Mulberry Part 1

Chapter 260

Mulberry

Part 1

 

It seemed like the whole day had gone by quickly, yet in many ways, it seemed we were standing still. My mother had found something to do after finding watching us redo the same scene’s not as interesting as the first time we did it. My mother spent her time working on a large tablecloth for my grandmother, using Tri-chem. paints, which were basically a tube full of paint with a ball tip like a pin as you color in the pattern of your choice. It was a fast dying paint but the smell was strong as it filled the room the moment you walked in and if you stayed long enough you could get a headache if you weren’t used to it. It helped to have the window open, and with the AC on she was quite comfortable, while heat outside was hot and muggy.

Mom scene took three takes until Mr. Kirkland was satisfied. By the time we had redone her scene and the janitor scene, it was almost 3 pm in the afternoon way past the original deadline when we were supposed to be done for the day and back in Heber. Stringum had Landon make reservations at Hilton in Hollywood near the Los Angles Airport. For us, so we wouldn’t have to worry about flying back and forth just to film a couple of scenes of our new Mulberry Street were many of our characters live.

Mr. Kirkland wanted a morning scene where kids would be getting on the bus and end up at our High School to make it more of real-time reality. Even though they were completely separate, but had the appearance that they were both in the same town.  Plus the fact we could do anything we liked, being as the whole block was nothing more than a movie set.

We did a quick rehearsal of the gym scene so Mark and I could practice what would take place once we were back home using our own Heber High School Gym, Stringum would do some sort of lottery allowing those students to participate in our movie. Using the partial scenes from the other prep-rally and mesh the two together to make the crowd bigger while our newly picked students would be the ones actual surrounding me and Mark as we wrestled on the floor of the gym.

It looked real and felt real as we punched each other, but not hard enough to really hurt each other. Franklin job was the hardest because we needed clothing we could rip apart easily, like my buttoned shirt as Mark ripped it open tearing off the buttons as well as the sleeves as it hung loosely torn down my arms. His shirt was the hardest because it was a cotton T-Shirt with no buttons, which meant for me I had torn and stretch at the neck having the large tear go halfway down his chest. Franklin cursed as he had gone through several shirts using grinding wheel they use to sand the wood with. Several times he had to start over because it either it was too much and tore right on the wheel or it was too tough for me to tear with my bare hands.

Mom had better luck soaking the shirts in color safe bleach, but the smell was overpowering, but it worked quicker the moment she put a block of sandpaper to it. But the problem was we had to wash the shirts after the process so we could wear them. It was doable, with the time we had, as Mom and Franklin opened several packages and started the processes.

The proof would be in the pudding as they say, but the most important part was our fight, as I laid on top of him face to face trading each breath to the point we would be close enough to kiss, but we remained in that position until I was being pulled off him. The thing that mattered most was our shirts were ruined and our chests were exposed. Even more so when I had lost a shoe by accident; having Mr. Kirkland write it in because it only added to the fact, being as I wasn’t wearing socks with my shoes, yet they wanted something more, but they argued if it was going a bit too far.

Mom stated that it wasn’t anything other than seeing us in our swim trunks or a pair of shorts. Watching Franklin cringe because that meant they wanted him to ruin a good pair of jeans as well, wanting the zipper to break open and the pants to rip from the zipper to the crouch. Dad added that one of us should wear heart-shaped boxers; getting the approval that it would be good for the comedy aspect as the students laugh, seeing that Mark had ripped my pants, during the fight, plus the Tangled Hearts aspect.

By the time Mr. Kirkland was satisfied with the fight scene, it was nearly 4 pm. The flight was 30 to 40 minutes and the drive would be at least an hour.  He had sent his own crew ahead to set up. I could only imagine the cost of flying back and forth, but the thing was we were done with our set here today. We were just rehearsing the gym fight, and the shower scene giving the men time to set up the Mulberry set. Most of the equipment would be sent overnight while we were resting and working on our homework.

The moment we were done, with our scenes our trailers started to pull out and head for the big storage compound. We wouldn’t need them in Mulberry since we would use one of the sets houses for makeup and wardrobe. Franklin and his team quickly made inventory what they would need and sent their gear to the plane. I could only imagine the costs, of what a real movie would need to film it. Yet Stringum acted like it was only pennies. In fact, he was overjoyed that Mr. Tate was no longer in the picture, in fact, we all were. However the impact was yet to be seen, and who would play the part of Mr. Tate on Saturday and if his clients would believe that our Mr. Tate and their Mr. Tate was the same person.

That, however, worried us all the most, but my grandma would say never count your eggs before they hatch or borrow trouble without a reason. Most of us like me slept on the way to our Mulberry scene. It felt like minutes when I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, after having no sleep for two days or very little. Yet the one thing that mind couldn’t process what I had seen back in the old mine, those things that used to be people, transformed into ghouls eating the flesh off their victims.

I had yet to tell Mom and Dad what I saw and what had taken place. Not even Tony or Jenny was willing to speak of it. Not after finding out Antonio was the devil in wolfs clothing pretending to be our friend and loyal to us. When the fact was he was anything but. None of us trusted anyone here after that, we had agreed not to speak of it until we were safe and free from people that might overhear us.

Dad nudge me when we arrived seeing nothing but houses everywhere, then a bunch of hills, then nothing for a few miles until we came across a chain link fence that said Private Property of Hollywood Production Company. There was a large black metal gate with a security guardhouse on the right side of the gate. Mr. Kirkland and Stringum got out of the car ahead of us, and quickly showed him some papers as I watched Stringum place a well placed white envelope in his hand watching the guard quickly stick it into his back pocket telling his friend to open the gate and let us all in.

It was breathtaking the moment we arrived it was almost dusk as the sun was reaching its lowest point in the sky. So when we looked down the hill where there were only two streets of nothing but houses, the rest was nothing but opened land and couple of large warehouses it was one of the most beautiful scenes I have seen.

Every home or every third or second house looked exactly like the others. Nice cookie cutter houses with small average lawns, and very green and manicured. Some of the driveways had cars parked in them others did not, it looked empty without anyone on the streets, it had this eerie feeling as if someone was watching you behind those large living room curtains. Not so much as a dog bark or the sound of children playing making it even creepier.  The only sound and movement was our crew setting up as they had cranked up the boom box hoping to make the place less eerie.

My arm hair was raised with goose-flesh as we followed Stringum and Mr. Kirkland to where he had chosen for the character of Mr. Bronson to live. Everyone else had picked numbers out of a hat after the main characters had been given their houses. We knew the houses were empty, but the feeling of being watched was ever so present. Dad pulled up in our rental behind everyone else; letting Stringum and Mr. Kirkland have the limo all to themselves so they wouldn’t have us bothering them while they talked business.

My mother gave a heavy sigh stretching her legs stating she would hate to live in a neighborhood where every house was the same. Not that hers was anymore different than neighborhood almost just like this, but she didn’t live in a wall to wall houses either, and they didn’t look the same as hers, and I mean exactly alike.

Mr. Kirkland quickly took charge by, having our filming crew go up the street and start filming coming off the hill so he could get a nice sunset scene with the houses, as the rest of us took our houses and began making the neighborhood filled with activity. It looked strange as the automatic lights came on inside the houses and some of formed a team of basketball or rode bikes up and down the street like we owned the place.

Dads were playing catch in the front yard as Mr. Bronson car came down the street, with Terry and his bother who had changed into a soccer uniform as they pulled up to his house at the end of the street as everyone either waved or didn’t pay them any attention.

The house wasn’t much to look at in the inside. Some barely had anything but walls with only studs, holding them up or sheet rock more like metal sheets 4 inches thick with sheet rock on one side and on the other Metal. Dad said it was made that way so the house would remain solid during a really bad storm.  Some of the houses were unfinished like this one, others were completely finished just lacking the furniture, and others had the furniture, but only in the kitchen or the living room.

Franklin and his crew were setting up their makeup, and wardrobe at one of the big warehouses we had seen coming down the hill. The other one was where we would store all our camera equipment that Mr. Kirkland couldn’t live without and they didn’t have here. He seemed pleased with the location, just not pleased to find most of the character houses he had been told were filled with furniture.  However, Stringum had connections stating that by morning he could have the furniture he wanted and moved in by morning. Giving Mr. Kirkland an idea that would add another character into our script, he gave a smile as he refused to tell us any more about it. Other than the fact we would film them moving in into our neighborhood.

My mother became bored once more as she gave a heavy sigh picked up her paints and tablecloth and moved towards the main set where she could watch the filming on the monitor. I sat with her since I wasn’t in any of tonight scenes and pulled out the rest of my homework with the rest of my friends that weren’t needed after getting the all call sign that said we needed to be inside the house and go out the backdoor, and make our way towards the filming set warehouse.

Mr. Kirkland was filming Terry and his brother at the moment being as he had been invited to stay at his house while their mother was at work (according to the script.). So far there hadn’t been any real sex, other than stimulating each other on the couch. The only sex was between Terry’s character and Mr. Bronson. Terry didn’t want to have sex with his brother, and I knew exactly how he felt. Because I had chosen not too many times, not wanting to go where Shawn had and I promised them I wouldn’t. And if I had the choice I wouldn’t do so with my friends or their Dads.

None of us liked the idea of doing it, but if we didn’t then it could easily be the end of us. We had conditioned ourselves so when the time came we wouldn’t feel anything; well at least I did, because I had refused to feel pleasure in that way all because of what Gloria West did to me. The scene ended quickly as Mr. Kirkland called cut and that’s a wrap for the day, well it was for us kids anyway as we cleaned up our homework and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Mr. Kirkland wanted a few more quick scenes with our parents. My mother was more than happy to go back to the hotel with us. Being as she was bored to death thinking about how a nice hot soothing bath would feel. Most importantly how it would feel with me, Terry, Greg, and our two wives as well as his brother Jessie and his sister Loren in it.  She had voiced her disappointment in regards of my two sisters, how they would feel about sharing themselves with us or bathing all in the same tub together, whereas we didn’t have that problem and would seem strange to us we had chosen to bathe alone.

My brother Aaron, most likely wouldn’t have minded it so much, but I had refused him to be a part of our lifestyle other than skinny dipping. The other wasn’t going to happen… not even with my two sisters and it was mostly how we felt about each other, which was pure hatred. More so, Susan, Becky had just recently come around to the idea that I wasn’t the monster Susan and my Dad painted me to be. Yet in truth, I was worst. 

My mother practically giggled with excitement the moment we came into view of the hotel where we were staying. I, on the other hand, groaned and wanted nothing more than to go straight to bed and sleep for a week. Neither was going to happen, so I put on my big pants and marched inside the hotel, gave a heavy sigh the moment I heard my mother calling my name inside the bathroom with water running inside the tub.