Page 35 of Hollywood, Ending

“I think it’s good?” I said. “The end really got me.”

“It’s that Lou Reed song,” Kathryn said.

_____

Everyone walked out of the theater together. The light outside was squintingly bright. Lon and Natalie were sitting in a golf cart right outside the screening room. Natalie jumped up, hugged Kathryn, and then asked Juniper, “Well?”

“It’s very good,” Juniper said. “I have some notes for Kathryn.”

“Oh, Junie, wonderful. Of course they’ll be brilliant,” Kathryn said, and then Matthew walked up and she said, “But I’ve got to get back to the edit suite, so please share notes with Nat and Lon, okay?” She turned her back to us and hugged Matthew. “What’d you think?” she asked him.

“Even better on the third viewing.” Matthew smiled.

“Let’s get some dinner,” Natalie said to us, “and dig into your notes.”

“Nothing’s locked,” Lon added as he got out of the golf cart. “Absolutely want to hear your notes. Did they tell you about the test scores?”

I reached into my pocket for my phone and saw that I had a text from Agent Bob. CALL ME. Ellen grabbed me and turned me toward Caitlyn, the editor of the movie, who asked me what I thought.

“I think I liked it? I’ve never really—” Ellen tugged on my arm and said, “One moment,” then pulled me aside and muttered, “You don’t think anything.”

“I am quite certain I liked it,” I said to Caitlyn, who laughed.

“How did it feel, watching yourself?”

I paused. “Exposed,” I said.

“I can imagine,” Caitlyn said. “Most young actors mimic. They don’t express fear or the terror of helplessness; they perform them. A kid’s scream in a horror movie almost always says more about what movies they’ve seen than what fears they’ve known. But spending these three months with your performance…When you screamed at Carly, I mean, even now I’m saying it like it was real. But in a way it was real, wasn’t it?”

Ellen said, “I’ve got to get Kai onto this golf cart for his producer meeting.”

I was ushered onto the back of the golf cart, which in the end fit only Lon, Natalie, Juniper, and me. I was sitting backward, so I watched Matthew and Kathryn and everyone else recede as we pulled away.

Lon said, “We’ve now got release dates in eighteen territories. Eighteen. It’s about an American artist and we have eighteen international releases. Last night—Nat says that dreams are just the brain’s version of waste expulsion, but last night I dreamt I was standing on the roof of my house and a B-52 bomber flew overhead and I thought I was in a war zone but then the bomb doors opened and money flew out from the sky and fluttered down all around me, from absolutely every country on earth—dollars and euros and reals and pesos and pounds. I have seen our future, friends, and it is multinational.”

“Juniper has some notes,” Natalie said.

“Right. Let’s talk ’em over at dinner. We want you both for the junket. Obviously one in New York a week before the premiere as I’m sure you’ve discussed with your teams, but with so much international buzz we’re trying to capitalize. Europe looks a maybe. Could be London, could be Paris. Kai, do you have a favorite designer? Juniper, you have someone, yes?”

“Dior. Kai, do you have any notes or is it just me?” Juniper asked.

“Wait, when is the premiere?” I asked.

“The premiere is Wednesday the second,” Juniper said.

“Of October?”

“Yes. Did you like the Lou Reed song at the end, or did it feel a bit on the nose?” she asked. We were getting off the golf cart now and into an SUV.

“I…liked it?” I ventured as I crawled into the way-back.

Juniper joined me. “Really.”

“I mean, I’m not a music supervisor,” I said.

“Indeed,” Juniper said. “Nor, for that matter, is Kathryn. Natalie, do you like the Lou Reed song at the end?”

“We already paid for it,” Natalie answered.