Richard Cox - House of the Rising Sun

Considering the struggles Thomas had overcome, she expected him to demonstrate a little more empathy for the less fortunate around them. Instead, the appearance of the new star had turned him surly and selfish.

“What’s your name, honey?” Skylar said, turning to face the little girl.

After a moment of eye contact, the girl wiped tears from her cheeks and turned away.

“Come on, darling,” said the mom. “It’s okay.”

“Hey,” Skylar said to her, “did you ever see the show ‘Jeffrey’s Special Friends’ on Nickelodeon?”

The girl was still ignoring her, or pretending to, but recognition flickered in her guarded eyes.

“Do you remember Milou? The girl who made friends with the tiny people in her dollhouse?”

Now the little girl looked up again. Skylar pushed her sunglasses back and smiled.

“So, do you recognize me?”

The girl flashed a brilliant smile.

“Oh my gosh! You’re Milou! What are you doing here?”

“Well, honey, I’m an actress. Milou is a character I used to play. I came to Dallas to talk to Thomas, this guy next to me. He writes movies.” Skylar had learned about Thomas’ new project three months earlier. By the time she called her agent, she’d already been placed on the short list of possible leads, and after some negotiation and two weeks of waiting became attached to the project. That was when she requested an in-person meeting with the screenwriter. It was an unusual request and she expected Thomas to understand this.

For a short while, after her first breakout film, Skylar had relished the luxury of being universally desired, and this had led her to date a variety of actors. Intellectually she was drawn to gaunt men who didn’t shave much and who looked for projects outside the Hollywood bubble. With these guys she never wanted for attention or intellectual stimulation, but there was a hollowness to her attraction for them, a missing sense of security and sexual satiety that she fulfilled by dating another kind of man—less thoughtful, more clean-shaven, perfectly-groomed stars of thrillers and action-oriented pictures who considered the term “art film” an oxymoron. And when she finally found someone who embodied both archetypes, she impulse-married him after two months of dating. Skylar and Roark had been mocked by celebrity magazines and cable entertainment programs and late-night talk show hosts (Us Weekly had bestowed them with the portmanteau “Skylark”) but she hadn’t minded because she knew exactly what she was doing. She was a twenty-seven-year-old woman sitting on $75 million in career earnings. Her life bore no resemblance to reality the way most humans understood it, and this made her feel obligated to behave in absurd ways. Like run off to Milan where she married Roark in a ten-minute ceremony. Like celebrating their nuptials with ring finger tattoos followed by cinematic sex in a dark alley amidst the pouring rain. It was no surprise the marriage survived only two years, but Skylar was caught off guard by how depressed she’d been over the divorce. Which was why, when news of The Pulse had come along (just three months after Roark retrieved the last of his things from the house in Beverly Hills) she jumped at the chance to star in the film.

Skylar had flown to Dallas to discover which qualities the real Thomas shared with Thomas the screenwriter. Thomas the screenwriter adored women, and he believed in the power of romantic love even in a social media world where relationships were often untraditional. But now her plan was pointless. Now, the world felt like it was ending and her reason for coming here seemed ridiculous.

Except it was also the only reason she was alive.

“You’re Skylar Stover,” the girl’s mother said in a small voice. “My name is Chanda. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you before. I was so freaked out about the car and having to walk home that I didn’t really look at you.”

Skylar smiled awkwardly. She looked at the little girl again.

“I still don’t know your name.”

“It’s Amanda. Well, Louise if you include my middle name.”

“Pleased to meet you, Amanda Louise. I’m Skylar Inez.”

“Inez is your middle name?”

“Yes, ma’am. I have one just like you.”

When Amanda smiled again, Skylar’s heart ached. What would happen to this girl and her mom after Thomas dropped them off?

“Where should I turn?” he asked.

“Up here on Grayhawk. Make a right and a right and then a left. I’ll show you.”

Amanda was still smiling broadly and sneaking furtive glances at Skylar, but Chanda looked like she might throw up.

“So what are we supposed to do? I mean when we get home? What are y’all going to do?”

“I just flew in from New York,” Skylar said. “I landed twenty minutes before this happened. We barely got out of the airport.”

“I can’t believe it,” Chanda said. “I was in my car when it stopped working. Just stopped. I thought it was something with the alternator again, ‘cause I only had that worked on three weeks ago. But then I looked around and saw all the cars were stopped. Pretty soon people were getting out and walking around, looking confused, and that’s when we saw the light in the sky. We all knew it came from that, but no one knew what it was. Some guy said aliens. He said a spaceship could look just like that, a point of light, and maybe they’re launching an attack, killing all our cars and power so we can’t fight back.”

“I don’t think it’s a spaceship,” Thomas said. “But it might be a star that exploded. I’ve never seen one before, but I think that’s what it would look like. And no matter what it is, it’s going to be a big problem if the power doesn’t come back on soon. Which street do I turn on?”

“Right here on Swan Lake. Then your second left. Now just a few houses up. Yeah, right there. This is it.”

“Great,” Thomas said. “Let’s get you going.”

He stepped out of the car and helped the woman and her daughter onto the sidewalk.

“Thank you so much,” Chanda said. “I can’t thank you two enough.”

“We were happy to give you a ride,” Skylar told her.

Thomas took Chanda by the shoulder and pulled her aside. He spoke in a quiet voice.

“I want you to know it’s possible the power might not come back for a while, and you should prepare in case it doesn’t. Go to the grocery store right away and buy whatever food you can, like rice and beans and stuff that will last a while. Beef jerky. Canned vegetables. You realize if cars and trucks don’t work, it means no more deliveries to grocery stores. Without those deliveries, the city will run out of food very quickly.”

“You’re scaring me.”

“And before you leave for the store, fill your tubs and sinks and all your bowls with water. Without electricity the pressure will die in a couple of days and your faucets will stop working.”

“Are you joking? How do you know this?”

“Do you have a bicycle?”

“My daughter does. I think mine works but the chain needs oil.”

“When you go to the store, buy oil for the chain. Do you have cash?”

“Why do you act like this is the end of the world? Why don’t you think the power will come back?”

“Maybe I’m wrong,” Thomas said to her. “But what would you do if the power didn’t come back on for a month? A year?”

“Oh, my God,” Chanda said. She reached instinctively for her daughter and Skylar could see she was near tears again. “You don’t honestly think that could happen?”

“There’s no way to know for sure, but it’s better to be safe. How much cash do you have?”

“I don’t know. Like ten bucks?”

Thomas reached into his pocket and retrieved a money clip. He peeled off two hundred-dollar bills and handed them to her.