxes of several sizes in different shades of blue and green satin. She chose the small dark blue fabric box. When she opened it, there were dozens of bobby pins in various sizes and shapes, tied in clusters inside. The interior of the box, as the others, was lined with velvet and satin, and adorned with light touches of embroidered occult symbols around the edges. Dorothy unwrapped one of the clusters of bobby pins and plucked out a plain, unpainted pin. She held it between her fingers in front of her face.
Unbend into a straight line.
It took a couple of attempts, but at last she was successful in willing the bobby pin to straighten. She held it on one end and returned to the tin in the bedroom. The plant still lay beside it. Dorothy held the bobby pin at the tin.
“Please make a tiny hole so this plant may breathe.”
Sparks sputtered from the end of the bobby pin and then a tiny flame shot out. It lasered in on the tin and then poofed out.
“Ouch,” she cried out as the heat from the pin burned her fingers. She dropped the bobby pin onto the floor.
Dorothy bent down to retrieve the pin and then inspect the tin. She didn’t dare touch the metal container just yet as there was still heat emanating from it. But there was indeed a tiny hole in the tin. She made two more holes the same way.
She carefully lifted the plant, inspecting it closely on her palm. There were parts of leaves still attached to the roots. There was little dirt still left around the roots.
“Oh, right!” Dorothy said out loud. “I nearly forgot.”
She placed the plant in the now cool tin and snapped it shut.
She slipped the tin into her bathrobe pocket.
A wave of mellowness washed through her, as stress was leaving her body. The sweet yet musky smell of the plant filled her nostrils. She went into the kitchen and found a small pot that she’d used in the past for growing herbs, and then returned to her cloak. There were a couple of handfuls of dirt in the pocket that she’d put in with the plant in hope of not shocking it.
She watered the dirt, making it moist. She knew she couldn’t transplant the plant just yet, she needed other ingredients.
Why do I know that? Is someone telling me?
She’d retrieve the proper items tomorrow, tonight, there was Oscar to see.
She put the tin in the cabinet under the sink.
“You’ll be safe there in case anyone senses you’re here. We’ll get you properly set up in the morning. Promise.”
When her hair was finished, she pulled on a new outfit; green knitted top with a scoop neck, mid-length black skirt, patterned stockings and green buckle up shoes. Underneath it all, she wore a green lacy bra and panty set that she’s bought from Aurora’s lingerie shop. She hoped that she didn’t smell like her nocturnal adventure anymore.
She sprayed her favorite perfume along her pulse points and, just in case, she applied a double dose of her roll-on deodorant. Surely all of the new smells would dispel any remaining odors.
When she looked in the mirror again, she saw the beautiful pulled together woman that she was instead of the crazy-mermaid-battling-witch she had been mere minutes before.
“Okay, broom. Let’s try this again,” she laughed as she carried the broom outside. She murmured the spell. The broom twitched and she hopped on.
I didn’t even think twice about sitting on it! She considered that she was an old pro at this point.
“Let’s go watch a show being made,” she said to the broom and sped off into the night.
The show’s Klieg lights raised high into the sky on massive tripods could be seen for miles. As they glowed like alien spacecraft in the night, Dorothy rode towards them. She was happy that she hadn’t missed the shoot. If the lights were still on, the crew must still be working. Of course, now she had to make sure that Oscar Dominion’s part of the show wasn’t finished yet and that she could actually watch him work. He had invited her after all.
Better late than never!
This time, she had also worn her warm green plaid cloak. She didn’t know where she’d end up this time so she was going to be as prepared as possible for the elements.
The broom lowered a few blocks from the set in an alleyway, a safe distance from the set. She disembarked and then held the broom lightly as she walked over to join the other spectators. There were a dozen people or so who didn’t seem connected to the show standing behind a metal barricade. She slipped into the crowd.
“So, what are they doing tonight?” she asked the woman beside her.
“It’s been pretty cool. They had some kind of monster running around and then the monster was trying to catch that actress... whatever her name is, you know, that skinny blonde who is in all these shows. Then, Oscar Dominion had the battle.”
“What did he do?”
“Oh, he’s still doing it. He just had to go to the trailer while they set up the next shot. I think you’ll like it. I’ve been enjoying it. He’s shirtless in this scene.”
“Shirtless! It’s pretty cold out to be shirtless,” Dorothy said.
“Yes, it is. But that’s show business, you know. You wear no clothes in the winter and too many clothes in the summer.”
“Oh, yeah, yeah. I know. I know how it goes,” Dorothy said. “I guess ‘cause I had a chill earlier. I got wet. I went too close to the waves and caught a chill. I had to go home and get changed. So I was just thinking how cold he must be because I was thinking how cold I am because of earlier tonight.”
“Well, the way he’s battling that monster, I’m sure he’s not cold at all.” The woman said. Several of the onlookers turned their head.
“Oh look, they’re being used now,” the girl pointed and Dorothy followed her finger. Oscar Dominion was being walked back to the set by a couple of people, assistants? Actors? He wore a jacket and a pair of jeans. Someone wrapped a large blanket around him to cut the breeze. There were several slashes of blood across his face.
Fake blood Dorothy reminded herself. Not like the real blood she had encountered earlier. She didn’t know if he saw her among the observers watching from behind the barricade. The director hopped off his director’s chair that was stationed in front of a bank of monitors along with several other people in chairs. Dorothy chuckled as she saw that there really were “director’s chairs” with names on them and everything. He walked over to Oscar and they had a little huddle where presumably he was telling him how to block the next move.
Dorothy smiled. She wiggled her fingers very slightly and thought about Oscar’s gym towel and how good he smelled. Oscar looked over towards the bystander crowd and when he found her, they locked eyes. A big grin spread across his face. Dorothy giggled and the girl beside her stared at her with jealousy.
“He waved at you! Does he know you?”
“Well... I’ve seen him around and I guess he remembered me,” Dorothy shrugged, trying to play cool even though inside she was screaming with joy like a teenager.
The director stepped back to his chair in front of the monitors. The cameramen lined up the shot. Oscar’s assistants removed his blanket and jacket, revealing his naked and bloody chest while a makeup woman worked on his face, organizing blood and dirt, and the hair lady worked on his hair, making it stiff, sticky, bloodier.
“Rolling...” someone yelled.
“Background...” the voice cried out
. A few people walked along the brightly lit street, meandering in and out of stores.
“Action!”
Oscar ran down the center of the street while a cameraman who looked like some kind of Dr. Octopus from a Spider-Man movie ran behind him. Another camera was filming him from a dolly track along the side of the road. Someone in a threatening wolf like costume with long teeth dripping fake saliva and long nails on paws swiping at the air took chase after Oscar. Dorothy hadn’t even noticed the monster, when she was so busy staring at Oscar.
“Wow!” she whispered. “That’s so cool.”
Oscar ran with the beast behind him for several meters. The beast roared and snarled, hands reaching out, grasping for Oscar’s back.
“Cut!” A voice called. Oscar slowed down to a stop, and stood with his hands on his knees, panting. His face glowed with sweat and blood. The monster also panted.
Everyone stopped what they were doing, looking for guidance from the assistants. The background performers walked back to their original positions, muttering to each other.
The cameramen returned to their original spots as well.
The scene was set up once more, and then it was time to do it again.
And again.
And again.
Voyeurs came and went as the night stretched on. Dorothy mostly watched Oscar but she also watched the crew and extras. There were so many people involved in shooting a scene of Oscar running a few feet being chased by a monster. She looked up at the giant lights shining down, all the huge weird white shadowy screens that bounced the light, endless ropes of cables and cameras and gear twisting into tentacles around and through generators and trucks that she had no idea what was being used for what!
Still, it was exciting.
Here she was, watching not only her favorite TV show being shot, but watching her favorite actor. She didn’t think she could contain her excitement, but she did. After all, she had to look reserved, calm, and not be freaking out like a couple of the spectators standing nearby.
At last, the director decided he was satisfied with the shot, and everyone could move on to the next one. The crew hustled and bustled, relining track, flipping cables around, rolling and unrolling them like circus snakes, cameras wheeled around, trucks moved, background performers sent to holding while so much commotion happened. Dorothy stared up at the workers on a cherry picker adjusting the giant lights.
“Do you wanna go for a drink?” The words were in her ear and she turned to face Oscar.
She gulped, startled at how she hadn’t noticed him. Around her, the audience stepped back, in awe of seeing Oscar so close.
“I mean I’d like to go for a drink after I get all this make up off but I don’t know if you want to wait that long for me,” he said, his hand guiding her through the people and over to a quiet spot.
As if I wouldn’t wait...
“How long do you think that would be?” Dorothy asked.
Oscar laughed and waved his hands in a half shrug.
“Well, it’s blood... the blood. This process takes a while, maybe almost an hour,” Oscar said. “You know, if we go for a drink, I want to be cleaned up. The glue can take forever to get off.”
“Sure,” Dorothy said. “I don’t have to work tomorrow so I’m fine with staying up all night.”
“Fantastic,” he said with a wink and then headed off for his dressing room trailer.
* * *
It was nearly 4:00 in the morning by the time they made it over to the Cauldron. The clientele was long gone and Toni was finishing her late night duties when they showed up. Dorothy had texted her while she was waiting for Oscar to see if she could bring him there. Toni had been thrilled at the thought of a celebrity in her place. The night had dragged on so long, however, Dorothy worried that Toni might give up on them and go home. However, when they arrived at the bar, Dorothy with her broom in hand, Toni’s shadow was visible through the glass.
Toni let them in with a wink and a nod.
“Just don’t put on any music... loud music,” she said. “You can have one drink and that’s it, then you gotta go.”
Dorothy smiled.
“Thank you so much, Toni. I know you’re not supposed to do this.”
“Of course not, it’s not actually legal. But I don’t care. Some of us drink late anyway. So you guys can still put on music. Softly. No one knows you’re here.”
Toni grabbed her purse and pushed the front door. “Don’t forget to lock up when you leave,” she said as she shut the door behind her.
It clicked shut. Dorothy looked at Oscar with a wide smile.
“So we have the place to ourselves!” she had to keep herself from clapping and held her hands together.
“You know quite a lot of people around here. I mean, it seems like you’re everywhere and know everyone.”
“I’ve lived in town for years, I’ve travelled, left and came back. However, this place, it’s not as Victorian as you may think. You can see how we all get to know each other and, like any where, you figure out who your friends are.”
In her mind, she looked across the restaurant and imagined an invisible barrier locking the door from the outside. Then she imagined a bubble around herself and Oscar.
“What’s your poison?” she asked him as she went behind the bar. “Beer? Booze? Wine?”
“Let’s keep it simple. I’ll take a draft beer.” He pointed to the spigots.
“Good choice!” Dorothy said. She grabbed two pint glasses and filled them with lager.
“Pick a table, any table!” she said.
Oscar found a table in a corner, away from the windows.
“Good choice,” Dorothy said as she brought the beer over.
“Oh, that’s good!” Oscar said after he drank half the pint in one sip. “So nice and cold and refreshing. The perfect antidote after a night of work.”
“Cheers,” Dorothy said, raising her glass and they clinked and drank.
“I want to ask you all kinds of things,” Dorothy said, “but I feel like I already know you because of all the information on the Internet and everything.” She blushed.
“Oh, so you been stalking me for quite some time then, have you?” Oscar teased.
Dorothy blushed. “Well, I’ve been a fan of yours for the last four seasons, so yeah, why wouldn’t I look you up and be interested in things you do? I’m not just someone who saw you tonight for the first time. I really do appreciate the hard work you do to freak the rest of us out!” She grinned.
“It’s nice to meet someone who can be appreciative of how a job like this works.” he said. “Some people ask if I’m gonna stay doing these schlocky shows forever or if I’m going to get some ‘serious work’ done.”
“But you did do serious work. I think you manage to be one of those actors who’s found a nice line between classical work and modern pop culture. You get your name out there with the pop culture and then people take a newfound interest in Shakespeare or some of the other masters; George Bernard Shaw and such, Pinter, even.”
“Oh, yeah, well, it’s a get out in as many places as possible strategy, I guess,” he laughed. “It seems to be the way it’s done these days. I know I haven’t been around forever but, historically, what we learned in school, was that the great movie stars back in what they called the Golden Age of Hollywood, you are just too big when you’re in the big budget movies, and you wouldn’t do little things like TV or small movies. You are either serious or B level and it was rare for most to cross over one way and back. I think that’s partly why the big stars would be so depressed and probably why they turned to drugs and such. Even then, so many ultimately ended up in what we call B-movies now. Cheap entertainment and more popular than classics.”
“Well, I don’t know. I have always enjoyed the occult and horror and, you know, I do live in one of the most magical towns in North America.”
Dorothy saw that Oscar’s glass was empty and hers was nearly so. She stood up and headed back to
the bar to refill them.
“Is it, though?” he asked. “And that’s the other thing I want to know... about the ghosts. The ghost at the bed and breakfast.”
“Maybe I should go there with you, when we’ve finished our beer,” she said.
“And thank you for this, by the way. Will you get in trouble that we’re having more?”
“No. I can’t imagine a couple of beers will be an issue. Now a couple of bottles of champagne might be another story!”
They both laughed and drank some more.
“But, before we go check out your room —what is it about the ghosts? Who is the ghost or rather, what’s going on with your ghost?” she asked.
“I don’t know if I’m just losing my mind or maybe I have an overactive imagination because of where I’m living now. I mean, it was all the talk before we came here. All around set we were discussing Hermana and how all these homes are so rich in history, and so thick with lore. Strange things happen all the time.”
“While I think every place on the planet has places steeped in lore because there’s always been life here. The earth is not that young so there’s always going to be ghosts and residual energy. There’s always going to be some kind of animal or species that someone didn’t notice before because they weren’t paying attention.”
“There will always be new ways. New planets to be discovered as the earth shifts and moves. Who knows really? We think we have it figured out; the cycles of nature, how cyclical it all is. Circle of life, the circle of genetics, the genesis of man. Why shouldn’t some of it be trapped in the air or in the earth?” Oscar said.
“What did this person do to you? What happened?”
“How do you know it’s a person?” he asked. “How do you know it’s not an animal, a demon? What are the choices, sweetheart, when unusual things happen in a town like? A ghost is the first go-to, but are there demons leaking around because people were playing with a Ouija board?”
Dorothy laughed. “Wow, you have quite the imagination. I think it’s pretty interesting and I wish things were as exciting as you’re painting them.” She didn’t smile. She wondered if maybe he wanted more from her than just wondering about ghosts. What was it she needed to know about him?
Taurus: A Hearse of a Different Color Page 11
