Between You And Me

6~Dummy

“It was a dummy,” one of the constructors proclaimed. He was a tall, bulky man who attempted to lift the body up so someone could take them down but when all his strength propelled the pillow-shaped body to the ceiling too easily, he frowned. “The things just a sick prank.”

“How did it get in here?” Cross asked no one in particular.

The man scratched his heavy beard, looking up at the thing still hanging. “Don’t know. But there’s…leg written on it. L-L-E-G.”

I refused to look at the thing even further, still feeling my heart race as my Dad patted my back as I clung to him like a child awakening from a nightmare. Director Cross was silent for a moment before finally addressing the workers who paused to surround the study area. “There’s a cultist among us.” He pointed to the dummy behind him as I heard the grunts of it being yanked down from the ceiling. “L-L-E-G. That doesn’t stand for ‘leg.’ It stands for ‘Long Live Ezra Graham.’ So, who’s trying to cause problems on my set?”

Everyone stayed silent, their eyes darting to one another nervously before Director Cross took a step forward, crossing his arms domineeringly. His green eyes darkened as he looked at everyone in the room. “This movie isn’t to glorify this heinous man. Ezra Graham isn’t someone to be modeled, to be worshipped, and, honestly, is absolutely unremarkable! This movie is to find out why he did this, to give closure to victim’s families who are still haunted by the past, and to finally put a f*****g end to Ezra Grahams’ ghost!” In a burst of rage, he turned to the men still holding the dummy with L-L-E-G written and glowered at the pillow person as though trying to stab it with his gaze. “And go throw that damn dummy away! s**t!”

Without another word and breathing heavily, he stomped passed the crowd and towards the front door to get some fresh air. Dad loosened his grip on me as my eyes followed Cross until he finally disappeared around the corner and we all heard the slamming of the front door, the crystal chandelier shivering at the shock. For a moment, everyone stood silently before the second man in charge grunted which caught everyone's attention, slowly scattering to their work.

Despite no longer needing my father to soothe my nerves, he kept a hand on my shoulder, while also keeping his eyes on Cross until he disappeared. “Mmmm,” he mumbled, catching my attention.

“What?”

“Someone has a grudge.”

“Director Cross?”

Although he’d long disappeared at this point, Dad kept his eyes in the direction he left in, squinting and thinking. “Why do I feel like I know him from somewhere?”

At this point, I felt his hand fall off my shoulder as I stood up from his embrace. “Probably from magazines and TV.”

Nervously, I looked back at the study with the door wide open, the dummy no longer hanging in the middle of the room. It was a large room, polished and proper, as though Ezra himself had just finished his work for the day and stepped out. Even after years of abandonment, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was a hint of a scent that made me feel overwhelmed and had my heart racing until I finally stepped out. “I need some air.”

“Not with Director Cross,” he said, giving me a grim look that had ice running down my back. “There might be cameras.” He added the second part as though to cover for the first. To cover his discomfort with me socializing with the director that began to manifest the moment he noticed our hands together. Although it’d only been a few days, Director Cross had an ambiguous grasp upon me I couldn’t quite identify. He calmed my nerves; be brought a warm feeling to my chest that coursed throughout my entire body. And something about him made me feel at home.

Is that how he got his more difficult actors to relent to his productions?

I shook the idea out of my head, now hearing Dad’s voice in my head as I walked away from him and towards the backyard, away from Cross as he requested it. Personally, I needed a moment for myself. What was that, that dream the moment I stepped in here? It's as though I’d been here more than once, walking around and knowing the scenery better than I knew myself. Goosebumps sprouted along my arm as I stepped into the heat of the day, the sun shining down to combat the chill of whatever had come over me. Why did I know this place? Had Lilah brought me here more than that night of the accident? Had I stayed here for that long I knew the layout of this place?

Whatever had come over me, it dissipated once I opened the door on that dummy. Only the fear of it awakened me to myself.

“Needed some air too?” a voice asked.

I turned to see Cross walking down the steps to my side with a small book in hand. With a nod, I crossed my arms, already feeling the familiar comfort of his presence seeping through me. “When I walked inside, I felt like I knew the place; I could hear the lines of the movie and see it play out like a performance before my eyes. It was weird.”

He was silent for a moment, staring down at his shoes before looking up at me with a sigh. “What exactly did you see…?”

“Just…went through the script. Lilah meeting Ezra and Asher getting her luggage as they walked by the study. Then I heard him tell them that no one’s allowed in the basement by the study…”

A ghost of silence flowed around us, no longer recalling anything passed that as the dummy had called me back to reality. For a moment, I wondered what he was thinking. I’d once been here before, kidnapped by a mad pastor to stay and ran with Lilah into the night until…

“There you both are!” a voice cut in, a carpenter on set. “There’s a few cars coming around. They said they’re the actors that wanted to see the set.”

Cross pursed his lips in frustration at the news. No one was supposed to come until tomorrow for the first time after the table rehearsal. “Why… never mind. I’ll handle it.” With a sigh, he climbed back upstairs and I didn’t know whether to stay or follow him, wondering how this would end. For some reason, in the back of my mind, I knew Rosemarie was the leader of the band who probably convinced them to come after Director Cross’s lengthy absence.

Internally, I agreed and followed to sate my hunch. Walking through the mansion towards the front door, I could already see the cars parking in the front and the first car, a shiny red Beatle I’d become familiar with as Rosemarie’s favorite car to drive to the studio. Yes, she was the leader. And at the realization, I shook my head with a chuckle as she cut the engine and stepped out in a pair of Prada sunglasses and a Channel handbag limping into the crook of her elbow.

“Why no invitation, director?” she pouted, gliding up the stairs. This child looked like the spoiled child star who had too many things granted for very minimal effort, unwilling to see anyone else be granted anything she didn’t already have.

Cross groaned at the sight of her. “Why are you all here? The set isn’t done yet and you’re supposed to be here tomorrow. Couldn’t wait one day?”

Lifting her sunglasses, her hazel brown eyes found me before landing on the director. “Thought we’d have a field trip since the main girl was nowhere to be found for rehearsals.”

“Then you should have gone home, not here.”

With a pouty face that could twist the heart of any man, Rosemarie looked up at him apologetically. “I’m sorry. We were talking about what the house looks like now and kind of convinced ourselves to check it out.”

However, Cross didn’t look as though he were falling for the puppy dog's eyes. He pointed a strict finger at her as he glared, already having enough to deal with for the day without whatever she was trying to do. “You had no right. The set is closed for the day and I’m going to need you all to head home for the day and maybe even tomorrow. We’ll actually start practice on set next week.”

“What!?” she gasped. Internally, I was asking the same question. When shooting a movie, every day counted and a day wasted was money flying out the window. Cross was already a controversial topic in this town with this movie about Ezra and his victims and the longer we stayed, I knew there’d be more problems similar to the dummy. But I understood why he pushed it back.

Taking a deep breath, he gestured for everyone to get out of their car so he could address them properly. This wasn’t just for Rosemarie’s ears. I witnessed the redness climbing to his cheeks in frustration. He’d barely been on set and already had multiple problems. Once they were all out, he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at them from the top of the stairs, his eyes gliding over them as though he were trying to select his next supper.

“We’ll start production on Monday. But first, I need to trust that all of you know your lines, know your characters, and know where the boundaries should be! Coming here because one of your co-workers thought you could make a little field trip out of a surprise is crossing a boundary right now!” He stayed silent, allowing his words to sink in before continuing. “I understand the fascination with ‘The House’ but this wasn’t the smartest choice right now. So we will all come here—as a crew—on Monday morning to start rehearsals. But for now, I need you all to go home, practice your lines, and be ready fresh and early Monday morning.” And then he looked at Rosemarie, who flinched at the dark gaze he granted her, not used to someone looking down on her probably. “And if you feel like I’m not giving you as much attention as your coworkers to pull a stunt like this, you will be asked to leave production and will be replaced.”