As Lucinda left the Hotel Jefferson for her early morning make-up call, she spotted Rollie and Angie in the grand lobby at the registration desk. Curious, she came up behind Rollie and wrapped her arms around him from behind, hugging him for dear life;
"Whats the love of my life doing here with another woman?" she said, her voice, boisterous as Rollie jumped, his face reddening slightly as the desk clerk looked at the couple strangely. Angie smiled, holding Aidan in her arms as Aidan began to rock and raise his arms out toward Lucinda.
"Oh Im sorry Aidan, I mean you, you sweetpea! YOU are really the love of my life!" Lucinda remarked, instantly releasing Rollie and grabbing Aidan from Angie.
Angie had to chuckle. Only Lucinda can make Aidan nearly bolt out of her arms wanting to be squeezed and cooed over so much.
"Bloody early for you, isnt it?" Rollie asked, turning around then as he watched Lucinda kiss his sons neck and cheeks a multitude of times.
"Hey, I could say the same for you! You guys checking into Four Diamond hotels now?" Lucinda replied, making a goofy face at Aidan who hugged her with a giggle.
Angie gulped as Rollie looked quickly at her and then, smiled softly in come back to the curious actress.
"Weve decided on a little comfy now, Luce and well, weve decided that we deserve it. Keeps the juices flowing "
Angie instantly gave Rollie a stern look, a warning since she knew Lucinda could take that comment and go with it.
"Oh? Well, thats cool. I was beginning to wonder about you two, anyway. Seems things are cooking just fine!" Lucinda replied, winking her nose at Aidan, "Well, I have to go. We have the ballroom scene today all day! Just getting into this make-up and costume is going to be over three hours!"
Rollie smiled silently due to Angies elbow in his ribs just before she took Aidan back from Lucinda.
"Luce, we should be over before noon. Were working on the headpiece this morning and some other problems. Aidan is going to be with us all day. Take time out at lunch, okay? Come see us and hey, bring John Grant over so we can meet him!" Angie said, smiling with a certain all-knowing look when she mentioned the lead actors name.
Lucinda didnt miss a beat and grinned; "Oh, you can count on it! We had a great dinner last night! He is just going to be fabulous to work with, I know it!"
Seeing that the location car had pulled up, she waved at them before racing off. Rollie grumbled something under his breath as Angie looked back at the desk clerk;
"Do you have an adjoining suite?"
"Think Production is going to have a bloody cow over the change in digs, Ange?" Rollie asked her as she adjusted the board with the Jasper chip inside the inner layer of the Will-O-The-Wisp headpiece.
"Yep, Gary will be down our throats probably by the end of today, once he gets word," Angie replied, turning back to her computer screen and starting her systems check and configuration files.
"Nasty thing, knowing the future," Rollie replied, gritting his teeth as he twisted the final screw down on top of the plate over the control knob box, "theres a good knob now, you ARE going to work this time!" he told the control knob as he looked up at Angie who was backspacing for the second time on an entry she had just tried to make on her program.
"I dont know the future, Rol, just the logistics of Gary and certain production guys who shall remain nameless. I dealt with Balonga before, while you were uh, gone those months. He was a pain in the ass."
"But you fought your way back, you F/X vixen!"
"Yeah, ever look at the footprints on my ." She started to say but stop in mid-sentence as she suddenly shivered.
"What?" Rollie looked at her face; the color draining as he felt the jab of coldness surrounding them too. He stood up and looked out the vans side rear window. They were almost alone on the location site at Seven Pines Hill. Some construction crewmembers were dismantling some props by the bluff but the majority of crew and cast were at Eventyn today.
"I dont know what the bloody hell Im looking for in broad daylight, Ange. I just got the feeling "
"I know, I got it too. Like last night " she replied, running her hand through the layers of hair on top of her head.
"Its gone now " Rollie observed, shrugging his shoulders.
"Yeah, come on Rol weve done this two times this morning already. This is the final time Im going to reconfigure this program."
"Yeah, okay here we go " he replied, frowning slightly as he pressed the control knob and bit his lower lip, waiting.
The Will-O-The-Wisp not only curled his grotesque aperture of a mouth, but the lower fleshy parts near the front rolled down exposing the jagged row of rotting razor sharp fangs that had failed in two previous attempts. Angie grinned from ear to ear and then quickly shot a look back at the monitor, reading internal temperatures in the headpiece.
"Its not climbing .! The real test will be when Judd Tolsen has it on and is feeling up Lucinda again!" she told him, putting her arms across her chest as she continued to smile. This new chip was doing its job nicely. Stu had been a godsend!
"Well, thats a few weeks off, my dear and it seems we have a luncheon date with Ms. Lucinda and Mr. Grant in about forty-five minutes," Rollie told her as he bent over and put his arms around her, his cheek resting against hers.
The closeness of his skin against hers warmed her as she closed her eyes for a moment. He kissed her upside down then as she giggled.
"Aidan, my boy, your mum is on the ball today!" Rollie announced, as they both looked over to Aidan who was busy chewing the edges of a large puzzle piece in the middle of the van. They had constructed a little play area for him in the van on a temporary basis, filled with his favorite toys. He was fenced in, but didnt really know it with the assortment of gadgets of his own to build.
Aidan looked up, looking at his parents, a bit of drool dripping from the corner of his mouth as he grinned at them.
"Look at that, hes looking more and more like you at work everyday, Rol," Angie commented.
Rollie smiled but no one could tell him that his child looked like him. It was Angie all the way in his sons face, his smile!
"Engrossed in the work, son? Your dad tends to spittle a bit on hard jobs as well! Dont lose heart!" Rollie told him as he leaned over and ruffled his curly head.
"Daddy go?"
Angie stood up and went over to Aidan, pulling him out of his little confinement area.
"Were all going, sweetie. Going to go to a big house and eat lunch. Come on, lets get you buckled in to your car seat."
Stu Westburn had made such a nuisance of himself that morning at Eventyn, he was finding himself even obnoxious. He had burdened the tour staff with meeting Hunter Eventyn, the fourth. He had disappeared from the tour over a dozen times and finally, he had been ousted from the final trip to the gardens and told to vacate the property before the local police were called.
He knew the tour had been restructured due to the filming in the gigantic west wing of Eventyn. He also knew, that Hunter Eventyn, would likely be hanging around on the set now, watching his ancestors come to life once again. Unfortunately, this was not the case and he sat finally, dejectedly on a mounting block near the grand entrance doors to the James River face of Eventyn.
"My boy, your derrière is blocking my attempt to climb this block. Im afraid you will need to depart this respite so that I might coax my little filly into a easy mount," came a voice from behind him. The voice, husky but refined in a Virginia drawl was then accompanied by the smell of a sweet smelling cigar.
Stu jumped up and turned around to see a man whose features were familiar even if his coloring was a pale comparison to the pictures in his hands.
"Oh my God, youre a ghost, Im talking to a ghost!" Stu murmured in amazement as he looked and then frowned. For this ghost was wearing riding breeches but a decidedly modern polo shirt with a Ralph Lauren polo pony insignia over his right breast pocket.
"Calm down, you movie people have very vivid imaginations, I must say," the man commented, whistling suddenly enough to shatter Stus eardrums.
A horse, fully saddled came at full gallop from about three hundred yards away, exiting from a stable to the west of the house. The man promptly climbed up on the mounting block, his crop under his left arm, pulling the cigar from his mouth with his right hand and grinned down at Stu.
"Shes ready for me today, eh? Such a magnificent one, a fine filly!" the man exclaimed, as his horse approached, snorting slightly from the exertion.
Stu backed away, the sides of the horse heaving slightly as the man mounted with ease just as he said he would do.
"Mr. Eventyn? Sir? My name is Stu Westburn and well, Ive been looking for you all morning!" Stu stammered out, looking up at the mounted, and quite impressive Virginia horseman.
"So you have .I dont see anyone until after I ride, Mr. Westburn. But say, you stay right here and about in an hour, see if I dont return here. I might be persuaded to waahoowa with you at that point "
"Waa .hoo..wa?" Stu asked, pathetically stammering now in confusion.
"Thats right, come on my dear Chessy! Waahoowa!" and with the shout he mustered from those syllables, he gently kneed his filly who responded by pricking her ears back and galloping off, leaving huge divots flying behind her.
"Great, Ive got to talk to Colonel Sanders and General Longstreet all in one person!" Stu said, under his breath as he kicked a mound of dirt clogs in front of him away.
Angie and Rollie arrived at Eventyn, slowly pulling the van into the special parking lot reserved for the movie crew. Aidan was ready to just run around the grounds as Rollie raced after his little son. He was heading straight for the English gardens and a probable disaster.
"Rol, watch him! Hell pull every flower top off if youre not looking!" Angie warned him as he gave her a quick little finger salute.
She smiled, putting her hand over her eyes, to shield them from the midday sun. She could see the west wing of the house with the crew equipment all situated neatly outside the west end doors. Extras and cast were mulling around in ballroom costumes as Angie made her way toward the house. She could see Lucinda walking up and back from her mark and then she saw her loop her arm through the receiving arm of her co-star. John Grant fumbled his step in the dance and ended up back to back with Lucinda as she snorted and giggled.
"Oh great! Shes already getting to the goo-goo eye stage," Angie commented as Rollie with Aidan in his arms, approached.
"Hes nothing special. Marvin is just as good-looking," Rollie replied, sizing the actor up.
Angie raised her eyebrows; "Not! But I bet hes as conceited as he can be!"
The Tyler family watched then in silence as they finished their rehearsed steps again and Gary Sanderlin was satisfied to break for lunch.
At that point, his direction was aimed at Rollie and Angie who both meekly backed away onto the grounds.
"Hold on there, Tyler- a word!"
"Yes, Gary?" Rollie asked innocently, handing Aidan over to Angie.
"Whats this I hear about you moving your accommodations and better yet, whats with the cookie cruncher on my set?"
Angie tightened her lips ready to go one on one with him but suddenly Lucinda raced up, John Grant in tow.
"Oh John, here they are! The best of the best, Tyler F/X and my sweet little boy, Aidan!"
Rollie shook Johns very steady handshake as Angie smiled and nodded her head slightly. Gary Sanderlin backed off for a moment until Rollie whispered into Angies ear that hed be right back, excusing himself.
"Whats going on?" Lucinda asked, pouting as Rollie turned his back to them and put his arm around Garys shoulders walking away. Gary Sanderlin seemed to be twitching slightly as they continued to carry their conversation on away from Angie and Lucinda.
"Oh, artistic differences, you know " Angie replied, grinning again at John Grant.
"So, this is Aidan Tyler?" John asked, grinning and then made a face to which Aidan appropriately and politely giggled. Angie relaxed.
"Yep, Rollie II, the sequel," Angie replied as Lucinda rolled her eyes.
"He is so cute! He reminds me of my son at that age!" John added.
Angie was surprised, but smiled and continued to smile.
Lucinda just looked mortified; "You have a son?"
"And two daughters, yep!"
Uh oh, romance going decidedly south, Angie told herself, feeling the squirming in Lucindas posture at the moment.
"Youre not married!" Lucinda protested.
"Not yet, but I am finally planning to make their mother legal, what?" he laughed, and held out his hands toward Aidan who readily wanted to jump into this nice mans arms.
"Why, goody gumdrops, Luce- isnt that swell?" Angie remarked, winking.
Lucinda was inwardly fuming. She began in earnest to use her costume fan as she flittered it about her face.
"Lunch everyone?" Angie asked, innocently.
Stu faithfully waited as directed by Hunter Eventyn. His stomach growling, his mission not yet finished, he watched as crew and cast swarmed around the catering tables.
"Hope they have some nice cold leg of lamb, you think?" came that familiar voice from behind him and Hunter Eventyn was standing there as if he had approached him with stealth capability. Where had he come from?
"Nice ride, sir?" Stu asked, scratching his head.
"Nice enough, sir Chessy was feeling her oats today, wanted to rub me off between two sweet willows in the meadow down yonder " Hunter replied, getting ready to light another cigar he had pulled from his pocket.
"Uh, Mr. Eventyn, the reason I wanted to talk to you, sir was about "
"Oh shucks, boy, the reason you want to talk to me is about her right?"
Stu Westburn looked at the grand patriarch of Eventyn as he puffed on his new cigar and opened his mouth, no words coming forth at first.
"Her?"
"Well, of course, her .shes been wrecking a little havoc on your movie, I imagine "
Stu frowned. He pulled out his pictures from the envelope again and handed them to Eventyn. He watched as Eventyn puffed his cigar slowly and finally raised his face upward, letting two fine curls of smoke escape.
"Got my great-grandfather all riled up again, I see but this one, hes new to me " Eventyn commented, pointed at one of the other faces the digital camera had outlined from the orbs down at Chickahominy bluffs.
"Sir, these pictures are of flux densities spirits emitted by special digital camera trifield meter readings!"
"Say what? What you got there, young man, are my damn relatives out sparking some havoc down by the river as usual. Now, just cause they be a bit dead, dont matter, right?"
Stu looked at the man, incredulously. This guy was unreal!
"Come on boy, hot damn! Lets go get us some of those movie victuals!" Hunter Eventyn, the fourth declared, "come on, you look like youre seen a ghost!" and with that parting shot, he slapped Stu on the back and headed for the tables.