Cliff made room for Kylie on the platform, and as soon as she stepped up, the questions came. The first question came from a sc.r.a.ppy little n.o.body. She had a small stature and only looked to be about twenty-one, yet Kylie sensed that she had a bit of fight in her. "What do you think about playing two parts?" she asked. "You may not be playing the lead, but there is no doubt that the focus will be on you!"Kylie smiled. She hadn"t thought about it that way before. She had thought about it as if she were playing two half roles that added up to one. Only now did she realize that she was actually playing two roles. "It is a little intimidating," she admitted as her face turned a light shade of red, "but the team I am working with is great, and I am certain that they will be there to support me."
The interview went on for almost an hour, and the only reason it had to stop was that Director Miller had sent someone out to collect them.
Throughout it all, Khloe had been watching Kylie from her perch at the gate. As question after question came, she raged and continued to grow, and by the end, she wanted to dash ahead and tear Kylie"s smiling face from her skull – with her bare hands.
Before she"d left home, she"d notice graffiti on her door. It read: Those debts that can"t be paid with cash are eventually paid by other means. Of course, she knew what that meant.
This is all Kylie"s fault; she thought to herself. If it hadn"t been for Kylie, I would still be living the life of a princess. Instead, now, my life is like that of a rat or a garbage grabbing racc.o.o.n!
"I will make her pay," she hissed silently.
Khloe waited until the media had gone away before she entered the studio. The way things were now, the last thing she wanted to do was face the media.
Khloe waited in the green room with all of the other extras who were waiting to be called. Most of them had been picked up on the street, and they were very happy to be there. Not only had Director Miller offered them fifty dollars a day, but they would also be able to say that they were in one of the Millers films.
She had been there for about three hours when Miller popped in. He thanked everyone for coming, told them where the washrooms were when lunch would be served, and who to go to if they needed anything. "The most important thing to remember," he said, "is that you cannot go on the set unless you are directed to be on the set.
"If anyone breaks this rule," he continued, "they will be fired, and they will not be paid for any of the work that they"ve done. Considering that any take could be the take we use, everyone needs to understand how important this rule is. Other than that, we are a fun bunch, and I hope you all enjoy yourself."
Miller was just about to leave when he saw Khloe. "I recognize you," he said. "Who are you?"
"It is me," Khloe gushed. "Khloe Finch – sister of Kylie Finch! I play one of the beggars!"
Director rolled his eyes and said, "I"m sorry to say this, but your part has been cut. You can collect your payment for the day at the front door."
"Cut?" Khloe cried. "You can"t cut me. My dad invested money into this production so that I could have this role!"
"Your father must have been mistaken," Miller replied. "We hire qualified people to play roles. We look for investors, but we do not take bribes. This film will be successful, and everyone who invested in the film will have their money returned to them with significant interest. This is how business is run in Hollywood.
"Furthermore," Miller continued. "I am aware of your father"s condition. Let this role of yours go and be happy. Once the film hits theaters, the money will begin to roll in, and you will be able to pay your father"s hospital bills, and you won"t have to live in squalor anymore.
"If we took bribes, the quality of our films would go down, and everyone would lose in the end. If that doesn"t make sense to you, I am sorry, but I don"t have time to get into it any more than I already have. Feel free to grab a bite to eat on your way out."
Khloe was angry, but she refused to let it show. She actually was hungry, but she doubted they would feed her if she made a scene. Once Miller was gone, she put on her jacket, crossed the hall, and into the room where lunch was being prepared. She looked at the chef and said, "This is embarra.s.sing, but I was just fired. I don"t want to have to face my sister, who is one of the lead actresses. Do you think I could get my lunch to go?"
The chef rolled his eyes and said, "If you were fired, I need to feed everyone else first. Once they are done eating, you can take as much of the leftovers as you"d like."
When Kylie was changing her clothes and preparing to go to the makeup room, she saw Khloe arguing with the chef. Curious about what was going on, Kylie walked over and asked what was going on. The chef smiled and told Kylie everything. Hearing Khloe"s story, Kylie felt empathy for her, and she told the chef to give Khloe her share. "If I have to," she concluded, "I will skip lunch."
"Never mind," Khloe hissed as she turned and stormed away.
"That was really strange," the chef commented.
"Indeed it was," Kylie admitted. "We are sisters, though. Over time, you get used to each other"s quirks…"
Kylie watched the makeup artist as she performed magic on her face. "I don"t know how you do this," Khloe laughed. "You could turn John Merrick into an angel!"
The makeup artist looked at her funny and said, "Who"s John Merrick?"
"I can"t believe you"ve never heard of John Merrick," Kylie replied. "He was born in1862 with severe facial deformities. In his early twenties, he joined the carnival, and people called him "The Elephant Man". There is even a movie about him. Anthony Hopkins is in it."
"I"ve never heard of it," the makeup artist admitted, "but from what you"re saying, it sounds like no amount of makeup could have helped him."
Kylie said, "I know. It was just a joke."
As the makeup artist applied eyeliner, she said, "Kylie, your skin is really good. I don"t know how I"m going to turn you into a dirty little village girl…"
Kylie laughed and looked at herself in the mirror a little more closely and said, "I have heard that some actresses use a kind of injection into their face when they are trying to alter their appearance. What do you think? Would that help me?"
The makeup artist frowned and said, "I don"t use that technique, and I don"t recommend it. There is nothing that it does that I cannot do – and there are side effects to the injections. Don"t tell anyone, but Sally has had injections. Now there are lumps on her face. I can cover them up, but it wouldn"t be necessary if she hadn"t used them in the first place…"
The next time that Kylie saw Sally, she couldn"t help but look for the lumps. The makeup artist was as good as she claimed to be, though, and she couldn"t see the lumps.
In Kylie"s first scene, she was wandering through the market. Occasionally she picked up an apple or some other produce, but she purchased nothing. To the casual observer, she was just another shopper on the prowl for that one special ingredient to go with the soup she had simmering back home. Looking at her, there was no way of knowing that she was on a mission to end someone"s life.
At one stall, an elderly woman grabbed her and said, "Buy some broccoli."
It was a prearranged code, and the elderly woman was her contact. The elderly woman exchanged the broccoli for cash and palmed a piece of paper into the a.s.sa.s.sin"s hand.
"Is there anything you need for tomorrow?" the old woman wondered.
"Two pounds of pork," the a.s.sa.s.sin replied. It was all doublespeak – a language that few people understood.
A few blocks down, the a.s.sa.s.sin tossed the broccoli into the garbage.
Director Miller looked at the monitor and smiled in satisfaction. He could tell that Kylie had really studied the screenplay carefully, and when it came time for her to perform as a blind person, she did just as well as she had when she was an a.s.sa.s.sin.
Please go to to read the latest chapters for free