The Slipper (55 page)

Julie was working extremely hard. There was quite a lot of tension on the set and she was under a great deal of strain, and when she came in after shooting it was Lund said, Lund this, Lund that from her son and that marvelous Mr. Jensen from Hannah. Mr. Jensen took us for a ride in his station wagon, I didn't see anything wrong with it and Danny was growing awfully restless being cooped up here all day. Lund bought me an ice cream. Lund took me to the rock shop and I got this pink rock, see, it's called quartz. I hope you don't mind, but I let that marvelous Mr. Jensen take Danny fishing this morning, he assured me it would be perfectly safe in the boat and Danny would wear a safety jacket. Mommy, Mommy, I caught a
fish
, a
big
one, well, at least I helped Lund pull it in. He's gonna have it gutted and cleaned and I'm havin' it for dinner. He's really quite thoughtful, Julie, took me to Stitch 'N Sew so I could get some new purple yarn and flew kites with Danny this afternoon.

Julie fully intended to search Jensen out and thank him for being so attentive and kind, also to make sure that Danny wasn't making a nuisance of himself, but she left so early in the morning, and when she came back in the late afternoon, she was exhausted, thoroughly depleted. They were filming the rape scene and it had taken three days already. It was extremely complicated, with close-ups, reaction shots, a great deal of action and dialogue, all shot in tiny bits that would be pieced together in the editing room. They were shooting it seven miles from town, in the woods and by a small lake, and everything that could go wrong did. Steve Murdock, who played Bill, was twenty-one years old, a former child star on television and a thorough pro, but Todd Burton, who played Eddie, was a husky, handsome youth of nineteen who had never made a movie before, winning this role only because he was the special protégé of an important producer at the studio. He meant well and he tried hard to follow directions, but getting a believable performance from him seemed almost impossible.

The crew was on the edge of the lake, lights, cameras, microphones all set up, half a dozen trailers and huge vans parked all around. The trees were blazing with color. The water was still. During the past three days they had done all Julie's scenes with both boys, the scene where Steve Murdock roughed her up and tore her dress, her flight through the woods with Todd in hot pursuit, just one scene remaining now, plus close-ups and reaction shots. They had been trying to get this last scene in the can for hours now. Try though he might, Todd couldn't seem to do anything right. John Stevens was at the end of his rope as they waited for Todd to have his makeup repaired.

“Anyone else would've been replaced days ago, when he kept blowing all his lines in that scene with Steve,” he grumbled, “but you don't replace the producer's boyfriend. Kid has good intentions, but he can't act for shit.”

“He's very good-looking and George says he photographs like a dream,” Julie said. “Be patient with him, John. Everyone has to start somewhere.”

“Not in a four-million-dollar Cinemascope production, they don't. Christ! Okay, sweetheart, I'll keep my cool. We'll shoot it again. Are you all right? He hurt you?”

Julie shook her head. Although they had carefully choreographed this particular bit, Todd, like most amateurs, was over-enthusiastic, and he invariably got carried away and was much too rough. It wasn't intentional. She knew that. He was a very nice boy, and with his thick brown hair and dark-blue eyes he did indeed photograph like a dream. She smiled at him as he returned from makeup, wearing tennis shoes, a white football jersey with purple number and very tight jeans. The bodice of Julie's blue dotted swiss frock was torn and her face was smeared with dirt and her hair was tangled. Todd gave her an apologetic smile as he approached. There was a long wait as one of the lights was replaced and a technician fiddled with the microphone dangling overhead.

“Sorry I keep blowing it, Miss Hammond,” he said politely. “I'll try to get it right this time.”

“You're doing fine, Todd. It—it's a very difficult scene. Just forget you're acting. Just—just pretend you're really going to rape me.”

A blush tinted the boy's cheek. Although built like a quarterback and extremely virile, he was as shy as she was.

“All right!” Stevens yelled. “Microphone working okay? The light ready? Look, Todd, Steve's already mauled her and torn her dress and she got away from him and has been running through the woods and you've been chasing her, getting angrier by the minute, hornier, too. She pauses for breath by the edge of the water and you come tearing out of the trees and you seize her and drag her away from the water and throw her down on the ground. ‘You're not getting away this time, baby,' you say and then you fall on top of her. That's all. You got it? Think you can do it?”

Todd nodded nervously. They took their places, Julie standing at the edge of the water, looking anguished, looking terrified. There was a shadow across her chin. They had to readjust the lights. Thirty minutes later they started filming. Todd came tearing out of the trees, looking angry, looking horny, and he stumbled and fell and John yelled “Shit!” and then yelled “Cut!” There was mud on Todd's jeans. He had to change into another, identical pair. Julie had a cigarette, a nervous wreck by this time, trying not to show it. They started again and Todd seized her arm brutally and jerked her away from the water, leering, eyes full of lust, and then he hurled her roughly to the ground and placed his hands on his thighs and looked down at her and leered some more and shouted, “You're gettin' away from me this time, baby,” and John Stevens threw his hands up and said “Cut” and said “Let's try it again” in a sepulchral voice.

The scene was traumatic enough in itself. Julie had to psych herself into it, had to become a terrified young girl about to be raped, and the constant retakes and long waits made it much worse. As the afternoon wore on, she felt her nerves snapping, felt the tears coming on, and while that was very good for the scene, while it suited her character's state of mind, it was emotionally demolishing. God, she needed something. She needed something badly. Why hadn't she replaced the pills? What was she trying to prove to herself, doing without them all this time? They did the scene again, and, really getting into it now, Todd almost pulled her arm out of its socket when he grabbed it and knocked the breath out of her when he shoved her to the ground. Tears sprang to her eyes. She started to sob hysterically and it was great, it was marvelous, she was giving a fantastic performance and Todd yelled “You're not gettin' away this time, baby” very convincingly and then he leaped on her, forgetting the choreography, forgetting the head stuntman's careful instructions and demonstration on how to fake it, how to fall without hurting her. Julie screamed as the full weight of his body landed on top of her.

“Cut!” Stevens yelled. “Great! It's a take! Good job, Todd. You finally came through and you did it with flying colors. Julie, sweetheart, you were nothing short of sensational!”

Todd climbed off of her and scrambled to his feet and reached down to take Julie's hand. She shook her head violently and covered her face with her hands and continued to sob. Stevens yelled for the doctor and then she felt his long arms wrapping around her, pulling her up, holding her tight. “I'm sorry,” she sobbed. “I—I'm all right. I'm—” And she continued to sob and he was leading her away, leading her to her trailer, helping her inside, and she looked up through her tears and saw his face, white and frightened, and she knew she must get hold of herself but she couldn't seem to stop sobbing. The doctor came and she flatly refused to let him examine her. She was all right, she was just upset. Please, please go away, she begged. He asked if she was still taking the tranquilizers and she shook her head and he said he'd get another bottle immediately, stronger this time. He left and Julie finally managed to control the sobbing. John was still very white, still very frightened.

“I'm all right now,” she said in a trembling voice. “It was just—the scene was so intense, and—”

“I'm revising the shooting schedule,” John told her. “We'll shoot the reaction shots later, back home in the studio if we have to, but you're not doing any more work on the rape scene now. We've got enough footage already and the rest of it's in the can except for the shot of Steve pulling his jeans up—we don't need you for that.”

“You don't have to—”

“I'm going to shoot Loni's meeting on the green with the high school principal tomorrow, she'll raise holy hell but that's just too bad, she's been loafing for four days now. After that I'll shoot Carolyn's scene out on the school lawn where she's examining her students' sketchpads and glances up and sees you going past in your gym shorts—we'll shoot your bit later on. You're taking a week off, sweetheart.”

“That isn't neces—”

“I'll shoot around you. We won't lose a single day. You've been working your ass off, giving one hundred percent. You need some time off. Can't have you cracking up on us.”

Julie gave him a grateful look. Stevens gave her a hug. The tears still spilled slowly down her cheeks, but the awful trembling inside had stopped now. John left and the wardrobe woman came in to help her out of the tattered dotted swiss and into her street clothes. Bathed in light, looking replete and satisfied, Steve Murdock was pulling his jeans up in front of the camera as the studio car drove Julie away.

Hannah was appalled by the sight of her when she got back to the inn. She put her to bed immediately.

Julie stayed in bed for the next two days, getting out only to take scalding hot baths. Her body was stiff and sore and there were several bad bruises. The baths helped. So did the tranquilizers and the sleeping pills the doctor had sent up to her room. Hannah watched over her like a mother hen, seeing to her every need, and Danny was an angel, behaving himself splendidly, sitting on the edge of the bed, gazing at her with woeful eyes and stroking her hand. She smiled and told him she would be fine, she just needed to rest. Reassured, he ran off for a ride down the hall on Nettie's cart and a game of Fish with Mike. On the third day Julie felt much better and decided she would lunch downstairs. Hannah fretted, said she still looked weak to her, said she'd better not overdo it. Julie ignored her and continued to dress. Room service was sending up hamburgers and french fries for Hannah and Danny, but she wanted to get out of the suite for a while.

She felt remarkably fit as she went downstairs. Her body was still a bit sore, but the stiffness had gone and the bruises had already begun to fade. It was rather early, barely eleven-thirty, and the restaurant was almost deserted. Like the lounge, it was charmingly rustic in decor. A waiter showed her to one of the tables and Julie explained that she hadn't had breakfast and asked if it would be possible for her to have an herb omelet. He said, “Of course,” and inquired if she'd like a drink while she waited. Julie hesitated a moment, longing for a glass of cool white wine, but strength of character prevailed and she told him she'd love coffee. She lighted a cigarette and was gazing at the old-fashioned prints hanging nearby when Lund Jensen came over to her table.

“Hello there,” he said.

She looked up, startled by the sound of his voice. He was wearing a soft wheat-colored turtleneck sweater and tan slacks and looked like a rugged Viking god with that thick blond hair and those vivid blue eyes. He smiled, extremely casual, as though their evening together had never taken place.

“I hear you've been ill,” he said. “Feeling better?”

“I wasn't really ill, I—I was just exhausted and—yes, I'm feeling much better now.”

“Overwork?”

“In a manner of speaking. We filmed the rape scene. One of the boys got carried away, forgot we were acting and roughed me up a bit—not intentionally. He was very perturbed, sent flowers and candy and a charming note thanking me for helping him with our scenes together.”

“You get it all filmed?”

“There are some reaction shots and we were supposed to shoot a brief scene of my crying and pulling my dress back up after the boys have left, but I think John plans to cut to the forest ranger bringing me into the house. We're shooting all the interiors back in the studio, except for those in the gym.”

“Making movies must be a very complicated business,” he said.

“It is.”

The waiter came with a pot of coffee. He brought two cups. Lund hesitated and then asked if he could join her for a few minutes. She nodded, her manner cool. She remembered how close she had felt to him that evening, how much she had talked, how intimately. He probably thought she was a fool. He hadn't made an effort to see her again in all this time. Julie felt very ill at ease, but she was glad to see him nevertheless.

“I want to thank you for being so kind to Danny,” she said. “He and Hannah have been telling me about—about all the things you've done for them. I hope Danny hasn't been a nuisance.”

“Not at all. He's been a delight.”

“He's extremely fond of you.”

“At least I've made points with one member of the family,” he said.

Julie looked up at that. She saw his eyes and all that was in them. Lund lowered his eyes, pouring coffee for both of them. Could … could she have been wrong? Could their evening together possibly have meant as much to him as it had to her? Julie was confused.

“So when do you go back to work?” he inquired.

“Not for three more days. They're shooting around me for the rest of the week.”

“I—uh—I don't suppose you'd like to go to a fair tomorrow?”

“A fair?”

“A county fair, over in Maine. They have rides, harness races, junk food, interesting booths, handicrafts for sale—I thought Danny might enjoy it. You might find it amusing yourself.”