Innocents and Others by Spiotta Dana

Author:Spiotta, Dana [Spiotta, Dana]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

JELLY AFTER OZ

A few years after Jelly and Oz broke up, Jelly came home from the call center and saw that she had a message. One of her friends from college, Lizzie, had moved to Los Angeles to become an actress. She called Jelly once every couple of weeks, and they would talk for an hour or so. It was Jelly’s big indulgence. Lizzie didn’t work much as an actress, and she worked part-time as a housecleaner. She was always broke, so Jelly called Lizzie back and the call would go to Jelly’s bill.

When Jelly called, Lizzie was very excited.

“Guess what?” Lizzie said.

“What?”

“I was cleaning this gorgeous—I mean unbelievable—house on Mulholland. Me and three other girls.”

“Marlon Brando’s house?” Jelly said.

“No, nobody’s house, but listen.”

“What?” Jelly was washing dishes as she spoke, gripping the phone between shoulder and ear. She ran the water low so she could hear.

“I was in the office off the bedroom dusting, and I notice that this guy has a big Rolodex with a lot of handwritten numbers on it.”

“So,” Jelly said. “I thought you were going to say you found a drawer of whips or something.”

“They all have that drawer, believe me, but I started to flip through the Rolodex, and you won’t believe the numbers—”

“Who?”

“Jack Nicholson. Warren Beatty. Robert Evans.”

Jelly took vegetables out of the crisper drawer and rinsed them in the colander in the sink.

“I see the circles he runs in,” Jelly said. “What is his name?”

“I don’t know. No one you would know. Wait, it is on the schedule.”

Jelly moved the phone to the other shoulder and the other ear, and she began to arrange the vegetables on the cutting board.

“His name is David Weintraub.”

“He is a producer, a very important producer,” Jelly said.

“How do you know that?”

“How do you not know that? I read credits,” Jelly said. Jelly had been so thrilled when she recovered enough sight to see the words clearly again, she now stayed and read every name of the credits.

“Plus you see more movies than anyone.”

Jelly cut the onion in narrow slices. The fumes wafted up and she sniffed.

“Should I call one? What would I say, though,” Lizzie said. “Give me a job?” She giggled. “You can’t call people that famous anyway. They will just hang up on you, or their assistant will answer, I guess.”

Jelly stopped cutting and ran the water, rinsing her fingers. She stopped and sat down.

“You know what?”

“What?” Lizzie said.

“Next time you go to this guy’s house, or any really fancy house, write down some of the numbers for me. The names and numbers.”

“All right,” Lizzie said.

“But not the really famous ones, the huge names. The other names, the names you don’t know.”

“You are weird, Amy.”

* * *

Once Lizzie gave her some numbers, Jelly began to do a little research. She went to the university library and looked up the names. She began to read the trade papers. When she felt that she had sufficient background information, she started to make calls. It was just for fun, and for a few years she only did it occasionally.

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