“But she’s never felt real. My dad talks about her like she was a famous, obnoxious stranger, and I only met her that one time.” I pictured that sepia-colored memory, walking in the park with a woman with long, black hair. She’d made me nervous. I remembered that now. She’d corrected me when I said something simple…that the sky was a pretty blue.
It’s azure.
She’d said something else as well. I could remember the tip of it. Sort of. I reached deeper into the memory. It felt like digging with my fingers.
“I’m glad he let me meet you.”
“What?” Eamon asked through the dark.
“That’s what Grandma Mae said to me. ‘I’m glad he let me meet you.’”
IRIS & RYDER Film: Elementia
Director: Cate Collins
On Location: Day 9
Killykeen Forest, Ireland A.M.
Cashel, Ireland P.M.
Filming Notes:
A.M.: SEVYN & NOLAN’s scene around the fire
P.M.: Evening shot at the Rock of Cashel. SEVYN, NOLAN, 24 human and elf extras. Cameos by IRIS & RYDER THORNE.
Etc. Notes:
Moving lock, stock, and barrel to the Rock of Cashel by one o’clock.
Mandatory tour of the ruin for all cast and crew at two with specific instructions to respect the property.
UNTANGLING THE TIMELINE
The video village was farther back from the action today because they were shooting dialogue. I sat in the canvas chair like I had the night of Eamon’s first scene, only now I wore headphones and peered into the monitor, watching like it was a movie. A real movie.
They weren’t even Shoshanna and Eamon anymore. They were Sevyn and Nolan, up all night together beside the lake, Sevyn fighting a fever. Nolan caring for this strange, cursed human who had woken him from a thousand years of slumber in his great, white-barked tree.
A small, real fire crackled between them, and I watched the wind catch the smoke and throw it at camera one. Cate yelled, “Cut!” and the grumbling from behind made me peer over my right shoulder at the Vantage studio execs. They weren’t watching; they were judging. Coolly, confidently. Their nearly matching suit coats and dark jeans made me feel like they’d come for a Matrix movie and were quite disgruntled to find themselves in Elementia.
Henrik spoke quietly to Cate. “We could douse it. Put the flames in later with CGI.”
“No,” she said.
More grumbling from behind. I checked the desire to give them my best stink eye.
Cate moved forward and spoke to her actors. Then she returned to her seat and called, “Action.” I fell back into the scene, holding my headphones tight over my ears.
Sevyn sat up from where she rested by the fire and eyed Nolan. “Who are you?”
“Be still.” Nolan moved closer, but she pulled away. “You cannot hurt me.”
“I can hurt everyone,” she snapped. “Who are you, elf?” When he didn’t respond but stared with curiosity bordering on passion, she turned, tears bright in her eyes. “You should not have helped me. You should not have touched me.”
Nolan’s whole body eased as he sat beside her. She glanced at him a few times before taking a deep breath. They stared at each other for so long I became aware of Eamon again beneath the makeup and the prosthetic ears. He looked at me that way. That was his love look. The scene continued, but I could barely pay attention. My mind flitted through my memories of us tangled up in the small trailer bed. I’d woken up this morning with my head on his shoulder and fought back tears.
Three more days in Ireland.
I focused on the scene as Sevyn stood in a rush. “My brother is hurt! Dying! I have to get to him!” She blacked out, collapsing into Nolan’s arms, and I marveled at how close she’d let herself fall toward the actual fire. From my reading, I knew Nolan was using his elven affinity with the elements to calm Sevyn’s lightning. He would help her learn to control it. To use it. To find that it was never truly a curse.
I didn’t even hear Cate call “cut,” and all of a sudden the crew was breaking down the set in a hurry. Henrik took over running things while Cate spoke heatedly with the Vantage execs. I swear her lax Irish accent returned to full strength.
Glancing around at Killykeen, I felt even worse about leaving this place than I had about watching Inishmore disappear behind the whir of the ferry engines. I took out my phone and started taking pictures of everything. Of Shoshanna and Eamon talking in their costumes. Of Ryder stuffing brown bag lunches into each crew member’s hand. Of the lake’s lonely island with its sulking tower where I’d first read my grandmother’s story.
I even snuck a photo of Shoshanna getting a makeup inspection from Roxy. True to form, Roxy looked like she stepped out of her own movie. The half of her head that wasn’t shaved had beautiful curls that cascaded over one shoulder, and she was wearing a flannel hoodie and about five men’s ties braided into a belt around her waist. Roxy started laughing at something Shoshanna said, and I snapped a couple more pictures of the two girls smiling at each other.
Shoshanna saw me with my phone, glared hard, and then whisper-hissed, “Text that to me immediately.”
I sent all my pictures to Julian as well, and I felt so damn in love with everything that I wanted more. More truth. More friends. More happiness. I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d remembered last night. I’m glad he let me meet you. Had my dad kept Grandma Mae away when I was little? That’s not the story he told. He said she was too busy writing to care about us.
I touched the app for my Gmail, wanting to be the one to reach out first after our fight. I tapped his email and left the subject line blank. Only one sentence in the body.
Why did you keep Grandma Mae out of my life?
I hit send.
Would
