It Needs to Look Like We Tried by Todd Robert Petersen

Author:Todd Robert Petersen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Counterpoint
Published: 2018-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

THE CREW GOT UP EARLY to make use of the golden hour. Bill and Karin agreed that good light would take the edge off our B-roll. Right before we turned into the Jessups’ driveway, Farm pointed out a crazy orange Honda with a big, stupid spoiler on the back. “It’s trippy how stuff that would be normal in LA looks so crazy everywhere else,” he mused.

We parked next to the house, and everyone sat in place, drinking coffee and checking phones until Margot got us started.

“Until we hear otherwise, we just follow the shot list, pick up Vogel, and get him here for the interviews. Bill,” Margot said, “can you make it pretty?”

“There’s not enough lipstick in the world—”

“Don’t say pig,” Karin interrupted.

Bill scowled.

“It needs to look like we tried,” Margot said.

“It hardly matters. We’re doomed,” Gavin said.

Each of us fell to our lackluster work. I sat in the van, logging miles from the trip down here from Michigan, when I heard noises on the roof. As I looked up, somebody spilled out of an upstairs window and ran along the roof like a cat burglar. A second or two later Hoot Jessup busted through the front door with a shotgun. He was watching the guy above him as he cocked the gun, pointed it into the air, and fired a warning shot. One of the daughters appeared upstairs in the next window over, looked down at her dad, then turned to watch this escape artist flee. He was tall and strapping, but he looked like he was still in high school.

Hoot followed the kid on the roof with the barrel of his gun and shot again. I ducked out of reflex and then lost track of the guy until I heard a great boom above me on the roof of the van. Hoot reloaded, swung the shotgun in my direction, and fired. I dove behind the dashboard again, expecting to be covered in safety glass, but there was only a skittering sound on the windshield. I only knew the window was intact because the kid rolled down it, bumped across the hood, and dropped cartoonishly out of sight.

Hoot looked pleased with himself and howled in victory.

The kid popped up with his hands on the front of the van and his back towards Hoot. He was unbelievably handsome, like a fashion model, his eyes wide with fear. I thought of what Farm had said a few minutes ago about things that seem wrong here but that would fit in fine in LA. This kid looked like every head-shot waiter I’d ever seen in Hollywood. We locked eyes and I screamed “Run!” and waved at him frantically. When he turned, I saw two giant hearing aids clipped into his hair. All I could think was, How very strange.

Above us, the Jessup girl opened her window and began screaming obscenities at her father. The kid looked up, blew her a kiss, and sprinted down the driveway unscathed.

Bill popped up from the floor of the van.

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