Reel to Real (14 page)

“Are you sick?” his mom asked, standing up. “You sound congested.” She touched the back of her hand to his forehead. “Maybe you’ve got a cold or a fever.”

“No mom, I’m fine. I must have slept wrong or something.” Shane rubbed his neck, then pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

His mom asked if he would like to join them for lunch at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant and he said it was a great idea. On the way, his mother wanted to know if he still had the paper in his car authorizing him to drive the Fiero. She had given him the note when he first got the car because it was registered in her husband’s name.

“Yeah, mom,” Shane said. “I still got it.”

She also wanted to confirm that he had the most up-to-date insurance information in the glove box.

“You worry too much, Mom,” he said.

On the way home, Christine said she wanted to stop at Walmart and pick up some groceries for Shane. While she was there she also bought him an espresso machine as a present. She justified it to Dale by saying it was on sale.

When they got back from lunch, Christine cleaned Shane’s kitchen and washed his dishes. She wanted to help him anyway she could, make him feel better about his circumstances. She maintained that one of the key contributors to his many problems was his low self-esteem.

Christine worried that because Shane was adopted, he somehow felt he didn’t fit in. This was despite the fact that she and her husband had treated him as if he were their own since he was an infant. He did not seem to appreciate their affection like other children did. For whatever reason, he was constantly trying to rebel and prove what a bad kid he was, like the time he borrowed a neighbor’s car without permission and was later stopped for driving erratically. His father was able to get him out of that one but Shane never showed remorse for his wrongdoings.

Christine continued straightening up the apartment while her husband and Shane took a nap. Her mind wandered to the subject she could not keep herself from. When Shane was growing up, she had never imagined in her wildest dreams, that he would spend time in prison. Like all parents, she had pictured him becoming a pillar of the community. It was hard for her to accept the fact that her son was a felon.

Wiping perspiration from her neck with a napkin, she looked around. She was almost done cleaning, except for the carpets. They were pretty dirty too, but Shane didn’t own a vacuum so she was going to have to let that one go. Maybe next time they came she would bring up her own vacuum cleaner.

Eventually his parents got up to go home.

“You take care of yourself, son,” his mom said, giving him a long hug.

Shane told her that as soon as he got a little more money he was going to buy a bunch of vitamins and try to eat better. Christine looked at Dale and he reached into his wallet and gave Shane another $200 in cash.

Shane gave them each another hug and flashed them a genuine-looking grateful smile.

***

2 PM

Pueblo, Colorado

John gargled a mixture of toothpaste and water and stared at the red eyes in the mirror.

“I look like shit,” he said, green liquid dribbling down his chin.

He had gotten so drunk the night before that he ended up sleeping on the floor. He also had a cut over his eye that he didn’t remember getting. In short, he looked awful. It had been a while since he’d been that messed up.

For breakfast he had a Coke. Not very tasty but at least he was able to keep it down. He knew he needed to take it easy and had already decided it was going to be a kick-back kind of day.

He got dressed and went two doors down to Aztec Video to rent a movie. The owner knew him as Crystal’s boyfriend. He picked out a recently released disaster movie and brought it to the counter.

“Sign here,” the owner said.

He scribbled his name on the receipt and paid three bucks.

Passing a payphone on the way back, he stopped to call Esther. He wanted to tell her she needed to send him money, but she wasn’t home. He tried calling Shane too, but got no answer.

John fell asleep more than once while watching the movie, and had to rewind and start over every time he woke up. When he got the energy, he went back out to the pay phone and called Esther again. No answer. Then he called Shane. Same result. He called periodically until two in the morning. Nothing.

It occurred to him that Esther and Shane might have been having an affair. Even though Shane had once told him, ’I wouldn’t do that to you, man. You’re my partner.’ John was beginning to wonder. There were way too many coincidences. Like why was Esther always with Shane? Why was it that every time he called Shane, Esther was there? John asked Esther more than once about the coincidences.

“What’s going on with you two?” he said. “Why you always at his pad?”

Every time he asked she said the same thing, “Nothing, I’m just there.”

He did
not
buy it.

4 PM

Sheila arrived at Hollywood Video and prepared herself for a long night. She was scheduled to work until 2 AM. Her coworkers were Zach, Jowanda and Mylinh.

5 PM

Even though Jason was having a good time in Juarez, he had to zip back to New Mexico due to a previously scheduled DJ gig in Albuquerque. DJ work was something he did occasionally to make a few extra bucks.

On the way to the gig he stopped at his apartment to take a quick shower and get dressed. He put on a new pair of jeans, a clean white shirt with a collar, and a turquoise inlay bolo tie.

He wanted to wear his black leather motorcycle jacket too, but he couldn’t find it. He hadn’t worn it in a while, but he thought it would add a nice touch to his look. Where was it? His apartment was too small to lose anything.

He hoped he hadn’t left it somewhere. Besides being a supercool jacket, it also had an original Star Trek communicator pin on the lapel and he certainly didn’t want to lose that. Look as he might, he could not find his leather jacket, so he grabbed a jean jacket instead, and took off.

But once he got to his destination, it turned out there was no gig. The dance had been canceled.

6 PM

Donna, Pauline McDougall’s daughter, called Pauline to tell her she had returned home from her short day trip. Pauline reminded Donna that she was going to pick Zach up from the video store later that evening, after his shift.

“Two o’clock? Is that what time you’re going to pick him up?”  Donna asked.

“Yes, that’s what time he said he gets off.”

7 PM

Because his DJ gig was canceled, Jason went to a friend’s house for a beer. The friend suggested they drive down to Truth or Consequences and meet up with other friends to have a few more beers. Jason liked that idea. He called Shane and asked him if he wanted to go too.

“Hey, dude,” Jason said. “What’re ya doing?”

“Trimming my toenails,” Shane replied. “How ’bout you?”

“Nothing. My friends and me are going down to T or C tonight, maybe party a little and shake some shit up. I thought you might wanna jump in on it. See your parents while you’re there. Interested?”

“Nah, I’ll pass. I already saw my parents today. They came over to the pad. That was enough. I think I’m just gonna crash early, take it easy. My mom wore me out.”

“Yeah, that’s cool. I’ll probably be back tomorrow night. How’s puppy?”

“He’s good. Eating like a motherfucker, but good.”

“Okay then, guess I’ll catch you later.”

“Yeah, later.”

8 PM

Pueblo, Colorado

John and Crystal stayed home all night. John was still nursing his hangover and had not yet completely made it through his rented disaster movie.

9:30 PM

Shelly put two yellow capsules in her mouth and swallowed. Only twenty-six years old, and she needed to take pills every day for her high blood pressure. She had been told it might kill her. As a further precaution, her doctor advised her to keep her stress level to a minimum.

She looked over at her rail-thin, shirtless boyfriend sitting on the couch strumming his guitar, and felt her stress level go the wrong direction. They had a kid together and he wasn’t holding up his end of the relationship.

Oh, he was great at first. Cute face, charming repertoire of funny stories. But not anymore. Turned out to be less than advertised. He was in a band but otherwise did nothing. He had no job, no income. That was the problem. They fought constantly, mostly about money. She took care of the kid ninety percent of the time, plus worked long hours at a shitty retail job so they could at least eat, while Russell, her formerly charming boyfriend, slept all day and stayed out all night, working on his imminent future fame.

Saturday night, it happened again. They had another huge argument about him leaving her alone while he went out to play a no-paying gig with his band. Shelly stormed out with their three-year-old daughter in tow.

Standing in the corridor, crying and despondent, she didn’t know where to go or what to do. Then, at the end of the hallway, she saw a light and instantly knew who it belonged to. Shane. He appeared to be home and had seemed nice enough the few times she dropped by his apartment to borrow laundry detergent. She knocked on his door.

“Hey,” Shelly said, her face red and puffy.

“Something wrong?” Shane asked through a barely-open door.

“No. Yes. I just got in a big fight with Russell. Can I come in for a second?”

Shane opened wider and Shelly entered a ghostly quiet apartment. The inside was dimly lit.  Esther, whom Shelly had seen once or twice before, sat quietly on the couch, hands on one knee. The TV, which was usually always on, was turned off. A young pit bull slept on a blanket under the window. Shelly sensed this was a bad time but decided to sit down anyway. She needed to complain about her boyfriend to someone. Her daughter stroked the puppy.

After about ten minutes, Shelly realized she was the only one doing any talking and apologized for barging in. Shane, who seemed very distracted, mumbled “Don’t worry about it” and took a slow pensive drag on his cigarette. Esther didn’t speak at all. As Shelly would say later, they both seemed to have their minds on something else. Realizing that she had intruded on a private matter between Shane and Esther, she left.

10 PM

“Okay, good. She’s gone. Let’s go over this once more, then we can relax ’til it’s time to go.  Come here for a minute so I can show you something.” Shane reached out with one hand and scooted a chair out for Esther.

Esther sat down and stretched her neck, twisting it, trying to relax.

“Here’s what we need to do when we get there,” he said and pointed to a piece of paper with a list of words scribbled in pencil. “I wrote it in order. The more it goes the way it’s supposed to go, the better it’s gonna go.”

Esther looked at the list and then at him.

“What’s that mean?” She pointed to the words “beat the drum.”

“Beat the drum? That means it’s over. We’re done. We got the cash and we fucking celebrate.” He shook his head. “You don’t get out much do you?”

“Oka-ay,” Esther said, wondering why he was so anal tonight. It must be stress. But he was the one who had said how easy it was going to be. She decided to blow off his edginess.

“I want to go over the plan again,” he said.

“You already told me the plan yesterday,” Esther said.

“Yeah, but I wanna make sure.” He bounced his fingers on the table and looked at the paper. “First thing is, we gotta make sure we’re inside when the store closes. None of that fucking shit like last night.” He drew a star next to number one.

“Hey, I have a question,” Esther interrupted.

“What?”

“Are we going to wear masks or hoods or anything on our faces? So no one knows it was us?”

“No, I don’t want anything on my face and we don’t need to anyway. We do just like last time. We tell ’em if they say anything we’ll kill their fucking asses … and their family too. You don’t see anyone coming after us from the Mac’s, right?”

“Right.”

“Okay then, don’t worry about dumb shit like that unless I tell you to worry about it,” Shane said with an agitated undercurrent she had not seen before.

She looked at him. “I guess.”

“Okay,” Shane proceeded, referring to his list. “Once we’re in the store we act just like regular dumbass customers ’til everyone’s gone.”

“Then, the show starts and you're on. You get the manager to go in the back with you, but do it quiet-like. Don’t let the other ones know what you’re doing. Let
me
take care of getting the rest of ’em back there. Then, basically, we just tie ’em up, take the money, and split. Should go quick.”

“I hope so,” Esther said, holding his gaze.

11 PM

It was a fairly typical night at Hollywood Video; a lot of folks coming in to stock up on movies for the weekend. Since the business was located across the street from a grocery store and next to a Walmart, people naturally drifted from one store to the other on their way back home.

Zach, a friendly, gangly guy, worked the late shift. He was dressed Hollywood Video style — in a tuxedo-type white shirt with front pleats, a red bow tie, red cummerbund and black dress pants.  Everyone who worked at the store dressed that way. Zach didn’t mind, he liked feeling like he worked at the movies. He had graduated from high school the year before and was trying to save enough money to go to art school. He hoped to work for Disney Studios one day.

He liked working the late shift. It meant there were no corporate types around, no one dictating taste in entertainment. He could watch any movie he wanted on the store monitor ... and get paid for it. He happened to love Japanimation videos, so he popped one in.

11:45 PM

Esther sat on the couch at Shane’s apartment and watched the clock tick. A queasiness in her stomach sent her scrambling to the bathroom. She closed the door.

Seizing the moment, Shane crept out of his own apartment to the barely-lit back parking lot behind his building. Over his shoulder, he carried a heavy black bag filled with delusional thoughts. In the darkness, while no one was looking, he stowed the bag under the floorboard of his Fiero.