Page 34 of Second Act
“Not really, but not ancient. Seventy-two, seventy-three, that’s not old these days in business. He was a strong, vital force, and he wasn’t going anywhere. He ran the place like a machine, and he was tough. This is just so fast. I wasn’t expecting it. I gave up the idea of another job like mine months ago. And now they’re offering me another even better one, and I’m supposed to run out of here, put on a suit, and step into the job. We’re making a movie, I can’t just walk out on that, and on you, and I don’t want to. I want to do this with you. You turned down an opportunity for a series to do it, and now I just run out the door and go back to LA? It’s likeGroundhog Day. It’ll be like I never left, and I don’t even know if I want that kind of job anymore.” That was the crux of it. Andy had changed, just enough that he didn’t quite fit in the old mold anymore. But the film industry hadn’t changed, it was the same, and as ruthless as ever. He didn’t want to be ruthless anymore. Butwhat else would he do? Maybe Barry was right and he’d get bored with writing screenplays for indie movies, but he liked doing it with Violet.
“And what about you? You stay here to shoot the film and I go back?” he asked her.
“We’ll figure it out. We’ll make it work if we have to,” she said kindly. She wanted his happiness first.
“Maybe that kind of job is over for me. I did it. I sacrificed a marriage and a daughter to do it, and everything else. I don’t know if I want to do it again. And if I do, it says that I learned nothing in the last year. I had fun making an indie movie, won an award, and now I’d be going back for more of the same.” He was the perfect example of “beware of what you wish for,” and Violet wanted to be careful not to influence him and hold him back. He had to do what was right for him. She loved him enough to want the best for him.
He went out for a walk, and came back an hour later. He looked unhappy and tormented instead of thrilled. If he wanted to, he could be a studio head again by the next day, but he didn’t know what he wanted. He called Dash and told him when he got back from his walk. Violet was lying low, in her little study, drinking a cup of tea. Dash was as shocked as Andy had been.
“Boy, those guys don’t fool around, do they?”
“No, they don’t. They didn’t fool around with me a year ago either.”
“I guess you don’t have any choice,” Dash said sadly. “You’ll always regret it if you don’t go back. You won’t get another chance like this, Andy. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You’ll nevermake that kind of money making indies, or have that kind of power. And power is your gig. That’s why it hurt you so much when you lost it. Making indies you’re down here with the real people like me. We don’t wear suits, shave, or brush our hair. You’ve been living on the top of Olympus for twenty years with the gods and kingmakers. That’s tough to give up. You’ve been a good sport about it. But they’re giving you a chance to return from the dead. It won’t come again. I think you’ll be miserable a year, two years, ten from now, if you turn it down. You should probably go back. When do they want you?”
“Yesterday. It would be immediate. I can negotiate a few weeks, but they need someone to run the place. It’s a vast entity, as big as Global now. Harvey did a good job.”
“Poor bastard. All you fancy guys, you’re safer flying commercial.” Andy smiled at the comment. “What does Vi say?”
“That I should do what’s best for me.”
“She loves you,” Dash said. “I don’t love you like she does, but I want what’s right for you too. I can manage the production of the picture without you. You’ve already written the script. Vi can handle any changes and corrections, and she can discuss them with you if she needs to. You can go to LA to talk to them if you want to. You won’t kill the picture, so don’t let that stop you. I hate like hell to lose you and to see you go back to that rat race of people trying to kill you. I don’t want that life myself, but you’re a power guy. I’ve come to understand that about you. You’re a born CEO. Do whatever you need to do. Life is too short to waste it on a job you hate, and too long to miss out on a job you’d probably love. I’ll miss you likecrazy if you leave, but you have my blessing either way.” Andy was touched by what he said.
“They want me to come and talk to them,” Andy said unhappily.
“You may have to do that, unless you’re ready to turn them down flat, which could be insane for the kind of money they’d pay you. You need to smell the air and get a feel for the company, and see what you think,” Dash said sensibly. He was being very fair. He had a lot to lose if Andy left and took the job.
“I think this is more about me than about them, and what I want now. It’s been a lot of changes in a year, especially at my age. I’m fifty-eight. What do I really want to do with the next two or twenty-five or even thirty years if I’m blessed?”
“I’m not sure that’s relevant. Harvey could have been forty and he’d be just as dead. You can’t predict these things. I think it’s more about what you want now. Who are you? What doyouwant?”
“If you figure that out, call me,” Andy said glumly. “I think I’ll fly out to see them tomorrow and get it over with. With the time difference in that direction, I can meet with them tomorrow and figure it out fast.”
Dash hesitated for a minute. “Andy, one piece of advice. Do whatyouwant. Don’t turn this down if you really want it. You’ll regret it forever and it won’t come again. I know you. You’re a born studio head. You’re not a down-on-the-ground guy like me.”
“Why? Because I brush my hair and wear a shirt?”
“You just are. You’re a king, Andy. You’re not a foot soldier. You belong up there with the gods of the industry. Just put in a good word for me when you get there. Have a safe trip. May the Force bewith you,” he said, quotingStar Wars. He was such a good guy and Andy knew he’d miss working with him if he went back to running a studio. But Planet Z was a good one and he respected it. He would be proud to run it. It wasn’t just a job. It was a strong career move.
He called Barry back after he talked to Dash. “Tell them I can fly in tomorrow. They can probably have the plane here in the morning if they send it now. I’ll be ready to go when the plane gets here, so I could see them in the early afternoon in LA. I want to get this over with quickly.” He wanted to make a decision fast, and either go to the job in LA or continue his life here.
“You don’t sound happy about it.” Barry was surprised.
“I don’t know what I am. That’s the problem.”
“I’ll let you know when the plane will be there. Do you want me to come to the meeting with you?” he volunteered.
“Maybe. I’ll let you know.”
He texted Andy a few minutes later. The plane would be ready for a tena.m. departure in the area for private planes at Heathrow. Andy was familiar with it.
He lay in bed wide-awake that night. That morning his life had been so simple. He was making a movie and working with the woman he loved. Now everything was complicated. He had choices. Hard choices. He could go back in time to a job and a world he understood, where he had status and power and was paid a fortune. A job where he would have little time for a personal life. A world where they could stop everything and throw him out from one second to the next. They had before and they would again if it served their interests, but it wouldn’t surprise him as much the next time if they did. In the end, it was more about the power than the money.The ephemeral ingredient that made those jobs so addictive. He had loved the power when he had it. He couldn’t deny it. And he still missed it.
Now he had no power, but he had a life he loved, doing work he enjoyed, that made him feel good about himself, with a good woman at his side. Violet wouldn’t leave him if he opted for the power job now, she would stick by him, but they’d be apart a lot. It boiled down to whether he wanted to live among the mortals, like a real person, or go back up the mountain and live among the gods, knowing that they could throw him off a cliff anytime. It should have been an easy decision. But it wasn’t. It was the hardest decision of his life, a choice about who he wanted to be when he grew up. But he was grown up, and the game was almost over for him. What game did he want to play? And how did he want the story to end? Those were the key questions now.
Andy lay holding Violet as she slept, and he got up at six o’clock and showered and dressed. He was dressed for the trip when she woke up and came out to the kitchen, naked under a pink satin robe.
“If you come in here dressed like that, I won’t leave,” he said, and she smiled and sat down at the table across from him and held his hand.
