Chapter 50

For the hundredth time Christopher checks his cell phone for service, even though he knows he can't get it all the way out here. By the time they got out to the movie site at the ghost town in Arizona it was midnight. He was exhausted, but he still couldn't fall asleep until almost four in the morning.

The production company has a little trailer for Cathy and Christopher all set up. It is six o'clock in the morning that Christopher tries one last helpless time to get cell reception. He looks at it annoyed and throws it on the counter and he heads out to his first day on his first movie set.

True he is only at a consultant position, but Cathy seems to think that the movie Volleyball Girl sticking to the book as much as possible is its best chance for succeeding, and Cathy is absolutely positive for that to happen Christopher will have to be there, hands on.

As Christopher steps down out of the trailer his mind is everywhere but here. He pictures Hannah sleeping in a small rickety bed with no daddy to hold her tight. No doubt she still has a smile on her face from being champion of the combined swim leagues, but it is just wrong.

Christopher's heart twinges as he can hear the conversation between Nan and Sarah where Nan is telling Sarah it is time to leave her behind, time to let her go. Christopher can just picture both of them looking at the phone longingly, wanting to call their daddy.

"I may not have been born to it, but I am their daddy."

Then there is Cathy, who is acting odder and odder as she no longer has any fingernails left. She is even more distracted than Christopher. He knows she loves the girls, too. But Cathy is not only acting odd, she is acting guilty, or something. Christopher hasn't been able to pin it down yet, and he figures it is because it isn't just about one thing.

To Christopher it appears Cathy is gearing up for or bracing herself for a life changing, or maybe even life shattering, chain of events. He shakes his head to get out of his head as he begins to walk through the ghost town to see if it is like the one the two main characters broke down in as he was given the volleyball girl a ride to Arizona for a match.

By the time he pulls himself out of his mood and looks up as a tumble weed goes rolling across his path and a warm breeze has already started to warm the day from the cold desert night. "You got to be kidding me?" He smiles.

He looks over the exterior of the old west ghost town and it will do nicely. He wishes he could put the intricate detail into words that he sees before him now. Sight, sound, smell, touch, the taste of the living world as it perforates your being.

"What do you think?"

Christopher nonchalantly jumps at the sudden intrusion from the director and Cathy. "The exterior is perfect. I like it very much."

"Good, then we can get started." The director starts to turn around.

"Where is the building that the girl goes wandering on her own and thinks she is being followed by a ghost and then the male character comes around the corner and runs into her and she screams."

"The old saloon in the middle of the town. It is pretty worn down, so we are going to get a bunch of shots, and then for the close ups we will recreate it back in Hollywood."

"Let me have a look at it real quick."

As Christopher and Cathy are walking off, the director turns around and yells. "We start filming in a half. Actors to the set."

Christopher turns around and thinks to himself, "I haven't seen people move like that since I was in the military."

They go through the front swinging doors that have been repaired by the film crew. He takes Cathy's hand and starts walking up the stairs. "Are you sure it is safe?"

"No. Come on."

"I'll wait here."

"Okay." he says, slowly giving her his own odd look. After the third step up the stairs he turns to Cathy and says, "If I could convey the creepiness of the creaking of these stairs I'd be a world class novelist."

As Christopher is going through the second floor of the saloon he realizes just how perfect it is to what he wrote. He couldn't have been more accurate if he had been standing here writing down everything he sees. "I guess the pictures in my mind's eye that I got from old movies were historically accurate. Awesome and well done, people."

By the time Christopher and Cathy come walking out into the streets the film crew and actors are set up and ready to go. The director looks to Cathy and asks, "Are we ready?"

Cathy looks to Christopher who nods. "Ready."

"Places!"

Cathy and Christopher get behind the scenes and watch a world that was created in his heart and mind coming to life before his very eyes. Christopher decides he likes it very much. He leans over to Cathy and whispers. "If this movie does well I think I will write a couple of screenplays. I already have a couple in mind."

Cathy looks up at him with adoring eyes and she seems to relax a little. Every time the director finishes a scene he looks back to Cathy and then Cathy looks to Christopher. After second, third and fourth shots of the scenes to be done out in the streets, the shooting wraps for a few hours until sunset at which another scene is to take place.

As the Volleyball Girl is standing on a hill watching the sunset, the war photographer character takes a picture of her with her hair flying in the wind and the sun highlighting her face, and at last from that picture the Volleyball Girl starts seeing that she is pretty, which is the essence of the story. Once he realizes he can make her believe in herself he starts believing in himself again.

"Director."

"Yes, Christopher."

"I really like the interior of the saloon, so the more scenes we can do in there the better, and I want several photographers taking pictures of the Volleyball Girl as she is watching the sunset and that should be the poster for the movie."

He looks to Cathy real quick and smiles. "Okay, that is a wonderful idea."

"Okay, I want the picture to be taken from what will be shown in the movie. Try real pictures, and if nothing else we can do a VidCap from the movie itself."

"Yes, sir."

"You hungry, babygirl?"

Cathy's eyes go big and her mouth starts to water. She smiles prettily, and at long last it looks like she is starting to relax. "I'm starving."

Christopher laughs, takes her arm and says, "Right this way, milady." They go back to their trailer and make love.

Even with a divine goddess in his arms, he wants to get there early to make sure the sunset shot is done with the spectacular radiance he can see in his mind when he wrote the book. It is the single most important part of the storyline. The girl starts believing in herself and the war photographer starts healing from his time in Afghanistan.

When Christopher goes out there, the director has five different filming cameras set up from various angles and he has three photographers with varying cameras and lenses spaced about.

Christopher is most pleased and when the Volleyball Girl comes walking out in the pretty dress Christopher imagined for the character that was bought for her by the other character, the dress is stunning.

The actress portraying the Volleyball Girl was actually a volleyball player. It was hard to find a semi-pretty six foot four inch teenage girl in the acting world who had played volleyball, so they found a real volleyball player.

By the time the sun has fallen and it is no longer viable to film a sunset that is no longer there, they get ready to start filming the two night scenes that happens during the only night the characters spend in the ghost town. It appears it is going to be a long day.

It also appears the filming crew had been ready for a while and they were just waiting on Christopher to get there. Every day the producer was losing money with nothing to show for it, but now it is underway and flowing beautifully.