Tom Piccirilli - Headstone City

Dane took the card and said, “I might just do that.”

They stood, shook hands, and walked out of the bakery together, Dane carrying the pink box. Cogan made a left down the block and Dane went right, turned the corner, and watched with mild surprise as the boy with the sick brain stepped up.

He was just suddenly standing there, leering so wide that the corners of his mouth had split and leaked a little blood. He still had on his hospital jammies and slippers.

“If you've got something to say to me,” Dane told him, “let's hear it. In English.”

The kid cocked his head at that, and the smirk eased up enough that his lips managed to cover his teeth.

He took a step forward and his knees nearly buckled. Dane moved to catch the boy and felt a sense of loving, encompassing warmth, but no weight.

The boy followed him home and in through the front door without ever saying a word. Dane lay on the couch and stared at his grandmother eating her dessert while she watched soap operas and got ready for bingo.

She finished her cannoli, got her coat and kerchief on, and stood in the doorway. She looked at Dane with concern. “What's'a matter for you?”

“Nothing.”

“Don't tell me that, you've been on pins all evening. What? That dead girl bothering you again? She's got nothing better to do, that one. Always with the sassy mouth, I hear her sometimes.”

“No, Grandma.”

“The mess at Chooch's? With the gun and the shooting the strunzo in the leg? You only did what had to be done. You should be proud, not taking shit off one of those strong arms. They watch a few cable television shows, a couple Scorsese movies, and suddenly they're mobsters?”

“I know. It's not that.”

“Don't mope, it's not healthy,” she said, and shut the door.

Dane sat back and stared into the boy's eyes, looking deeply, hunting for intelligence and answers.

“Is there anything going on in there?” he asked.

“Yes,” the boy with the twisted head answered.

Then he pressed the side of his face against Grandma's afghan and appeared to go to a comforting, but not yet eternal, sleep.

Glory Bishop, on her stomach naked in bed, read through a pile of scripts with one leg tapping the air while Dane ran his hand over her thigh.

She'd wanted another go in the funky swing, but he thought maybe he was just too old-fashioned at heart. He couldn't get over the nagging fear that if they got too wild, they might go out the window.

Now he listened to her tinkling the ice cubes of her White Russian, talking about the shitty screenplays that her agent kept sending on.

“This one here,” she said. “I should fire the bastard for even wasting my time with it. Another horror movie. Naked bimbo in the woods running with her tits out while a serial killer stalks her. She's screaming her ass off, swims through an icy river-”

Dane pictured it and thought it might be something he'd like to watch. Glory Bishop in the water. Every dumbass flick should have one scene like that, so if you caught it on cable late at night, you'd sit there waiting for it to come around. Her agent wasn't so stupid.

“-she makes it to the other shore and the killer slips out from behind a tree and uses a wrench on her. Go through all that because the male audience wants hard nipples. No mention of this wrench up until now. No mention of how in the hell the bad guy managed to get to the other side of the river and still be in dry clothes. This bimbo role, it has exactly thirty-two lines, half of them are screams.”

She leaned over and showed him the page. Dane read the dialogue. Augh. Yeee. No, please, I'll do anything you want. Wah.

He asked, “These writers, they make a lot of money too?”

“Yeah, and this one is also directing.” She started working her thigh against his hand, eyes shut and face softening for a second. “He figures he doesn't need characterization if he's stylish enough, with the angles and music. Lots of rainy shots at night and quick edits. He wants to play the role of the killer too.”

“Sounds like he just wants a cheap feel but still say he was acting. While he wrenches you to death.”

She reached over the side of the bed and brought up three more scripts. “This one, they're trying to pitch it as science fiction. Called Zypho: Creature from Beyond the Edge of Space. Monster with these penislike tentacles tries to impregnate the all-female crew as they fly around the galaxy.”

“In shiny latex outfits?”

“And high heels.”

More lesbian scenes, Dane thought, shifting onto his side so he could stare at the curve of her jaw, where the light showed the soft blond hairs just beneath her ears. It couldn't be hard to make a profit in Hollywood just so long as you knew a few strippers.

He reached for her drink, took a sip, and nearly gagged. Jesus, Kaluha, the hell did anybody ever drink it? “You got only regrets about doing Under Heaven's Canopy ?”

“It sorts of annoys me that all anyone remembers is the pole scene. But I wouldn't call that a regret exactly.” A crease appeared between her eyes. “Not yet anyway. Feels like it could become one.”

He looked around the bedroom, stared through the open door at the living room beyond, thinking how this place probably ran about 2 million.

She picked up on it and told him, “It's not drug money that's paying the bills here. My husband really did make a lot of cash through his films, before he fucked it all up. Property, stocks, a couple of good productions. The lawyers say more of his assets will be frozen soon. I need to start getting back into the game.”

Dane wondered why, then, if she needed to play it so straight, was she bringing him along to premieres instead of some hot director or producer or actor? “You want to break into serious roles?”

“I'm not interested in doing Lady Macbeth, if that's what you mean. But I'd like a film with some real dialogue, a fleshed-out character behind it. Maybe keep my nipples under wraps.”

“What kind of movies did the Monticelli clan want to invest in?” It was the second time he'd asked. The first was right after playing around with the swing the other night, after Vinny had stepped in, then stepped back out of that particular existence. He didn't get an answer then, as they got frisky in the funky seat.

“I'm not sure, but it had something to do with the daughter.”

Dane's chest tightened. “How's that?”

“The old mobster's daughter. She wants to be in pictures. She wanted him to set her up with the beginning of a career. Like it's easy to do, buy your way into a production company, tell the investors your daughter's going to be the star, even though she's never even been in a high school play.”

“You sure about this?”

“I'm sure of what I heard, but I don't know how true it is. People love to sling shit, especially at anyone who might be trying to steal their credit.”

“Who'd you hear this from?”

“Just gossip between a couple of my husband's cohorts. Nothing serious, just a bunch of talk.”

She stared at him with a real curiosity, like she was waiting to see what this information might do to him. He kept getting the feeling that she knew more than she was telling him, but he couldn't see how that would fit in with anything else. He stared back at her the same way and she let out a giggle like he was just being goofy in bed.

So Vinny wasn't getting into the film industry to make money, he was doing it for Maria. Vinny used to talk a lot about the history of the neighborhood, pointing out the buildings where the silent era movie stars once lived. If Maria wanted to be in film, Dane figured it was because of that. Growing up in Headstone City, on the hill that still held on to the respect and history of Meadow Slope.