STORY-WRITING EXPLORATION INSPIRED BY A MOVIE
An
original story, adapted to fit existing 'Nurse Betty' premises and
characters. The original story is the property of the author (see
bottom of page), while the images and connections to the move Nurse
Betty (2000) remain with the owners of that movie such as it may
exist. The following cannot be used in any way other than to
read, without permission of all owners of the intellectual content.
A REASON TO LOVE
On Original Story by A. Paabo in 2003-7 adapted to be a sequel to the movie Nurse Betty (2000)
Pursued on his own initiative in years following 2003 and as a diversion/hobby and eduction in writing a novella. This
particular new webpage version was put together in Mar 2011 in order to put
all the author's reasonably finished projects in writing together in
one section of his website. In this version, it has been edited in the
course of scanning it. from versions shown earlier on www.paabo.ca.
BACKGROUND:
The movie of 2000, entitled ‘Nurse Betty’, featured Renée Zellweger as
Betty Sizemore and Greg Kinnear as George McCord/Dr. Ravell in the main
plotline. I was so intrigued by the
concept of a person believing the world of their soap opera really
existed, that I was inspired to imagine another story, this one
addressing another possibility – an actor in a soap opera assuming he
was really the character he played. Instead of writing a new
story, I decided to imagine it as a sequel to ‘Nurse Betty’ as it is
easy to imagine the same cast (minus the thugs who got killed of
course).
To recap, at the end of ‘Nurse Betty’, Betty guest acted on ‘A
Reason to Love’ for 63 episodes, then went to Europe, and then returned
to Kansas to finish her degree at Carlton School of Nursing.
Our
NEW story begins at her graduating. She has also managed to secure her
first nursing employment at the same hospital in Los Angeles where she
had earlier faked it while looking for Dr. Ravell. Rosa’s marriage to
Roy Ostrey had failed and she and Betty decide to live together again.
Working now as a REAL nurse, Betty is very happy and gets a REAL heart
surgeon as a boyfriend. The TV soap opera ‘A Reason to Love’, having
sent Betty’s character to Africa when Betty left the show to return to
school, now wants Betty to return for some appearances, and that brings
Betty back in contact with George McCord and the old gang at ‘A Reason
to Love. George becomes insanely jealous that she now has a REAL heart
surgeon for a boyfriend, while she only plays one on TV.
Meanwhile the former companion of Charlie, the older thug who got
killed in the original events, whose name is Carl, has decided to
complete Charlies’ job in his memory, and resumes watching Betty with
his sidekick Louey, to find the drugs her husband stole those years
ago, assuming as Charlie had done, that she was in on it.
The following imagined movie story is constructed to build on
characters and situations established by the end of “Nurse Betty”, but
it does NOT simply continue the original movie. It IS a new movie story
with a new story concept. This can be proven by the fact that the basic
story CAN be rewritten to break ties with “Nurse Betty” (for example
the Betty character could instead have become an actor on the soap
opera by winning a contest, and the thugs are following her to recover
goods that fell into Betty’s hands by mistake.) However, in continuing
to use the ‘Nurse Betty’ precedents, with Renée Zellweger in the Betty
role, Greg Kinnear as McCord/Ravell, and other actors of the original,
one continues – in the mind’s eye – to animate in the imagination the
same cast as in the original.
This telling of a movie story was created as an artistic exercise, a
diversion, an education in writing, without any commercial or
professional agenda. I am trained in engineering and best known as a
professional fine artist. But once I finished the tale, I DID want
people who had created Nurse Betty to see it, and thus, for the record
I tried to make contact with producers or cast. I put it on my website
in 2005 and by email and letter to various possible addresses such as
C.A.A. agents of some actors, invited the site be visited to see this
new tale. However there were no results because the industry is like a
fortress doing its utmost to keep a wall between the industry and the
public. Writers, etc. cannot reach anyone other than indirectly through
first publishing the work in another medium such as a book, or through
literary agents who the industry deals with. Since I was not
seeking to either publish a book, nor to become a screenwriter, I
left the matter to my own self-indulgences in putting it on my website,
and hand-making a book on laser printer. All in the name of a
diversion and self-indulgence and self-education in storytelling and
writing.
As you will see from reading the novella below, there is no extravagant
writing. It is really a movie script told in a novella manner and it is
all about the storytelling.
THE IMAGINED CAST (DRAWING FROM ACTORS IN THE ORIGINAL MOVIE OR
IN THE PUBLIC EYE) AS I CONCIEVED IT FROM THE POPULAR MOVIE CELEBRITIES
OF AROUND 2005. (THIS HELPS IN VISUALIZING THE CHARACTERS)
Nurse Betty – Renée Zellweger ( acting as in the original)
George McCord/‘David Ravell’ – a Greg Kinnear (acting
as in original)(The story is developed for Kinnear’s style as seen in
the original movie, and is strongly written towards it – the sarcasm
etc)
Rosa, Sue Anne, Darlene, Lyla, Sheriff Ballard, Roy, etc
cast acting as in the original.
Dr. Matheson – There are many choices for a current celebrity
actor who would fit this role - he has to be a little
over-sophisticated and self-important. But a good example is an
imagined Denzel Washington (Since the African crisis is in the subplot,
it is an appropriate link that this character be colored and half
African, for many reasons.)
Carl – an imagined John Travolta (of Pulp Fiction style) or similar
Louey – an imagined Tommy Lee (the rock musician former husband of
Pamela Anderson with body covered with tatoos.) or similar.
1.
Finally - A REAL Nurse!
Betty had been waiting for this moment it seems for years and years. It
couldn’t have been a better day for the occasion - the sun was shining,
billowing clouds floated breezily across the sky. It was graduation day
at a small suburban Nursing College .
This was an outdoors event, held on the lawn of the college grounds of
the “Carlton School of Nursing”, outside Kansas City. A stage, chairs
for visitors, podium, banners, and all other requirements for
graduation ceremonies were evident. Completing the affair, on the stage
were the heads of the school, and the nursing graduating students, the
latter wearing fresh new nurse outfits. They were receiving their
diplomas, while an audience of assorted friends and family of the
graduates looked on from the lawn below.
Among the nursing students on the stage was Betty Blaine, formerly
Betty Sizemore, lined up to recieve her diploma. Being now in
her late thirties she was noticeably a decade or more older
than most of the other students, but that did not bother her.
For a long time Betty had never imagined she could reach this point in
life - graduating as a nurse. During all the years she had lived with
her late husband, Del, he had never supported her ambition to complete
her nursing degree. While living with him, she had been resigned to the
fact that she would never work as a nurse. But now, today, she had done
it! At long last: she had completed her degree.
And she owed much to the good fortune a few years ago, of
getting a role as a nurse on the popular soap opera “A Reason to Love”
during which time she had saved enough money to return to school.
She had been a midwest housewife. Her husband Del Sizemore, a used car
dealer, had gotten himself mixed up with some crooked dealings.
Two hired thugs, father and son, had come after him to recover drugs
Del had stolen, and killed him prematurely, before they determined
where the drugs were. Unknown to the thugs, Betty witnessed Del’s
murder, but had become traumatized and mentally escaped into the
world of “A Reason to Love” her favourite TV show. This led to her
taking off to Los Angeles to find her love, the character Dr. Ravell
who she had now imagined was real.
Not having determined where the drugs were, the hired thugs, assumed
Betty had been in on Del’s dealing and followed her to L.A. to find the
drugs and then perhaps to kill her too if she was in on it. These
men, Charlie and Wesley, messed it all up, and got themselves killed in
the ensuing events, and when the dust settled, Betty was the center of
media attention as the “A Reason to Love” fan from the midwest who had
mistaken the soap opera for reality and been chased by these criminal
types. The thugs never revealed to Betty about any drugs; thus nobody
afterwards really knew exactly what it was all about. The men had
indeed found the drugs hidden in the well for the spare tire in the
trunk of the LeSabre Betty had borrowed from Del’s dealership before
confronting Betty, but did they leave it there when they went to Betty
and Rosa’s apartment? Did police later find it? Did they even
determine what the men were looking for?
More important to the producers of “A Reason to Love” was the
revelation that Betty had lost herself in the world of her favourite
soap opera. The publicity that it brought to the show, prompted the
producers of “A Reason to Love” to ask her to join the show playing a
nurse opposite Dr. Ravell, to promote ratings. Betty accepted. But she
knew that she was not really an actor at heart and that she would have
to leave the show, regardless of the ratings.
She therefore acted for 63 episodes, and then she parted company with
the show. For a daily show, 63 episodes is only about 12 weeks, or
three months; but they paid much better than a waitress and she
had saved enough money from it to take a trip to Europe, and then
return to Kansas to complete her nursing degree, no longer as Betty
Sizemore but as Betty Blaine – having restored using her maiden name to
leave behind her unpleasant former life with Del . . . . . .But that
was all in the past! Now, her face was positively beaming as she
recieved her diploma!!
Giddy with
excitement, she signalled to two friends in the audience, and
then hastened down from the stage to join them.
One of these two friends was Sue Ann Rogers, her former
neighbour from her past life in the small town of Fair Oaks. She
was a housewife with three young children. who had faithfully taped the
soap opera “A Reason to Love” for her while she was busy at work at the
Tip Top Diner during the afternoons. Her other friend was Rosa
Herrera, a young Hispanic woman, with whom she had lived in Los
Angeles, before the bizarre events involving those hit men. While Betty
had remained in L.A. playing a nurse in “A Reason to Love”, Rosa had
married Roy Ostrey from her hometown and had gone back to Fair Oaks
with him. When Betty had returned from L.A. to follow her studies
at Carleton School of Nursing, she had renewed her friendship with
Rosa, now living not far away at Fair Oaks with Ostrey..
But Rosa’s marriage to Ostrey hadn’t lasted. Rosa had become single
again just some months ago. She hadn’t returned to Los Angeles yet
however. She had decided to wait to see Betty graduate. The plan was
that she and Betty would go back to LA together after Betty’s
graduation, if Betty could land her first nursing job there.
“Rosa! Sue Anne! You came!” exclaimed Betty as she ran through the crowd towards them.
“Congratulations, Betty! You did it!” exclaimed Sue Ann giving her a
hug. “It’s a 15 minute drive from Fair Oaks, but I just HAD to find a
sitter for my kids and come with Rosa to see you graduate.”
Rosa hugged Betty too. “I’m so happy for you too, Betty,” she
exclaimed. “At least one of us is lucky.”
Betty realized she was referring to her breakup from Roy. “Oh, Rosa,
I’m so sorry about you and Roy breaking up.”
“Let’s walk,” said Sue Ann, leading them away from the assembled crowd.
As the three of them began to walk, Rosa replied to Betty’s show of
sympathy. “Yeah, seems like the only thing I and Roy had in common was
our love for aquarium fish. The truth is we come from two completely
different worlds.”
“I’m sorry, Rosa,” Betty added. “It’s because of me you met Roy. I feel a little responsible..”
“Don’t worry about it. ... But I’ve stayed in the area, Betty, until you graduated.”
“Yes, we’ll live together again in Los Angeles!”
“Your position at the hospital there is final?”
“Yes! I start in five weeks!”
“Well what are we waiting for?” Sue Ann interjected. “We have to take
you to Fair Oaks, Betty. The folks at the Tip Top Diner have a party
for you.”
“I knew you guys
were coming to fetch me today,” said Betty, “but you didn’t tell me
about a party!”
“Sue Ann arranged
it,” said Rosa. “I didn’t know either until this morning. By the way
Betty, thank you for loaning me your car for these past months since I
split from Roy. I couldn’t really use Roy’s car any longer. But I was
surprised you still had it, after becoming rich from acting on ‘A
Reason to Love’.”
“The old ’97 maroon Buick LeSabre has been running fine all these
years. I never had a reason to get rid of it, Rosa. I couldn’t afford
to buy another, after paying for my nursing courses and the trip I took
through Europe. How does it run, Rosa?”
“It’s a great car even if it’s quite old, now. We can rent a trailer to
hitch on the back for our stuff when we go back to LA together.”
They had reached the parking lot, and the car in question was in view.
“I’ll continue to drive,” said Rosa. “This is YOUR day Betty.” The
three climbed into the car. “Now let’s go clear your things out from
your room at the student residence, Betty.”
“And then it’s off to the Tip Top Diner,” added Sue Ann.
________________
It didn’t take long for the trio to remove Betty’s belongings from the
student residence of the college, pack them into the car, and be on
their way, soaring down the highway. Rosa drove, with Betty beside her.
Sue Ann rode in the back amid Betty’s belongings.
With the sun shining, window open, hair tossed around, Betty felt in
her heart that this was the beginning of a newfound freedom, the
beginning of a new stage in her life.
It took some 15 minutes before they entered the town of Fair Oaks, and
the Tip Top Diner where Betty had worked as a waitress for many years
while married to Del. She had rarely had the opportunity to see any of
her old friends in the past few years, nor think about them very much,
but clearly they had not stopped thinking of her. How could they forget
her, since they had seen her on the Diner TV monitor for several months
during those 63 episodes on ‘A Reason to Love’?
The maroon car pulled up in front of the Diner. Rosa and Betty got out
of the car, Sue Ann following from back seat. Betty stopped a
moment to take in the exterior of the diner. It brought back memories.
“There it is” said Betty, with mixed feelings. “The diner where I
worked as a waitress day in and day out for 5 long years up until Del’s
death.” Then years had gone by first while she was at L.A.and then in a
student residence near her nursing college. “It seems so long ago. I
hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.”
“Well nobody’s forgotten you, Betty,” said Sue Ann. “I heard that while
you were on ‘A Reason to Love’, every day at 3 o’clock, eyes were glued
to the monitor to get a glimpse of you as nurse Betty Lamour,
opposite Dr. David Ravell!”
“It’s
hard to grasp that what I was doing was seen by millions of people, and
that I was seen every day by all my old friends here.”
“Close your eyes. I’ll lead you inside,” said Sue Ann, taking charge.
While Rosa was in charge earlier, Sue Ann took over from here, since
she had been in on arranging the party. She lead Betty inside. Rosa
followed close behind. .
When inside, Sue Ann let Betty open her eyes. She saw all her old
colleagues and regular customers waiting for her. They had erected a
hand painted banner that stretched across the back wall that read
“CONGRATULATIONS, NURSE BETTY” Included among the folks, was Roy. Roy
was Fair Oaks’ bookish local reporter, the one who Rosa had married.
Rosa’s eyes made contact with his at that moment, and both turned their
eyes away, comfirming their relationship was over.
This celebration was instigated by Sue Ann, veteran waitress Darlene,
and other waitresses working at the Tip Top; thus Rosa became more of a
spectator, as Darlene and Sue Ann took the lead. Among the customers
was the Sheriff Elden Ballard. He was a short, tightly wound short man
in his later 30’s, who had made attending this celebration coincide
with one of his coffee breaks. Others included regular diner customers
who knew Betty well and had followed her on TV.
As Betty took in the scene, she was met by many shouts of
“Congratulations! Great job! You done it!”
She reacted coyly to all the attention: “Oh you guys...”
Someone shouted “ Speech, speech...”
The Sheriff exploited his authority in the town, to stand up and take
the lead (since others tended to quiet down when he spoke.). “You’ve
done our town proud, Betty”, he said. “You’ve put your hometown, Fair
Oaks, on the map from your role on ‘A Reason to Love’ and all the
publicity when the entertainment news talked about you having been an
ordinary soap opera fan from Fair Oaks Kansas.”
“Yes, Sheriff Ballard,”smiled Betty. “I’ve seen the sign at the edge of
town reading ‘Fair Oaks – hometown of Betty Blaine’”
“Yes, you’d be surprised,” said waitress Joan, “how many people come
into this diner because they learned you once worked here.”
Sheriff Ballard then sat down again, and the crowd became noisy again.
“Everyone quiet,” Darlene interjected “Let Betty speak now.”
Betty thought a moment about what she should say. She was moved by all
this attention. “I couldn’t have done it without your encouragement
over the years,” she began. “Even before, when my troublemaking husband
Del was alive, and was against by finishing nursing, and you guys gave
me a little cash towards nursing classes.......”
Darlene interjected at the mention of the name ‘Del’. “What a piece of
work he was, that Del.You would have done better never to have met him.
He held you back. Everybody thought that. We never knew why you had
married him!”
Many nodded in agreement. “Nobody misses the fact that he’s gone!” said someone.
Someone asked everyone in general: “Whatever happened about all that
criminal business with Del, his being killed and all? It’s been a while
now. We know that some criminal types were mad at him and were looking
for something in the trunks of cars, but did anyone ever figure out
what it was?”
An older male customer replied: “They think it was drugs.”
Another in back responded jokingly: “Could have been stolen lawnmowers.
Who knows? He was into any scheme he could get away with.”
“Didn’t the cops figure it out?” Eyes turned to Sheriff Ballard. “Sheriff Ballard?”
Sheriff Ballard, feeling a need to make an authoritative pronouncement
on the subject to end the debate, stood again and replied. “I wanted to
investigate further, but couldn’t get much support from the higher
levels. To the L.A. cops and feds, this was just a case of two
small-time hoods running into misfortune, an insignificant case. Betty
was found and the scumbags involved were all dead. End of story. Nobody
figured out exactly what had been stolen - Money? Drugs? Jewelery? Del
could have been involved in anything. So, case closed. Those two thugs
pried open the trunk of Betty’s LeSabre, like they did here on the four
Buicks in Del’s lot, but then they went inside Betty’s apartment to
question her. So they obviously didn’t find it in Betty’s car either,
or else why did they continue inside? As far as I know whatever Del
stole is still at large.”
Indeed
the two hit men DID find what they were looking for in the trunk, but
the ‘job’ required doing a hit on Betty too if she was in on the theft.
They left it in the trunk while they went to find Betty, and then were
themselves killed in the ensuing events.
Roy Ostrey, who had been sitting quietly in the background, piped up.
“You mean nobody checked Betty’s car’s trunk?”
Sheriff Ballard turned towards Roy, “I guess so. The scumbags had pried
it open. But obviously they didn’t find what they were looking for, and
continued into Betty’s and Rosa’s apartment just before we came along..”
“Or they hid it better, intending to return after dealing with Betty.”
Roy liked raising issues that could annoy the Sheriff.
“How?”
“Maybe stuffing it behind somewhere,” replied Roy.
“Anyway,” the sheriff continued, dismissing Roy’s contentious nature,
“if everyone involved is dead, and there is no clear direction for
investigation, cases like this become water under the bridge very
quickly.” Sheriff Ballard resumed his seat.
“Betty do you still have the car?” Roy asked, not letting it go..
“Yes, Rosa has been using it.”
“Well maybe you should have Joe at the mechanic shop go over it with a
fine tooth comb in case whatever the thugs were looking for is still
there hidden somewhere.”
Darlene
interjected: “Hold on, fellows. Hold on fellows. This is supposed to be
a celebration of Betty’s graduation, not a revisiting of all those
events years ago with those criminals Betty’s husband was mixed up in.
I’m sure Betty doesn’t want to go back to those times again. This is
about Betty’s graduation, and her future.” Darlene was motherly towards
the younger Betty.
Someone said:
“Very true. Revisiting that ugliness of Del getting scalped isn’t a
topic to discuss here.”
Someone
added cheerily: “Hey, the funeral home, did however do a great job
sewing Del’s scalp back on. He looked as good as new in the viewing.”
The last speaker was met with a burning stare from Darlene, that put
him in his place and shut him up. It was time to move on with the
purpose of this event. Everyone settled down.
Betty, who had felt uncomfortable with the discussion of past events,
resumed a broad smile and tried to bring things back on track. She
breathed a deep breath.
“Well... In spite of it all,...... I’ve got my nursing diploma.” She
finally noticed she had been clutching her diploma all the while. “..
and here it is!!” Betty walked around and showed it to all.
Someone said: “We hear you got your first job as a legitimate nurse lined up in L.A.?”
“Yes, guys. I sent letters around to different hospitals, and guess
what hospital wanted me and offered a good starting position?... L.A.
County Hospital, the same hospital I worked at without credentials for
a short time when I first got to L.A. and lived with Rosa. Rosa and I
are going to hitch a trailer to my LeSabre and drive to L.A., and live
together again like old times.” She drew Rosa towards her, who was
standing too much to one side. Betty added, self-depreciatingly:“Beats
me why they accepted me back, though.”
Darlene would have none of the self-depreciation. “ They already had
you on file. And you’re well known, Betty, from the TV show. We watched
you every day on that monitor! We got more customers just from their
coming in at 3 o’clock to catch you on the monitor.”
Betty felt uncomfortable with all this praise.“They only wanted me to
be on the show because of all the publicity surrounding all those
dreadful events.”
Someone said:
“Your acting wasn’t so bad. We all think you could have continued as
nurse Betty Lamour, if you hadn’t left to go back to nursing school.”
“But I was never an actor,” Betty insisted. “All my life I wanted to be
a nurse or veterinarian. I only stayed until I had saved up enough
money for finishing by nursing degree. Then I came back to Kansas and
finished my degree. And here I am.”
“Well we think you acted fine. We think you are a natural actor,” replied Darlene.
“So who wants to see Betty act?”
“What?” Betty wondered.
“It happens,” said Darlene. “We’ve put together some scenes from Sue
Ann’s tapes, to show your acting on the diner’s monitor..”
Betty feigned surprise and horror. “ Oh, no!....”
Darlene explained: “Sue Ann used two VCR’s and created a tape showing
some choice scenes from when you were playing Nurse Betty Lamour
opposite Dr. David Ravell, before you went on to continue your nursing
education. We’ve connected Sue Ann’s VCR to the diner’s TV monitors.
Now watch.”
“Oh, no! You guys are intent on embarrassing me!”
With a mischievous smile, Darlene replied: “Of course! That’s the whole point!”
“The soap opera magazines said there was something going on between you
and the lead actor, George McCord, who played Dr. Ravell,” said
waitress Joan. “Was there?”
“No comment,” said Betty laughing. “Well, there was nothing since I came back to Kansas.”
“To begin with,” said Sue Anne operating the VCR, “let’s look at what
is going on right now. Even after three years, Betty, your character
Betty Lamour, who ran out on David on the day of the wedding, and flew
off the Africa to help in the humanitarian efforts there, is still very
much alive. She’s just not on screen. She’s far away in Africa. Dr.
David Ravell is still pining over you, waiting for you to return.”
“Still?” said Betty.
“Of coarse in soap opera time not even a year has passed even thought
three years have passed in our time.”
“When I wanted to leave the show,” explained Betty, “they didn’t want
to kill me off. I suppose they thought maybe I would return. So they
had me run out on our wedding, and fly to Africa to work in a field
hospital there, helping in the humanitarian effort.” Betty didn’t feel
very enthusiastic about watching tapes from before she returned to
nursing school and added: “ I hope this is not going to take long, you
guys. I and Rosa have to prepare for our trip back to Los Angeles. This
is the beginning of my new life. All this business you guys are talking
about and showing me is my old life.”
“Just a few scenes,” begged the audience. “Then we all have gifts to
send you and Rosa off to your NEW life.”
“Like a gas station gift certificate to pay for the gas for your
journey to L.A.” said the manager-cook of the Diner, “considering the
price of gas these days....!”
“Well there’s a USEFUL gift!” remarked a customer.
2.
‘Betty Lamour’ is Greatly Missed
A TV scene is in progress. Like soap opera scenes and dialogue, it is a
touch overdramatic and predictable.
The interior is an operating room. Dr. David Ravell is finishing up at
a surgery. A nurse wipes his brow. Finally it is done.
“Close ‘er up,” he says.
He removes his gloves and mask and heads out of the operating room.
Chloe, the troublemaking nurse trying to win his affections, sees him
come out, catches up with him in the corridor and walks with him.
“How did the operation go, David?” she asks.
“Another successful heart surgery, “ he replies coldly.
“What’s the matter then? ”
“Why do people keep asking me that! Why can’t I be in a bad mood? ” he
says with a touch of irritability.
“You’ve still got Betty Lamour on your mind.”
Finally David relaxes enough to talk about what’s on his mind.
“It’s been eight months now, Chloe. I hardly hear from her. I worry
about her.”
“Well she is working for a great cause, David.”
“But when will it end? When will she come home? I go home and turn on
the TV and there is this news about the problems in Africa – droughts,
wars, poverty, AIDS – and the humanitarian organizations there and the
charity drives asking for help. I can’t help thinking about Betty being
involved in it all and wanting to talk to her. Perhaps she doesn’t want
to talk to me.”
“Of course she does. She’s just busy. There was that letter from a month ago.”
David is unconsolable.
Cloe continues with a hand on his shoulder as they walk: “We all feel
sorry she left you at the altar on your wedding day, with that letter
explaining she felt she had to join the humanitarian efforts in Africa
and that your marriage should be postponed. But joining the
humanitarian effort in Africa was a greater cause. Maybe she should
have talked it over with you, but if she had, would you have let her
go? She couldn’t discuss it with you, so she just went.”
“She was right. I wouldn’t have let her go, or at least not without
discussing it for a long time. I suppose she had no choice but spring
it on me like that.” He sighs.
They come to the elevator and they both wait for it.
He continues: “I forgive her for walking out on our wedding to go to
Africa, and asking that we postpone the wedding, but far too much
time passes between hearing from her, Chloe. Far too much time passes,
Chloe.” He looks up at the numbers ding above the elevator doors. “And
I can’t contact her. It is in some isolated place in the middle of
Zamovia. There isn’t even any phone there. The outfit there can’t even
afford the use of a satellite phone, if they even have one. All their
resources are dedicated to the aid effort.”
“You know how it is in Africa. Things happen fast and aid organizations
have to improvise. Hold in there, David. Time will pass quickly. She’ll
be back. She’ll be back and you can finally have your wedding.”
The elevator doors open and they enter. David continues: “But what if
she decides to stay forever, like a Mother Theresa. Then I’ve lost her
forever...” A worried look remains across David’s face.
There is nothing to be done but continue to endure the pain.
Now the director yelled “cut!”.
The whole cast and crew relaxed. But George McCord who played Dr.
Ravell, lept off the set stage depicting the hospital corridor and a
phony elevator interior, and headed towards the producer Lyla Branch, a
tall woman with a watchful eye. She could see right away he needed
calming.
“How long is this going
to continue, Lyla?” demanded George. “How long am I going to be pining
for my beloved Betty Lamour, far away in this country called –
what was it called? – Zambivia, Zamovia – after Betty left
the show? How many seasons have we continued that theme? Two seasons
now? Three?” He didn’t wait for an answer, and continued. “Having her
leave the show by having her character walking away from our wedding in
order to serve the suffering in Africa was a stroke of genius, but how
long is my character, Ravell, going to pine for her?”
“Well soap opera time moves slowly, George. In soap opera time, only
about eight months have passed since she failed to show at
the wedding.”
George was speechless with frustration.
Lyla continued trying to soothe him: “We wanted to keep Betty’s
character alive somewhere, after she left. She was very popular –
a soap opera fan from Kansas with no acting experience who got to act
on the show. Lots of female fans identified with her. We couldn’t get
rid of her in the storyline. The fans would have hated us. Besides, if
her fan following remained strong, we hoped that we could get Betty
back after a while. But I have to admit, the fans are getting
impatient. They would now like her to actually appear on screen after
all this time.”
“Well we
can’t keep on doing this forever!” exclaimed George. “Well how about
getting her back, then?”
“She’s in Kansas, George. She’s at nursing school. Isn’t she? I thought
you two had something going when she was on the show, and you kept in
touch with her.”
“No that fizzled out when she left. The distance between here and
Kansas, you know, and her being busy with studies.” George realized
getting her back was probably not possible yet. “She’s probably still
busy with studies.”
George began to pace this way and that like a caged fox. “What else can
we do?” he continued. “Where else can we take the plot? I can’t keep
pining over her forever, waiting for her to return forever. How about
Ravell meets another new nurse and new love interest.”
“Can’t have that, George. With all the public attention currently on
the troubles in Africa, we can’t abandon Africa. It’s on the TV, and
fans think of Betty Lamour when they see news footage of humanitatian
aid agencies doing their work.”
“What if the new love interest comes from Africa?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, George.”
“Hey, I liked that Mother Theresa line! Could we have her write and say
she joined a convent of nuns? Nuns don’t marry. That will force Dr.
Ravell to think of her in a more platonic way. Nuns help in
Africa too don’t they?”
“That’s stupid too, George.”
Just then Larry, the head writer of the show, a shorter, dark-haired
man with glasses, overhearing the exchange, interrupted them. “I read
in ‘Soap Opera Gossip’ that she’s finished school. The actress who
played Betty Lamour, Betty Blaine, has now GRADUATED from nursing
school. She left to finish her nursing degree in Kansas – and now
she’s got her degree. She’s done. The issue of leaving to go back to
school is over.”
“She’s free?” Lyla responded. “Maybe we can ask her to come back after
all – even if we can get her for a guest appearance. Do we know her
address?”
Larry was thoughtful, trying to recall what he had read in that
article. “I recall something else in the article. I think the article
said she had accepted a nursing position back here in L.A.”
“Really? There must still
be enough fan interest in her for the soap opera magazine to take the
trouble to find this out and let the fans know. If true, if she is
indeed coming back to L.A., all the better. It will be much easier to
get her to come in and do a guest appearance, if she’s already here.
Well, great! We’ll have her appear in a few episodes, and that should
satisfy the fans and revitalize the story. Larry, find someone to track
her down. Do you think she’ll be in one of the big hospitals or a small
clinic?”
Larry shrugged.
“Well get on it,” Lyla concluded. “Alright George?”
George wasn’t convinced the solution would come that easily, but nodded tentatively.
3.
A Romance Blooms at the Hospital.
It
didn’t take very long, before Betty and Rosa had rented a trailer,
headed to Los Angeles and became established again in a new apartment.
Rosa was back working as a legal assistant, and Betty was feeling in
her element at the hospital. She couldn’t be happier as she went about
her nurse duties.
Much of the work was routine, but she enjoyed it. Every day she was
meeting people and helping them. Typically her routine began with
checking on patients. She would enter a hospital room, draped with
instruments, take up the patient’s chart, sit on the stool next to the
patient and greet the new patient with: “Hello I’m Nurse Betty. How are
you doing today? I have to take your temperature, pulse and blood
pressure.”
Hopefully the patient would say “I’m feeling much better today.” To
which Betty would respond “Good. This will take a moment.” and
then proceed through the routine, then write it on the chart, then say
goodbye to her patient and walk briskly out into the corridor with
spring in her step.
She proceeded this time to the nurse’s station, where she encountered a
doctor, dressed in green surgical scrubs, talked to him about medical
matters, and it was as if she had been a nurse for years, not just a
couple months. When the medical matters had been discussed, the
professional attitude between her and this doctor changed to casual
exchanges for a few moments. What’s this? There seemed to be a
relationship between them. Did Betty already have a
boyfriend?
The doctor’s name was Dr. Robert Matheson. This man’s father had been
South African, hence he was colored. He was handsome too in the manner
of the celebrity Denzel Washington. And he was suave,
gentlemanly, proud, and with a slight South African accent, which
sounded sophisticated in this LA environment.
“Thank you Robert,” Betty was saying. “That date last Friday was memorable.”
“For me too,” replied Dr. Matheson. “I enjoy your company very much, Betty.”
But it was time to get back to work. He gave her a quick kiss. There
was definitely romance going on here!
Just then Rosa appeared, coming through swinging double doors. Her face
lit up when she saw Betty, and signalled to her.
“Oh, there’s Rosa, Robert” said Betty to Dr. Matheson. “We’re meeting
for lunch.”
Dr. Matheson saw Rosa too, and replied “Alright. I have a heart
operation to do. Have a good lunch.”
Robert gave Betty another light peck, and hastened away down the
corridor.
When Rosa reached Betty, the two women became thick with talk and
gossip.
“Oh, Betty,” exclaimed Rosa, watching Dr. Matheson go. “He’s the most
handsome man I have ever seen. He looks like that movie star, you know
Denzel something. And he is a heart surgeon too. And he has a
sophisticated accent. I’m amazed at you Betty! You’ve been at this
hospital only two months and already you have a handsome doctor
boyfriend. A real one now. Not a fake one like that George McCord
playing Dr. Ravell on the soap opera.”
“I guess I’m lucky. He already knew me from the show, from when I was
on it. Would you believe he was and is a fan of ‘A Reason to Love’?
Tapes it to view every night. Says it relaxes him. He has a library of
tapes and DVD recordings, including the 63 episodes when I was on it,
going back many years.
Rosa kept on: “How many times have you two been going out, now? About 5
times?”
As
they stood there near the nurse’s station, a couple of doctors walked
past, interrupting their private conversation.
As they passed, Rosa continued, with lowered voice: “Betty, look at all
the handsome doctors! Do you think you can set me up with one? What do
you think? A Hispanic one so he’ll fit in with my family?”
Betty laughed. “This
is a large hospital. I don’t know many of the staff yet..... Where
shall we go for lunch?”
Rosa’s mischievousness was without end. “Why don’t we hang around here
this time and admire the doctors?!”
Betty entertained Rosa’s mischievousness with a suggestion. “That’s
possible. We can get some lunch in the staff cafeteria (commissary).
You haven’t seen it yet, have you? Lots of doctors THERE! ”
“Sure. Why not? Let’s stay here for a change.”
Betty gathered her purse and they headed off. The way to the cafeteria
(or otherwise called commissary) took them through the hospital
corridors, and its bustling activity. It was all new to Rosa who was
not very familiar with hospital surroundings, and she took it
in.
Betty explained a little: “So as you can see, Rosa, L.A. County
hospital is quite large, quite busy. Mostly I do routine stuff,
checking the status of patients,...It’s work. Not as glamorous as on
TV. But it’s real. I feel fulfilled now.”
They reached the cafeteria/commissary, each took a tray and got in
line. They continued talking as they proceeded to pick out their
sandwiches and to pay. The place was crowded. Betty looked around for a
table. Rosa indicated a small vacant table near a window, and they went
there and sat down.
“So,
we’ve been in Los Angeles two months now,” said Rosa as she arranged
her tray in front of her. “I’m surprised the TV studio hasn’t contacted
you yet to ask you to return to the TV show for a few episodes. I was
sure they’d jump on you the moment you arrived here in L.A.
”
“I
don’t think they know that I’m back in Los Angeles,” replied Betty. “I
haven’t contacted anyone from the show. How could they
know?”
“Well, if you want my opinion, I hope they never find out where you
are. You don’t need that artificial cardboard cutout world any
more!”
“But one part of me wants to make contact with the people on ‘A Reason
To Love’. I made some friends in the little while I was there. 63
episodes is a good amount of time. But there’s no rush. Best I get
settled in first in my work, the apartment we share, the daily
routine...before I contact anyone from my TV past ....
”
They both turned their attention to their food for some moments.
“Aren’t we lucky to get our apartment,” said Rosa. “I think it’s larger
than before.”
“This is the way it should have been before! Everything is perfect now
– I mean, Rosa, EXCEPT that you are now again without a
guy.”
“At
least I can be happy for YOU, Betty. Your new boyfriend, the heart
surgeon, is far better than that actor McCord from before. Who needs
that phony George McCord anyway? He only PLAYS a surgeon. You have a
REAL surgeon now. And really handsome and exotic looking, and that
accent too!”
Betty didn’t understand Rosa’s strong opinions sometimes. She surveyed
the cafeteria environment to find a new topic of conversation… “This
hospital cafeteria isn’t much. Not much of a view. Next time we can
have lunch again at the outdoor cafe down the road.”
Rosa looked up from her salad. Her eyes settled on all the doctors in
white coats or green scrubs that were having lunch. “Oh this hospital
commissary is just fine! The view is wonderful. ”
“What view?”
“I mean all the men, the doctors. Could you find out which ones are not
married, Betty?” Then Rosa cut her enthusiasm and added resigningly,
“But why bother? My luck with men is terrible. What am I saying? I’ll
never date a doctor.”
Just then, a doctor carrying a tray came up. He was obviously Hispanic.
Relatively good looking. But he had only one purpose on his mind at
that moment - to find a place to sit and to eat. He said: “Excuse me.
It’s quite full in here, and you have some vacant chairs. Do you mind
if I sit at your table?”
Rosa turned, and upon seeing him was tongue-tied. So Betty replied.
“Not at all.”
He sat down beside Rosa and got busy eating. Rosa and Betty exchanged
glances. Betty signaled by facial expression that Rosa should engage
him in conversation. He noticed Rosa looking at him and made the first
move.
“My name is Dr. Garcia,” he said. “You look Hispanic. Are
you?”
Rosa beamed and was momentarily speechless.. Finally she said “yes” in
Spanish (Si). She added: “My name is Rosa. I don’t work here. I’m just
having lunch with my friend, Betty, who DOES work here. We’re just two
single women getting together for lunch.”
He extended his hand. “Pleased to meet you. I’m single too. Perhaps... ”
Betty anticipated where this was going and excused herself early. “Well
I have to get back to my nurse’s station, Rosa. Stay here and finish
your lunch. You have time...”
Betty and Rosa exchanged knowing glances, as Betty took her tray of
half-eaten food and hastened away to leave Rosa alone with this doctor.
______________
A half hour later, Betty was tending behind the nurse’s station,
wondering how Rosa made out. And Rosa needed to let Betty know. So she
appeared at the doors, spied Betty and from the doorway told the whole
story in gestures and expressions. Betty understood loud and clear. She
had hit it off with Dr. Garcia. But she had to go back to her work, and
so she waved goodbye from the doorway. Betty gave her a knowing smile
and gestured back a thumbs up, and waved a ‘see you
later’.
At that moment Robert came down the corridor wiping his brow with a
handkerchief. He caught the appearance of Rosa at the swinging
doors.
“I just came from complicated surgery,” he explained to Betty. “That
was tense going for a while... You’re back from lunch? Rosa looked
happy.”
“Yes! We were in the commissary for lunch this time. A Hispanic doctor
sat down beside her and they’ve hit it off it appears. I think she has
found herself a boyfriend, a doctor who’s also Hispanic.”
“That’s great! Now I don’t have to feel badly when we go out on dates
and she’s left at the apartment. ...Like the big charity event next
week. Did I tell you about that?”
“No..”
“A fundraiser dinner and presentations. I am part of an organization
which I chair called “Doctors for African Relief”. It is very concerned
with the AIDS in Africa. Very close to my heart, because I’m from
Africa – my father’s side of my family. Anyway we have this
annual fundraiser. It’s a quality affair attended by everyone important
in town: doctors, politicians, celebrities. It’s a big dinner and a
presentation of where the funds are going, and some awards of
recognition. ...And if Rosa has hit it off with this Hispanic doctor,
well, we can all go together.”
Betty was learning more about this man every day. OF COURSE she would
join him to this fundraiser.
“Of
course Robert. Of course I’ll attend. And Rosa will certainly
want to come with us.”
“You’ll meet many important people from this city. Maybe even some of
your actor friends from ‘A Reason to Love’. That show is getting
recognition, a plaque, for the way their show has been raising
awareness about the problems in Africa, mainly through attention on
your old character Betty Lamour who is doing fine work
there.”
“It’s
nice that I’m doing fine work in Africa,” she joked. “But I’m not sure
I’m ready to meet up with the people of the show yet.....Alright I
guess I’ll have to expect to run into them, SOMETIME.”
Dr. Matheson was surprised Betty was not enthusiastic about meeting her
old friends from the show. “Surely you would want to socialize with
your fellow actors again – particularly George McCord who played
David Ravell, with whom your character Betty Lamour had a deep
romance?” But there was no time to discuss it, so he added
“Anyway...See you later....Gotta clean up. Later, tonight?”
“Later,” said Betty.
4.
New Developments
The day of the “Doctors for African Relief” fundraiser affair arrived.
Dr. Robert Matheson, with Betty on his arm, and Rosa and her new
boyfriend Dr. Juan Garcia, arrived at the posh hotel where it was being
held. Men and women were dressed in formal fashion. A large sign
out front proclaimed the event: “Doctors for African Relief
Fundraising Dinner” As one entered the lobby area, there were large
images of the reason for the relief effort, images of African children
in the relief hospitals, medical people aiding the suffering,
etc.
The lobby area
was a bottleneck before one entered the hall, and therefore crowded.
Dr. Matheson, as chairman, was known to many. He shook many hands and
proudly introduced Betty to one and all.
Before long, they encountered the group representing the TV soap ‘A
Reason to Love’. The group consisted of Lyla Branch the tall producer,
George McCord lead actor, with a pretty curvaceous woman on his arm,
and a couple other cast members – such as the actors who played
Lonnie and Chloe – and their dates.
George saw Betty first and expressed surprise and excitement in seeing
her there. “There she is...” George began, to Lyla, beside
him.
“Who?”
“Betty! Remember we were talking about her last month, about her
graduating from nursing school and being back in L.A...”
“Yes, I guess we
failed to find her, although I can’t understand why – How many
hospitals are there in L.A.?”
Then Betty saw them and responded quickly. She pointed them out to
Robert, and they moved towards them. “George! Lyla!” said Betty. “I’m
here with Robert, Dr. Robert Matheson. And this is Rosa, my friend, and
her date, Dr. Garcia.” Before anyone could react, Betty
continued: “Robert has a small part in this Doctors for African Relief
charity.”
“Not a small part,” Lyla Branch corrected. “I hear he is the chairman
of the charity! The distinguished heart surgeon at L.A. County
Hospital. I believe we consulted with you some years ago regarding a
particular heart surgery procedure.”
Robert shook Lyla’s hand.
Betty continued the introductions: “And this is George McCord, the
actor who plays Dr. David Ravell on ‘A Reason to Love’. I forgot, I
don’t have to tell you, Robert. You are a fan of the show. And those
are some of the others involved with the show – and their dates, I
presume.”
George reached out and shook Robert’s hand.
“A real heart surgeon,” said George with a nervous laugh. “I only PLAY
one on TV.”
Betty sized up the woman beside George.
Noticing this, George responded: “Oh, I forget my manners. This is
Jeannie my date. She ah...”
The vacuous woman said “I’m an actress. Or at least hope to be one.... ”
Dr. Matheson, needing something to say to George, said: “I record ‘A
Reason to Love’ on my video recorder and watch it often in the evening.
It helps me relax.... And I am aware of Betty, having played opposite
you as your love interest, Berry Lamour, for a time before she
returned to nursing school.”
George just nodded to this outpouring from a fan. People often said
such things. Dr. Matheson pressed on: “Was I ever surprised when I
discovered Betty a couple months back in the L.A. County hospital
assisting me one day as a nurse!” Dr. Matheson beamed proudly at Betty.
There was a bit of awkwardness, so Lyla the producer who had hired
Betty back then, broke in: “Indeed! Betty did well on the show. She
took easily to acting, even though she had never acted before. She
raised the popularity of the show because viewers identified with her.
But sadly she had to leave the show and we had to send her character
away into limbo. Currently her character is doing important medical
work at a remote distressed location in Africa – probably in the
type of work that this charity event supports..” She paused to address
Betty. “Ever thought of coming back, Betty? We really need you. Your
character has been away for three seasons now. A guest appearance would
revitalize her.”
“Well,”
replied Betty. “I’m a real nurse now and I never was a good
actor.”
“You’re now a real nurse, yes I heard,” said Lyla. “You graduated.
Congratulations. How long have you been a real
nurse?”
“Almost two months now... ” Betty replied. She then added to everyone
in the ‘Reason to Love’ group: “Sorry not to have contacted you all
sooner. I was going to...but...I have been so busy getting accustomed
to working in a real hospital where nobody yells ‘cut!’.” She laughed
at her joke. “The hospital just keeps on going 24 hours a day...you
know....”
“Well,” Lyla reiterated, “think about doing a few guest appearances on
the show – just enough so we can refresh our storyline. We can
schedule you whenever you want, so it doesn’t conflict with your work
at the hospital.”
But Betty did not want to think about it at this time. She had avoided
thinking about how she would respond if she was asked.
Dr Matheson sensed
this exchange had run its course, and changed the subject. “I’m happy
to have made your acquaintance,” said Dr. Matheson. But like a true fan
he had more to say. “I’m a great fan of acting and actors. I did some
amateur theatre myself on the side some years ago.”
Responses were not forthcoming, so Dr. Matheson continued: “Well, we
must continue to mingle, meet people we only meet on occasions like
this...It’s been nice meeting you folks from ‘A Reason to Love’.
....Oh, and congratulations on being selected for our award for
publicizing the African humanitarian needs on the show, for which you
will be presented this evening.”
Dr. Matheson, Betty, Rosa and Dr. Garcia began to split off from the
‘Reason to Love’ group. George caught Betty’s eye before she
went.
“Betty. Let’s get together,” he said earnestly. “Let’s talk. Get caught up.”
“Sure George,” replied Betty. Then she added to them all. “Bye
everyone.”
Dr.
Matheson, Betty, Rosa and Dr. Garcia moved off, continuing the
handshaking, and gradually making their way into the hall to sit down
at the tables. George’s eyes remained on Betty until she disappeared
into the crowd.
He said, half to himself, with almost a sneer. “She’s now a REAL nurse,
and dating a REAL heart surgeon!”
Overhearing him Lyla responded: “It kinda puts things in perspective doesn’t it George?”.
The ‘A Reason to Love’ group too began moving off into the hall.
George continued, to Lyla: “You know, Lyla. I’ve never investigated
what goes on in a real hospital. How is it that I’ve been playing a
doctor on ‘A Reason to Love’ for eight years now, and I’ve never seen
how a real hospital operates?”
Lyla is surprised. “How’s that possible?”
“I’ve never been that ill. I think the last time I was in a hospital
was when my mother gave me birth... ”
“That’s news to me...I assumed everyone’s been to a hospital sometime
or other.”
They entered the hall.
Inside the dining hall, attendees were seated at tables. The ‘Reason’
group all sat together at one table. Not too far away at another table
was Betty, Rosa, and Dr. Garcia.
Dr. Matheson was now addressing the hall from a podium on the stage.
There was a huge screen behind him on which was projected images of the
work being done by Doctors for African Relief. In slide show fashion
the screen showed various images of work being done, such as medicines
being brought to refugee camps, of doctors assisting young black
children, and so on.
His presentation was already in progress.
“As chairman of Doctors for African Relief,” Dr. Matheson was
saying, “I am proud to host this presentation of slides showing the
work we have been doing in Africa and which funds raised by this dinner
will support. As some of you may know, I have some connections with
Africa myself. My late father was from South Africa. I lived there when
I was a boy. My father married an American aid worker, and eventually
we moved to America, where I pursued my medical degree. It is thus a
privilege for me to be part of this relief organization.”
He changed a slide.
“Doctors for African Relief is involved in all issues concerning
medicines and medical aid. There have been droughts, famine, refugee
movements from war torn areas, and disease ranging from easily
preventable diseases rhat arise from poor water and malnutrition to
illnesses like malaria and AIDS. Here we see our people distributing
medicines to the field workers, medicines that here we take for granted
in our civilized world, notably the anti-retroviral drugs used to deal
with AIDS......”
Betty’s
face revealed she was impressed by this wonderful man up on the stage,
making a commanding presentation, describing the important work of an
organization for which he was the chairman. George, at the ‘A Reason
For Love’ table some 20 feet away could see she was. He observed Dr.
Matheson, and then Betty’s reactions, and his face showed it all: He
felt deflated, defeated, inadequate. He was just an actor playing a
doctor on TV.
The longer this went on the more jealous and inadequate he felt. It was
plain to see on his face.
5.
The House Watchers
A few nights later, on the street opposite the Rosa’s and Betty’s
walk-up apartment, there was a Range Rover parked among other cars.
Inside, was George McCord, still nursing a newly developed jealously
against Dr. Robert Matheson. He had binoculars in his hands, and
revealed in his behaviour a mixture of curiousity, mischievousness,
insecurity, and jealously all at the same time – as if he didn’t
know exactly how to take this blossoming love affair between his former
love interest Betty, and this REAL surgeon.
It was dark, so he was visible only by the light of the street lamps through the windshield.
A car came down the street and stopped in front of the apartment.
George lifted his binoculars to see who it was.
“Who’s that?” he asked himself. “I’ve never seen him before. Does Betty
have more than one doctor friend?”
He lowered the binoculars and waited a moment, then lifted them again.
Rosa came hopping down the steps from the apartment and her boyfriend
Dr. Juan Garcia immediately came out of the car to greet her and open
the door for her. They were both dressed for a date.
George lowered the binoculars again and muttered to himself:
“Oh....That’s Rosa’s date. Must be that doctor she was with at the
African fundraiser event.”
George McCord continued to watch as the couple got in and the car drove
off. The street was now quiet again, and George’s impatience began to
show, as he began to tap his fingers on the steering wheel.
He continued to talk to himself: “So Betty must be alone now. Isn’t she
going out on a date too?....uhoh..Here’s something...car driving up.”
He ducked as the car drove past him. The man in the car, Dr. Matheson,
looked anyway in George’s direction, intuitively thinking he saw
someone. But he continued on, pulling to the curb in front of the
apartment.
George sat back up and
immediately trained his binoculars on Dr. Matheson, muttering to
himself: “There’s Robert, the famous heart surgeon..coming to pick up
Betty. Disgustingly slick and suave and handsome. I hate his guts.”
Dr. Matheson got out of the car, and in this case went up the stairs to
meet Betty at the door and escort her down. They were exchanging
lovey-dovey small talk.
Then as
they went to the car, Robert remarked: “Funny thing, Betty. When I
came, I thought I saw a guy sitting in that parked car over there.”
They both looked in George’s direction, and George ducked just in time.
Betty saw nothing of course, and both returned to the matter at hand
– getting under way on their date. So Robert said, “Well, shall
we go?”
Robert opened the
door for her, went around the car and himself climbed in, and then in a
moment they drove off.
George McCord, now sitting up again, watched the car recede, with his
binoculars. When the car had disappeared he again had nothing to do.
Was there any point in being here anymore? He began to hum. His eyes
surveyed the street scene, lit only by the yellow lights of the street
lamps. Talking to himself he said: “What now? Hmm. Tail them? .. Don’t
know....Damn I hate that Robert guy! With his damn medical degree,
suave good looks, and .... ” With his eyes roaming around he happened
to turn and notice in the light of the street lamps that there were men
seated in the parked old big black Lincoln behind him. It seems they
were watching him.
“What the.....”
George made eye contact with the man in the driver’s seat. He was a
roundfaced man in his 40’s with short brown hair. He looked serious,
and yet had a mischievous smirk about him, like a John Travolta movie
gangster character. He waved his finger asking George to come over.
George hesitated. The man waved his finger again. George shrugged, got
out and walked to the Lincoln, to the open window on the driver’s side,
where the finger-wagging man was sitting.
“Carl’s the name,” said the man. Carl had a soft drink of some kind in
his hand, and tooks sips from a straw from time to time. George saw
that beside Carl was another man. Seeing George look in his direction,
Carl added “And that is Louey”.
Louey was busy eating, and only glanced over. He was in his 30’s,
dark-haired, slim, always serious looking, intense, with tattoos
visible on his arm. He was reminiscent of a ragged Tommy Lee (the rock
celebrity). He was eating fast-food fried chicken from a box.
George, leaning on the open window, said: “What’s up?”
Carl replied, coldly, frankly while sipping his pop: “Why are you watching that apartment? ”
“What’s it to you? Why are YOU guys sitting here?”
“I asked you first,” replied Carl, taking another sip of his pop.
It was in George’s nature to be cocky and provoking. He said: “Well to
tell you the truth I was sitting at home without a date or anything to
do, so I decided to go for a drive and to check up on this woman who
lives in the apartment over there. I was wondering whether to go and
knock on the door. But I don’t take rejection well. And then her heart
surgeon boyfriend comes along. I admit - lots of jealousy going on in
here. She’s dating a real heart surgeon from a real hospital and I only
PLAY one on TV. How can I compete with that? All suave and smooth and
with a fancy accent...It really irritates me.”
Carl continued to watch him with a steady gaze and sip his pop. George
did not know if anything registered, but it did not matter. George
added.“That’s what I’m doing. Now your turn.”
Carl replied coldly: “What if I said I don’t believe you? You’re
trespassing on our turf. We had this stakeout first.”
George did a take and drew back. This was an interesting situation.
Recovering, he leaned on the car with one hand and stroked his chin in
thoughtfulness with the other. “Stakeout?!” he began. “Let’s see now.
You are watching the apartment over on the other side, because... you
anticipate something will happen that will tell you that... .where..
something .. hmmm… I give up.”
“Pardon my manners. Would you like some pop?” asked Carl. George shook
his head, and Carl continued: “As I said, my name is Carl. Don’t tell
me your name. I think I recognize you. George McCord who plays Dr.
David Ravell on ‘Reason to Love’.”
George was surprised he knew. His face signalled that he was correct,
and Carl continued: “I recall you were involved with that woman Betty
some years ago, before she went to nursing school. She played opposite
you on ‘A Reason to Love’.”
George was puzzled. “How did you know...?”
Beside Carl on the other front seat, Louey listened but wasn’t yet
inclined to participate. He had a box of fried chicken in his lap and
was busy eating. But he was inspired to break in at this point.“Yeah.
Great actress. Want some chicken Carl?”
Carl waved him a “No. Later.”.
Louey then addressed George. “Pardon my manners. Do YOU want some chicken?”
“No,” George replied. “That greasy food is not good for the heart.”
George then turned to Carl. “So how do you know all that about me and
Betty? I get it, you’ve researched the matter, for whatever reason
you’re watching the apartment... ”
Carl didn’t answer that question, but continued savouring his soft
drink. Then he changed the subject. “By the way, how do you like the
car? It’s a Lincoln Town Car, a little old, but it’s all I have to
remember Charlie by.”
“Who’s Charlie?”
“He was the older fellow who got killed in Betty’s bedroom back a few
years ago. I used to be his partner. I had to get stones removed around
that time, so he went after Del Sizemore with his son Wesley instead.
If I had gone, the job wouldn’t have gotten screwed up. It was one
messup after another ending with them both getting killed. Surely you
know about all that? ”
“It was in
all the papers and on TV. And what exactly was it your Charlie and his
son were after? The police and the newspapers were never clear on that
because they never found what it was. By the way, Betty told the press
that the old guy – Charlie? – committed suicide.”
“A straight lie, to cover up her guilt!” declared Carl. “He had no
reason to kill himself. I think she could have blown him away with his
gun and put the gun in his hand.”
That notion made George burst into laughter. Carl continued with great
seriousness. “It’s possible. She told the cops she talked with him, and
then he shot himself. But, like we all saw later, she was a pretty good
actress. She was quite good when she was playing that Betty Lamour on
‘A Reason to Love’. She COULD have been lying, covering the truth.
Acting.”
There was nothing George
could do than shake his head and roll his eyes. He changed the subject.
“So this is the car that those two guys used. What did you say their
names were again? Charlie and Wesley? How did you get it? I would have
thought the cops found it. After all, those guys – Charlie and Wesley?
– died at the apartment and never went back to it.”
“I came right away to L.A. when it was on the news, and fetched it from
where it was parked, a block away. I got it away before it started to
look suspicious.” He took a sip on his pop and became reflective. “Me
and Charlie went on lots of jobs together in this. It’s really old now,
but I’ve kept this car for sentimental reasons, and in memory of
Charlie. He was about to retire, you know.” He rubbed the seat lovingly
and continued. “When I heard that Betty had returned to Los Angeles,
last month, I decided to finish Charlies’ job, in his memory. They had
to find what Del stole. Since Charlie and Wesley pried open the trunk
of her car, I hoped they had transferred the goods to this car, but no.
Obviously it wasn’t in Del’s woman’s car either, and they had to go
inside to make her talk. Maybe she talked privately in the bedroom to
Charlie where nobody else heard. Maybe Charlie finally knew where the
goods were, but then she killed him.”
George was getting irritated. “You think Betty KILLED him? That’s the
stupidest thing I have ever heard.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Got any better theories? Maybe you’re looking for it
too. Maybe you’re trying to charm Betty Sizemore... ”
George corrected him: “She’s Betty Blaine now.. Her maiden name... Like
I said, I’m spying on Betty because I’m jealous. I don’t even know what
we’re talking about. Drugs? Bombs? Money? Jewels? You think I’m looking
for something, just because I came here and watched her meet the
surgeon for a date? I’m an actor, why would I be interested in your
‘stuff’ whatever it is, drugs or whatever?” He laughed a nervous laugh.
“Maybe you have a movie project you want to finance. I know how
desparate you actors are to get a movie project.”
George laughed nervously, because he DID have a movie project he wanted
to finance. He was tired of being only on TV. And sometimes the idea of
topping up the finances with some illicit money had crossed his mind in
moments of desparation. But he kept his cool and continued his bravado:
“Maybe Lyla should hire you as a writer for the show. You have lots of
imagination. I don’t know anything about what happened with her
husband, with Charlie or Wesley, or any drugs or whatever; and I
guarantee you, Betty didn’t know anything about what her husband Del
was doing behind her back, back then. He was into all kinds of illegal
dealings behind her back, and she never knew anything. She told me
herself back then.”
“SO she says.” Carl paused for effect as he sipped his pop.
George had to laugh again. “So what are you going to do now? Kidnap her
and make her tell you where she is hiding the ‘stuff’? ”
Carl remained serious. “Don’t know. We thought we’d start by watching
her. See who she contacts, and so on. Finding you here watching her
apartment, is very interesting....”
George couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You can’t be serious!
It’s absurd! She’s just an ordinary attractive woman from Kansas.”
“Maybe she is, maybe she isn’t. But I owe it to Charlie to carry his
work to its conclusion. That’s all. He had a job to do, and it went all
wrong. We were buddies for a long time. For two dozen jobs. I owe it to
him to finish what he started, and find the goods he was supposed to
get back.” Carl struggled against his emotion. “Hey, I’m not even
contracted to do this. Nobody has hired us. The dealers have basically
forgotten about it. But I haven’t because Charlie was killed. I’m doing
this all on my own time, expense, and initiative. If we find the stuff,
Louey and I, we’ll probably get the balance of payment that Charlie
would have gotten. But that does not mean as much as finishing
Charlie’s job. In his memory.”
George was getting tired of this and became cynical. “Sounds very
touching! But I think you’re crazy.” George rolled his eyes in
disbelief. This was too much! He leaned on the window and concluded:
“So you guys plan to watch the comings and goings at this apartment
every evening. And, now that you’ve told the whole story, you think I
won’t tell her she is being watched?”
“You won’t tell. ”
“How do you know?”
Carl gave him a penetrating and threatening look.“We know.”
George threw up his hands. “Well, I’d like to continue to chat with you
idiots, but I’ve got things to do. Good luck.”
With that George began walking away back to his car. But Carl called
after him. “Oh, one final thing.”
George stopped and turned “What?”
Carl waved him back to the car window with his finger. George came back to the window.
Carl wagged him closer. “Remember what I said at the start?”
“What? ”
Carl pulled out a gun and pointed it at George and said: “This is OUR
stakeout. We don’t want to see you around here anymore. And what I told
you remains between us, right?”
George jumped in surprise. “Whoa! No problem. I’m leaving right now.”
George hastened back to his car and, keeping an eye on the thugs, he
was happy to get away. He watched them by the rear view mirror, as he
drove off.
6.
Hospital Capers
The two seedy characters who had been watching Betty from outside Betty
and Rosa’s apartment by night, sought to watch Betty at the hospital by
day. They really didn’t do much more than park their old black lincoln
in the hospital parking lot, and watch for Betty coming and going. They
didn’t know what they were looking for Betty to do. But Carl felt that
if they kept waiting enough that something unusual would happen that
would give them a break. In the meantime, while they sat in the vehicle
in the hospital parking lot, they amused themselves or ate junk food.
Carl was this morning playing with his new toy as he sat behind the
steering wheel – a small hand-held LCD DVD player. Meanwhile
Louey preoccupied himself eating pizza. Carl was playing a DVD of
episodes of ‘A Reason to Love’. On the small screen were scenes with
Dr. Ravell and Betty Lamour. From time to time he fast forwarded to
other scenes. He was only interested in scenes with Betty Lamour in
them. Louey glanced over now and then as he consumed his pizza slice
and pop.
“Want some more pizza?” Louey asked.
“Not yet. Don’t want to make this little DVD player greasy. I just bought it, you know.”
“You’re playing with that again?”
“Yes, isn’t this great? And I managed to get a whole box set of the
season where that Betty Sizemore was acting on that show.”
“What’s it cost you for that whole box set? Probably just as much as the player itself!”
Carl motioned Louey to be quiet. “Quiet. Here’s that asshole from the
other night playing Dr. Ravell talking to our Betty, who was Betty
Lamour on the show. It’s amazing these DVD players and discs. When I
was young there was nothing like this... ”
Louey ignored it, but glanced over from time to time. Carl continued to
watch and listen and fastforward and back.
Finally Louey spoke again: “Watcha hoping to find? Or are you just playing with a new toy?”
Carl now figured he had to justify his activity. “Maybe I’ve missed
something. There’s that Betty woman expressing love for the doctor. The
woman who was the last to see Charlie alive. I wonder...”
“They’re speaking lines written for them. What are you hoping to find?
They aren’t speaking for real. That’s a TV show and they’re acting.”
“I’m wondering if actors can be that good. Can those kinds of people
really fool everyone if they wanted to? If you are an actor, can you
lie and lie and lie and get away with it? You heard the bullshit that
was coming out of that actor guy the other night. Those kinds of people
can seduce you into believing a lie is truth or a truth is a lie. I
still think he is looking for the same drugs to finance some movie he
is planning. I’ll bet my left arm he’s got some movie project going.
Actors are not happy with being just actors. They always want to write
or direct or produce. Haven’t you been watching Entertainment Tonight?”
Louey shrugged, and took a sip from his can of pop to wash down his
pizza. Carl continued to watch the acting, obsessively. Then Louey
looked up and saw Betty’s car driving into the hospital parking lot.
“Look,” he said.
Carl looked up. “ There she comes. That Betty. In her maroon 97
LeSabre. It’s surprising that thing still runs.”
“It’s surprising Charlie’s old Lincoln still runs,” said Louey.
“Don’t badmouth the old Lincoln,” Carl ordered.
Carl put down his little DVD player and lifted up his binoculars. They
both saw her get out of her car in her nurse uniform, and with purse in
hand, spring in her step, she hurried towards the hospital entrance.
“She looks all sweet and innocent, and all,” said Carl, “but is it all
a big lie? That is what I want to know. Can some people be such good
actors that nobody knows they are acting.” They watched Betty head
towards the hospital entrance. Carl continued: “When I was a kid, I had
to study Shakespeare, and Shakespeare said ‘All the world’s a stage’.
Can people like that treat their whole world like it was a stage, and
be acting all the time?”
Betty having gone inside the hospital, Carl turned his binoculars just
then to see a Range Rover approaching. “Waddayaknow. There’s that actor
asshole again. The Dr. Ravell guy. The McCord actor guy. This is a real
hospital. He couldn’t possibly be working here like the Betty woman.
Maybe he is checking her out again. Or meeting her by now, trying to
get her to confide in her with his charms, maybe get her involved in
his movie project as a financier. Very interesting.”
“How is it you know so much about financing movies, Carl?” asked Louey.
“Didn’t you see that movie, what was it called....I think John Travolta
was in it. There are people who would do anything to finance a movie.”
Louey shrugged.
Carl continued in silence to follow George with his binoculars. Through
his binoculars he saw the vehicle park, George get out with a package
under his arm, and walk briskly to the entrance. But his behavior
seemed surreptitious, as he glanced around furtively.
“What’s he doing?” Louey wondered, since he didn’t have the benefit of
the binoculars at that moment.
“Acting funny as usual. He’s doing something with that package. Maybe a
deal is coming down with Nurse Betty.” Carl then addressed his deceased
buddy, Charlie. “Charlie, can you hear? I think we got something here!”
He put binoculars down, and Louey grabbed them for a moment. But McCord
had just entered the hospital front entrance to the lobby.
Carl finally had a plan of action. “We’d better get in there and follow
him! That package has something sneaky inside it. I know. Call it
intuition from years of experience. Let’s go! It shouldn’t be hard. If
we get caught, we’ll just be visitors who got lost.”
“It’s a big hospital. How will we get around?.”
“No problem we act like visitors, and like I said pretend we’re lost if
we are stopped somewhere. Piece of cake. Let’s tail him. We KNOW he is
not supposed to be there. He’s not a real doctor like Betty is a real
nurse. Something is coming down.”
Louey accepted that, and began putting the trash from his junk food aside.
_______________
Meanwhile, George McCord had just entered the hospital reception area.
Blending in with other visitors, he took a moment to survey the
situation. Nurses and doctors went in and out a certain swinging door.
When the reception nurse was turned the other way, he quickly slipped
through that door.
Before
long, a corridor storeroom door opened and George McCord stepped out,
wearing green surgical scrubs. That’s what he had had in the package.
It was his costume from the show.
Quickly he made himself blend in. When a couple of doctors came along,
he lifted up his surgical mask, so as not to be identified. Someone
would certainly recognize his face from the TV show, if he showed it.
As he made his way along the corridor, he peered in through open doors,
and windows in doors, to take in everything. No, he was not looking for
anyone. He was merely curious and satisfying his curiosity. When
someone inside a room sensed they were being watched through a window
and turned towards him, he ducked and hastened on. He was like a boy on
an adventure of discovery..
Just then his cell phone rang. Annoyed by the interruption, he
nonetheless dug under his scrubs to find the cell phone. He had put his
scrubs over his regular clothes. He pulled down his mask to talk as he
continued to walk along the corridor
“ Hello....Lyla.....Where am I? I’m at the hospital .. No this has
nothing to do with Betty. It has to do with what I told you at the
charity thing – I’ve never been inside a real hospital before.
Everything I know is what I’ve seen on TV and in movies – all the
cliches.....So I decided I’d check it out. I put on the scrubs costume
I wear as Dr. Ravell on the show, and am trying to blend in .....
Yeah... yeah...Well I can’t believe you never arranged for me to tour a
real hospital, Lyla. You have hired Dr. Matheson in the past as a
consultant, but you’ve never thought of showing me what a real
hospital’s like.... What I’d like to do now is to sneak into a real
heart surgery. I’d like to see how this Dr. Robert Matheson does what
Dr. David Ravell does. I might pick up some pointers I can use in Dr.
Ravell’s role......What do you mean you don’t want the show to be too
real? Bye, Lyla!”
With that
George put the cell phone away, muttering to himself. Then he stopped
to take his bearings. He targeted a passing nurse for directions. He
scratched his nose all the while to make himself less recognizable.
“Pardon me, where is the heart surgery? I’m here to observe the operation.” he lied.
The nurse was a little taken aback because such a question is rarely
ever asked of her. “What surgery...I...Well our chief heart surgeon is
Dr. Matheson. If he is engaged in surgery right now, it would be in
surgery room 3, which is down the hall and turn right”
“That’s the one. Thank you. I’ll find it.”
George put his mask up again so as not to be recognized while he looked
for the surgery room; and he found it. He looked in through the window,
peering one way and then another. There were some nurses in there.
Where was the surgeon? He pulled down his mask as he peered through the
window. He muttered to himself as he looked: “Well there are the
nurses, the anesthetist, and...but where is the surgeon?”
A voice behind him replied: “I would be the surgeon, doctor. Who might you be?”
George turned in surprise, and was caught with his mask down. It was
Dr. Robert Matheson. George grinned sheepishly, but recovered with
quick thinking. “Dr. David Ravell!” he said.
Robert showed surprised as he recognized George: “Why, George McCord!
What are you doing here? And in surgical scrubs? Are they shooting a TV
scene in here...?”
George
looked down at his scrubs and replied “Not exactly the same as what is
worn here. It is my costume from the show. I thought I would try to
blend in.”
Dr. Matheson’s face was still seeking an answer.
“No,” George continued. “Nothing is being shot at the hospital. I
wanted to look around a real hospital. I’ve never been in a real one.
And I’ve done hundreds of heart surgeries on ‘A Reason to Love’, but
never seen a real surgery.” He laughed.
“Well then, would you like to see the one about to take place here,
then? It would be an honor. I’m a fan of the show. But I can’t believe
you have never seen a real heart surgery. Your performances as Dr.
Ravell on the show are reasonably alright. A little over-dramatized for
effect, and simplified, but reasonably okay. A real surgery goes on and
on and is tedious. There is no instant result. You’ll see.”
“Then it would be fine if I could watch? I wouldn’t want to be recognized.”
“No problem. It’ll be our secret. No need to approve it through regular
channels. Nobody will every know you were here. Put up your mask, so
the others do not recognize you, and I’ll introduce you as...Dr.
McCord...a visiting doctor here to observe a delicate quadruple bypass
surgery. It may be fifteen minutes yet before we begin. The patient has
to be fetched and prepared..... The operation will last many hours. I
don’t expect you to remain long, so go whenever you need to. You must
be a busy fellow.”
With that, Dr.
Matheson touched McCord’s shoulder and continued on his way, preparing
for the surgery, leaving George to himself once again.
Once he was alone again, George’s cell phone rang once again. He dug it
out from under his scrubs again.“Lyla!.....I’m FINE!” He was a little
annoyed by the interruption again.
________________
Meanwhile, Carl and Louey had also snuck their way into the hospital as
visitors. But unlike George, they had no disguise, and hoped they could
get by acting like visitors.
Carl stopped a nurse in the corridor.
“Pardon us, nurse, but have you seen a fellow about so high, handsome
face, looks like a TV celebrity actor...”
“Sorry...Uh... That’s too vague a description, sir.” The nurse then
eyed the two characters and realized they may not have any business in
this area that was off limits for visitors. “But what are you two doing
in this corridor? These are the operating rooms. It is off limits for
hospital visitors at this time. I’m afraid you’ll have to leave this
corridor.”
Louey broke in: “But how will we find our friend?”
“You can give details to the reception and we will try to locate him.
Is he a patient? If he is and has a name, reception can tell you where
he is.”
Carl took hold of Louey’s
jacket and pulled him away and they pretended to walk to the exit. When
the nurse disappeared, Carl arbitrarily opened a door and entered,
pulling Louey with him. It was a storage room. Carl flipped on a switch
and they looked around. There were shelves all around. But Carl was
more concerned that Louey doesn’t get them caught.
“Don’t make a fuss,” Carl began. “We don’t want to draw attention to
ourselves.” Then, looking around at where they were, he added: “Maybe
we can find a uniform of an orderly or something as a disguise....”
“We could wait for an orderly to come along, knock him out, and steal
his uniform... ”, said Louey.
“Don’t be an idiot. There are more civilized ways of doing things. Look
this is a storage room. Let’s see what they have in here.”
They began to rummage through the room. Louey pulled out a hospital
gown, the kind patients are given to wear, that is open at the back.
“Look. There’s a whole lot of hospital gowns here, you know that
patients wear. We could put them on and pretend to be patients.”
“Sounds stupid, but it could work.”
“It’s like when you’re hunting and wear camouflage. These would be like hospital camouflage.”
“Ah shut up, and get into one.”
Before long, the door to the storage room opened and when the coast was
clear, out stepped Carl and Louey, wearing hospital gowns. They walked
and tried to blend in. They smiled at passing nurses. When the nurses
had passed, Carl assessed their getup. He found fault with Louey’s.
“You didn’t have to take your clothes off, you know, Louey.”
“I kept my undershorts and shoes.”
“You are an idiot. All I did was roll up my trousers and sleeves, and
put the gown on top. Now you’ll have to find the closet again to fetch
your clothes later. You’re a real idiot, you know.”
Louey didn’t think he was an idiot. It was Carl who was the idiot.
“Well, the gowns are open at the back. Anyone can see from the back
that you are fully dressed with pants rolled up.”
Carl replied: “I never thought of that.”
Louey laughed victoriously. “So now who’s the idiot?”
But just then a doctor was passing, and they pulled themselves
together. Carl, now aware of the open back, turned his back to the wall
as the doctor passed. This looked peculiar to the doctor, so after they
have passed and Carl turned back again, the doctor turned around and
saw Carl from the back, fully dressed under the gown, with trouser legs
rolled up.
“Hey you!” the doctor exclaimed. “Are you a patient here? Stop!”
Carl and Louey realized they had been caught, and they both took off
down the corridor. The doctor hastened after them. They turned a
corner. There were unoccupied gurneys lined up in the corridor. The men
jumped on them, pulled sheets over themselves and turned toward the
wall. The doctor chasing them ran by. Having lost sight of them the
doctor stopped a nurse coming the other way.
“Nurse, did you see a couple of men in hospital gowns come running by?”
The nurse looked perplexed. “I see men in hospital gowns all the time.
But I never see them running. No, I didn’t see any running.”
“Well watch out for a couple of men who may be masquerading as patients.”
“Really? Masquerading as patients, you say? That would not be too
smart. Supposing they are mistakened for a real patient and operated
on,” she joked, and they both laughed.
After having their laugh the doctor became serious for a moment. “Such
a mixup couldn’t happen could it? Of course not.” They laughed some
more and parted.
_________________
Back at the surgery room, a short time later, George hung around to the
side, in his scrubs and mask pulled up. He absorbed everything that was
going on. Dr. Matheson, came by with a frustrated look.
“What’s going on?” George wondered.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” said Dr. Matheson. “There’s no patient.”
He turned to the others for answers.“So where is the patient? He should
be all ready for me by now. We should be putting him under now, hooking
him up... Where is he?”
Everyone was flustered. They shook their head, wondering what to do.
Suddenly an orderly. accompanied by a nurse, wheeled in the patient.
“Sorry,doctor. We had trouble finding him. Seems he wandered off. But we can proceed now.”
It so happens that peering from the gurney, from under the sheet was
Louey, not aware that he was going to be operated on.
Dr. Matheson introduced himself to the patient peering up from under
the sheet. “I am Dr. Robert Matheson. I will be in charge here. You are
Mr. Bert Farell?”
Louey nodded furtively in order to stay in disguise, not knowing what was going on here.
Dr. Matheson continued: “You are feeling up to it?”
Louey at first wondered what that meant, but nodded anyway.
“Well the anesthetist is starting to put you under. You won’t feel a
thing. When you awake it will all be done.“
By then the anesthetist was applying the anesthetic mask to Louey’s
nose and mouth to put him under. The mask also made it impossible for
Louey to speak.
To everyone, Dr. Matheson said: “Alright let’s begin the quadruple bypass operation!”
Louey’s eyes widened in alarm, and he tried to protest, but it was
muffled by the mask that was over his face giving him gas. It’s too
late. He lapsed into
unconsciousness.
7.
Betty Agrees - On Condition
George pestered Betty by phone for a meeting and finally persuaded her
to meet with him for lunch. They met at a sunny café where Betty and
Rosa often met for lunch
It
was one of those lunchtime cafés that spill out with tables outside
beside the sidewalk. Canopies gave shade from the sun. A waiter
scurried around to take orders.
George and Betty were seated at one of those tables. Betty was wearing
her nurse uniform, with a sweater on top. It was her lunch break. Food
– sandwiches, coffee, etc – were already in front of them. They
had already been chatting a few minutes, choosing food, making small
talk.
“It’s good of you to
find time to meet with me finally,” said George. “It’s been too long
since we last talked, since we were last together on the show ‘Reason’ ”
“Well, after seeing you all at the African fundraiser dinner, I was
reminded of the past. It’s easy to forget when you’re starting a new
life.”
“Well, I’m glad we are able to meet for lunch here.”
Betty was reminded she didn’t have a long time for her lunch and began
to eat her sandwich. “By the way,” she said, “Robert told me that you
dropped in at the hospital to observe one of his surgeries a few days
ago.”
“And it was good I did!
Fascinating! No pretend there!” George pictured that experience, and
continued: “I’ve been playing Dr. Ravell the heart surgeon on ‘Reason’
for eight years now, and I had no idea how complex and intricate it
is...And how long those heart operations are! Lyla has never thought of
pushing me to see how it is really done!”
Betty added: “Of course it’s too bad there was a patient mixup and the
wrong patient was operated on. But Robert said we should not talk about
that. It’s hush-hush. Very embarrassing. Robert raised a great stink
about it with the department, about the incompetence. The fellow they
operated didn’t have his identification bracelet, but he was covered in
tatoos and was of the same general build as the correct patient, so
they overlooked the identification bracelet. Who could have thought
there would be two people with body covered with tatoos and of similar
build! What are the odds? So nobody thought anything of his not having
his identification bracelet. Like, how could they be wrong? But they
were. Fortunately, it turned out the wrong guy had the same blood type
and even the same clogged arteries. That’s why nobody knew of the
mistake until it was all done. Talk about extraordinary coincidence.
But it meant the surgery had to be done all over again on the correct
patient too.”.
“You don’t
say!” said George. “All I knew is the operation went well. I left after
an hour. Didn’t stay all the way through.”
“Oops! Maybe I shouldn’t have talked about the mixup. I thought you
knew about it, having been there. The fellow who was mistakenedly
operated on was very reluctant to tell anyone much about himself. They
think he was a little coo-coo.”
It was news to George, but the two thugs from the other night came to
mind.. He said to himself: “Hmm. I thought he looked familiar. . . when
he was on the table . . .”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing.” George sipped coffee and looked around to change the subject. “Nice little café.”
“Yes it is,” Betty agreed as she ate. “I often meet with Rosa here for
lunch; but today she has to attend to something in her legal assistant
work and is too far from here to meet.”
“Which is for the best, since she hates my guts.”
“She thinks you are bad for me. She’s protective, like a mother hen.”
“Anyway. ..You’re looking good, Betty. I’ve missed you.”
“You look good too. Was that woman I saw you with the other day your girlfriend?”
“No, just some chick who happened to be handy to accompany me to that dinner. ”
“Really? I would have thought you’d have a serious relationship by now.
How long has it been since we last sat together like this? Two years?
More? I imagined after I left to return to nursing school, you’d have
hundreds of girlfriends, and I would be water under the bridge, just
another affair.”
George felt
Betty was someone he could confide in. “So many women in the
entertainment industry here are so plastic. Wannabees with only one
thing on their mind – to become a movie star. They have no ambition to
be anything else, anything normal. Betty, you’re real. In the world I
move in, I don’t meet real women, doing real things. The show has my
character in love with your character away in Africa, saving all the
little children. So Dr. Ravell DOES meet such wonderful women, in his
IMAGINARY world, but George McCord the actor, NEVER meets such women.
Dr. Ravell has a life, I don’t.”
“Sure, you have a life,” Betty disagreed.
George pressed on: “But YOU seem to have found quite a catch. A REAL
heart surgeon, and a damned handsome one.”
Betty eyed George, not knowing exactly what he was trying to say.
He then added with an inquisitive look: “So.. there’s no
possibility...you and me? You’re committed to this guy?”
Betty put down her sandwich in order to gesture. “George! Was there
ever a ‘you and me’?” Not waiting for an answer she continued: “I don’t
think I know George McCord, or will ever know him. If I fall in love
with you how do I know I’m not really in love with your character Dr.
David Ravell, that I watched on TV for years and years? ..Seared into
my brain from watching ‘A Reason to Love’ for eight years? I
can’t erase that when I meet you George. How can I ever know the real
you, when your doctor character clouds everything?”
George persisted: “Well if we saw each other more, eventually … Or
maybe if I dyed my hair, or wore a mustache? Looked less like Dr.
Ravell away from the studio?”
“You’re being silly. Anyway, I’m now seeing Robert, George. And he does
not present me with that problem. Things are going very well with me
and him. I think we’re falling in love....”
George returned with a puppy-dog forlorn look. They sat in silence for
a moment. George realized there was nowhere further to go with that and
changed the topic.
“Well to
change the subject, Betty, Lyla asked me again to ask you to return to
the show for a few episodes. We really need to do something with the
Betty Lamour character. She has been doing aid work in Africa now it
seems forever, and the audience of the show is getting impatient. They
want something new to happen with your INVISIBLE character, like make
her APPEAR.”
Betty heaved a sigh
as she knew it would come up. “Well, I suppose we owe it to the fans
that I reappear. But I’d like to be written completely out of the show,
not to make guest appearances. It’s an awful obligation and burden to
remain alive and have fans want me back.”
George was pleasantly surprised. Anything to get her back for an
episode or two. “Sure, we could kill you off! You could come back get
ill or something, and we could have a Love Story situation, where in
the end you die. The ratings will go through the roof. So you don’t
think you’ll ever return to acting? You have natural talent.”
“You know the answer, George. All my life I wanted to be a nurse, or
something where I help people or animals. I agreed to do those 63
episodes, remember, mainly so I could save up money for continuing
nursing school. It costs you know. But now I’m a real nurse. Why would
I want to PLAY one, George?” About that she was clear, but she added
with a sigh: “Still I agree that I should help bring the Betty Lamour
character to an end. . . .Tell Lyla I’ll contact her.”
“Great! It’ll be just great working again with you Betty. I’ll tell her.”
George had barely touched anything other than his coffee, as his
intention had been to talk to Betty. She however had actually been
hungry, and now she had to head back to the hospital.
Standing, collecting her purse, Betty said: “Gotta go. I have to get
back to the hospital. Nice to chat with you George” She squeezed his
hand, looked at her watch and wanted to deal with the bill.
“I’ll take care of the bill,” said George. “It’s on me.”
With that, Betty departed as George remained seated but attempted to signal a waiter or waitress.
_________________
As she had promised, Betty talked to Lyla on the phone; and then on a
free afternoon, she headed to the TV studios, the familiar studios
where she had worked for several months a few years ago, to discuss it
with Lyla in person. She entered through the glass doors of the studio,
and approached the receptionist behind a counter.
“I’m Betty Blaine. I have an appointment with Lyla Branch.”
The receptionist dialed Lyla’s office and said: “A Betty Blaine to see
you.” Then she turned back to Betty. “She says, go right in. It is the
third office to the right, down the hallway.”
“Thank you.”
Lyla’s office was light and airy with big windows. And creatively
messy, as one would expect in a creative place. Betty entered. Lyla got
up to meet her and guide her to an upholstered chair. A man of short
stature, dark hair, and glasses, was sitting in a chair off to one
side. When Betty saw him, Lyla said “That’s Larry, our head writer. I
asked him to join us, since he may have some good ideas.”
Betty acknowledge Larry, and sat down, as Lyla went back behind her
desk. When she was settled, and Betty too, Lyla began: “So, have you
decided about the prospect of coming back for a few episodes?”
Betty was very serious about this now. It was as if it was her duty to
return for a guest appearance, for her fans. “I thought about it, and I
agree that I can’t remain an invisible character in Africa forever...”
Lyla agreed and brought her up to date. “If you’ve watched the show
since you left, we’ve kept your character in Africa and Dr. Ravell
pining for you, waiting for you to return. . . Now we really NEED you
to make an appearance. We’ve painted ourselves in a corner. We need to
move the storyline somehow in some new direction. ANY direction. The
fans are getting frustrated.” She pointed to a large cardboardboard box
filled with letters. “Look at all the letters asking when the hell
Betty Lamour is coming back from Africa!!!”
Betty remained serious, even earnest. “Lyla, I was so thrilled to be
asked to be part of the show some years ago. I know you decided to ask
me to join the show because of all the publicity that came from those
killings at the apartment Rosa and I shared. All that media attention
when all the details came out about my being a fan of ‘A Reason to
Love’ who was followed from Kansas to Los Angeles by a couple of thugs
thinking I was in on something my then husband Del stole, and for which
they killed him. I never thought of becoming an actress. For me, your
offer was a chance to do something else than being a waitress, and let
me save up money for nursing school. And doing 63 episodes helped me do
that. I am very indebted to you for making it possible for me to
fulfill my dream of getting my diploma and working as a nurse. But,
being an actor was not really who I am. Therefore, I don’t have any
desire to return to the show or even do occasional episodes. Acting is
not me. But I have decided I would at least help you bring my character
to an end. I was moved at the charity dinner about how Robert's charity
is helping the AIDS crisis in Africa. I think it would help if perhaps
in the script I contract AIDS in Africa and become seriously ill from
getting it accidentally somehow and return and die. Perhaps that will
increase public attention to the problem.”
“Hmm. If you’re sure you’ll never return to acting, that would be a way
of ending you. We can write a storyline in which you return to Loma
Vista hospital from Zamovia and you die. And it will also give much
publicity to the AIDS problem in Africa.”
“Perhaps I was in such a remote place that I didn't get antiviral
drugs, or something, until it was too late.”
Lyla turned to Larry for ideas “What do you think Larry?”
Larry leaned forward: “Sounds good. Betty Lamour would have been in
contact with HIV infected people, and so AIDS is a very plausible
disease for her to get. But we’ll have to stress that it was through
some accident – she gets HIV infected blood in a cut, for example –
since it isn’t normally contageous. And then somehow the antiviral
drugs do not get her, because there is a lack of enough of it there. We
can assume she did not know she got infected, so she does not get
medicines before she returns to Loma Vista. But alas, eventually the
illness claims her.”
“We don’t
want to drive our viewers away by becoming too grim about the specific
disease,” mused Lyla as she gazed far off out the window. “What we want
to do is create a ‘Love Story’ drama. ‘Love Story’ is a classic movie
about a young man and woman, where the woman has a terminal disease. We
should keep that angle strong. We must establish right from the start
that she WILL die. No tension about maybe she will maybe she won’t.
That would not be good. We want the audience to get used to her
dying. We want it to be like in ‘Love Story’ – she WILL die, and
the drama is in how David and Betty deal with it. That way the audience
is prepared and not disappointed when she does die – since we already
establish it from the start.”
Larry continued: “And, bearing in mind that when Betty Lamour left, she
walked out on the marriage to Dr. David Ravell, it makes sense that we
marry her to Ravell before she dies. Somewhere after it is determined
she will die, she’ll be asked her dying wish. She’ll say it is to marry
Ravell. Then a priest will marry them, and then she soon dies. Or
better still we have a real wedding with guests and all – the one that
was supposed to take place earlier.”
“How’s that sound, Betty? We give you a wonderful ‘Love Story’ exit!”
“It sounds fine to me. But I don’t want it to drag out. I don’t want to
be a lump in a bed forever and ever. That would be worse than working
in a relief hospital in Africa. Fans will stop me on the street and ask
why I’m out of bed. And I don’t want to keep returning to the studio
either. Can we get it all done at once, Lyla?”
“Agreed. This sort of plot development WILL drag out a FEW months. But
I promise we won’t keep it going for years. And we can shoot YOUR
scenes all at once, so you only need a few days free time from your
hospital work. In the course of the show in the following months, for
most of it you WOULD be a lump in a bed. We’d cut in your face as
needed, looking ill. But we also need to shoot some scripted scenes
that are absolutely necessary – your arrival back to Loma Vista very
ill, some exchanges with David, your request to be married, the
wedding, and your final demise. Still we can do it all at once. We
might need you on set maybe only......two or three days? Can you get
yourself free for two days?”
“I can get free for two days without any problem.”
“Great. Then we’ll develop the scripts and send them to you? And you
can tell us when you can schedule a couple days off, and we’ll set it
up.”
“Thank you, Lyla. I’ll
be relieved when my character is no more. There are so many people who
see me and ask me how my work is going in Zamovia. I’ll be happy when
nobody remembers the Nurse Betty Lamour character anymore! Some people
can’t distinguish between the character on TV and the real person who
plays them, you know. Even normal people who are not insane!”
“We’ll be relieved too,” said Lyla. “The fans have been on our backs.
Now we give them what they wanted – your reappearance. I just hope they
accept your subsequent demise – although if we establish from the start
you are terminal, then they will have months to adjust to it. And if we
make it a proper ‘Love Story’ exit, they will remember it for years to
come.”
Betty left the studios,
relieved that a plan had been struck, and looked forward to the day
when people only saw her as Betty Blaine, the real-life nurse, and not
also as a representative of a fictional character created by the soap
opera, who never seemed to go away.
8.
Supermarket Capers
Some weeks have passed since Louey mistakenedly got his heart surgery.
Carl and Louey had had to put watching Betty on hold during that time
while Louey recuperated. Now they were back on their case, tailing and
watching Betty once again.
Betty
liked to drop in at a particular supermarket on her way home, and once
again the old black Lincoln was in the parking lot, watching Betty
arrive and enter the supermarket to do some shopping.
Carl was sitting on the driver’s side as usual. Louey was sitting
grimly beside him struggling against the pain where they had cut open
his chest.
“Well Betty has
gone into that supermarket,” Carl declared, “presumably to do shopping.
Nothing unusual in that. But you never know what might happen
next....How are you feeling?”
“Not so good yet. It still aches where they cut open my chest for the quadruple bypass.”
Carl lifted the binoculars and looked towards the supermarket. “They
say,” he continued, “your arteries were clogged and the quadruple
bypass was what you needed. Well at least you got the operation for
free plus ten thousand in cash, for signing the waiver that you
wouldn’t sue them.”
“We could have sued them for a lot more money.”
“And draw attention to ourselves and our business? When something like
this goes to court it drags on and on, and everything about you is
under a microscope.”
“Well they should pay more. It hurts like hell.”
“Don’t worry you’ll be good as new in no time. Oh what’s this?”
Just then they saw a Range Rover drive up and park not far from them.
Carl investigated this new development with his binoculars. “Well
waddayaknow! Here comes the actor asshole again. It’s been a while
since we saw him last. He’s following Betty too, just like us. Let’s
see what he’s up to now. That Betty woman went into that supermarket.
And now he shows up. And he knows Betty went in there, obviously. Maybe
they are meeting to do a deal.”
“Either that, or he is shopping too and it is a coincidence.” said Louey drily.
“Well her I can understand - a beginner nurse who shares an apartment
with an office worker. They have to make food at home. But he is a TV
star. Makes loads of money. Look at his car. He doesn’t have to buy
groceries. A guy like that would eat at restaurants, or has a cook. So
it is very suspicious that he would go into a supermarket moments after
Betty does. Really strange guy. Claims it is love, but he is an actor,
and it could be a cover for what he is really doing – working on his
secret movie project and looking for money to finance it.”
Carl watched George head into the supermarket. Then he put his
binoculars down. “Speaking of food, is there anything left in that bag?”
Louey picked up the bag from beside him and tossed it to Carl. “Help
yourself. You can have my hamburger. I’m not hungry. It even hurts in
my chest when I swallow.”
Carl
took out a wrapped hamburger from the bag, unwrapped it, and began to
eat it. The matter of the arrival of George was now an issue, so he
continued between mouthfuls: “What do you think? Should we go shopping
too and see what they are up to?”
“Dunno. Not me. My chest aches too much still. We could have a look at
her LeSabre. It’s parked over there. Or the actor’s Range Rover – but
we better avoid that one. He has the latest security devices on it. All
kinds of sirens will go off.”
Carl continued to eat his hamburger and ponder their next move. “Even
if the stuff wasn’t in that LeSabre before, she could have hid it in
there since. You need to put it SOMEWHERE to transport it...”
_________________
Meanwhile inside the supermarket, Betty was pushing a shopping cart,
picking out groceries. She was like any regular shopper. She was from
plain Midwest origins, after all. She picked items off shelves and
proceeded down the aisle. George McCord had entered too but for the
moment avoided being seen by her. He got himself a shopping cart too
and pretended to be a shopper, while designing to run into Betty.
Then as Betty reached the end of an aisle and turned the corner, she
bumped into the cart being pushed by George. She was surprised to see
George.
“George! What are you doing here?”
George feigned suprise. “Betty! Fancy us meeting up at a supermarket of all places!”
“You’re not the kind of person I’d expect would be shopping in a
regular supermarket. Why you’re a wealthy actor!”
George was rather cocky in his reply: “Why not? Just because I’m a TV
star doesn’t mean I don’t like to do things that ordinary people do.”
“You surprise me, George. I would have thought you had meals prepared
for you by a personal chef, or that you’d eat out all the time.”
“Well, there’s lots about me that might surprise you. I...I happen to
enjoy cooking now and then...”
George turned his shopping cart in the direction of Betty’s and joined
her as she pushed her’s down the aisle.
“What are you shopping for?” Betty wondered. “Do you have a meal in mind?”
George faked his answers. As a matter of fact he never cooked. “No.
Just need this and that. Look over here. Tomatoes, and
lettuce...oranges... Where’s the whole wheat bread?... I like to eat
healthy....” To punctuate his words he threw this and that into his
cart.
They proceeded side by side pushing their carts and talking.
“By the way,” said Betty, “I had a nice meeting with Lyla last week. We
figured out how the show was going to kill me off. I’m to die from a
terminal illness. Technically it will be AIDS, but it could be ANY
terminal illness. Lyla gave the example of ‘Love Story’. She promised
it will be very romantic in a heartwrenching sort of way. The writers
have sent me the script and we will be shooting it next week.”
“I heard. I got the script yesterday too.” There was clear joy in him
at the prospect of working with her again.. “It’ll be great,” he added.
“I’m looking forward to working with you again, Betty. It’ll be like
old times...”
“Look! They have a
sale on cabbages. I’ve gotten into the habit from so many years in
Kansas, to look for price reductions. And now as a beginner nurse I
don’t make that much so I take every opportunity to save a few pennies
here and there – it all adds up, you know.”
“You’ll get some good money from doing the show.”
“And I intend to use it to get a new car. The one I have is ten years
old. It won’t last forever.”
Betty selected a cabbage from the bin. George hesitated and then said:
“Well then why don’t I take advantage of the sale too. How many
cabbages should I take? Maybe three or four.”
George ignorantly took four, and put them in his cart. Betty found it
peculiar, as she took only one. Why did he need so many? They continued
side by side down the aisle.
“I
like to cook,” said Betty. “I did it for years and years as a
housewife. But it was taken for granted by my husband, my late husband
– good riddance. And with Robert, my doctor boyfriend –
he’s a top surgeon, so he’s wealthy and lives in an enormous house in
the hills – he has his own cook. I feel intimidated sometimes
when I go there. I’m just a simple woman from Kansas. He’s single of
course. He was once married but his wife died. So every time I’m with
him we either eat at a restaurant or his cook makes the meal. So during
the normal course of the week, when I get home from the hospital, I
like to do as much of my own cooking as I can, or I begin to miss it..”
George continued his act, taking items that he knew. “Aha. Over here
– some eggs. Can’t do without eggs. And cheese. And milk.”
Betty bought his act: “I’m frankly surprised, George. You seem more
like an ordinary person, than I imagined you were.”
That only made George escalate his act further. “Look over here. Orange
juice. I think I need orange juice. I think I’m all out.” Truth about
George was that he probably hadn’t been in a supermarket for years. But
Betty bought the act completely.
They finally went to checkout. George, who did not know what he was
doing, remained behind Betty and watched her and imitated her, trying
to look like he did it every day. She paid and next he paid and they
exited the supermarket each carrying bags of groceries.
“Are you....George McCord the actor?” the cashier stuttered.
“Of course. Sorry I don’t have a pen. Can we hurry it up here?” he said
sourly. He intended to accompany Betty to her car and did not want some
fan detaining him to sign and autograph.
Leaving the supermarket, they carried their groceries to Betty’s car.
Arriving there, opening the door of her vehicle, Betty was shocked to
see the seats torn up. She put her groceries down on the hood, to
inspect the damage.
“Who would do such a thing and why?!!”
Betty walked around making fists in her frustration and anger. George,
who had met the two thugs who were watching her apartment, put two and
two together.
“Sorry about that,
Betty,” said George. “I would say it’s probably the same people who
were looking for the stuff your husband Del stole those years ago.
Probably deciding to look some more.” He wanted to say more, but if he
did he would reveal he had been watching her apartment out of
jealously. Besides he had had a gun pointed in his face to keep him
quiet.
George’s words triggered her memories, and she was quickly on the same page.
“Oh cripes! I thought it was all over. I thought they were dead and
whatever they had been looking for had been found!”
“Maybe not. There must have been others, and the cops never found
anything, and because the trunk was pried open and they continued to
your apartment, maybe the cops never looked through your car very
closely. And that is why these new thugs decided it was time to have a
look in your LeSabre just in case.”
“What’s IT? What are they all looking for? It must be valuable for them
to persist like this. Are Del’s shady dealings going to haunt me for
years to come? I don’t know what all Del was into.” Betty studied the
damage some more. “They never bothered me when I was in Kansas studying
nursing, or even when I was here acting, earlier. Why now?”
George shrugged.
Betty continued. “Well maybe they found it in the seats and it is now
over. Maybe they found it in the trunk. But there is nothing in the
trunk except the spare..”
While
Betty settled down, George picked up Betty’s groceries from the hood,
and carried them to the back. Betty followed and opened the trunk just
by tugging.
“See?” said Betty.
“The latch is still broken...Everything looks the same in here. Nothing
has been touched. Maybe it’s still here... Maybe it’s inside the tire?”
George put Betty’s groceries in the trunk, and looked at the spare
tire. “Well they seem to have looked in the tire. The spare is slashed
open.”
“Oh no. Well there is
nothing else here but the well where the spare goes. And there’s
nothing in there. I’ve never seen anything in all these last years. I
hope they found it and leave me alone now,” declared Betty.
Betty was back to the open front door and was confronted again by the
sliced-open seats. She continued: “This is terrible. I can’t afford to
reupholster the seats now. I’m just a poor beginner nurse – who
just managed to save a few cents on a cabbage. Oh cripes! I’ll have to
re-upholster the seats. But for the time being I can tape it up with
duct tape.”
“Well, let me help pay,” George offered
“No, no, George. Robert would get offended. I don’t want to impose on
anyone, even Robert. At least, not before we are married, if that’s
what’s going to happen. I’ll leave it until I have the money I’ll
make doing ‘Reason’ again, and then get a new car. Besides, it’ll be
good to leave behind my last remaining connection to Del.”
George pressed his lips together and showed sympathy, while disguising
the fact he knew who had done this.
“Well, I’m ready to go home and start cooking,” said Betty. “Well
George, where’s your car?”
George
pointed to his Range Rover a couple aisles away in the parking lot. He
had three plastic bags of groceries of his own that he had momentarily
placed on the pavement.
Betty was
ready to go, torn up seats and all. “Well it was nice shopping
with you, George. It was a pleasant surprise to see this other side of
you.” They stood opposite one another and there was a brief moment of
romantic tension. Betty got into her car. She added through the open
window: “It was more real than the George who acts like a snobbish TV
star. See you later. See you on set, as they say.”
Betty gave him a wave and drove off. George waved goodbye and proceeded
to his car, glancing back again as Betty’s car disappeared. Reaching
his Range Rover, he threw his own bags onto the front seat. “Now what
am I going to do with these groceries!” he muttered to himself. “And
four cabbages. I don’t know how to cook!” He climbed in, closed the
door, and sat in the driver’s seat thinking of what to do next. He took
his cellphone out of his pocket and dialed a number.
“Lyla? George here. I looked at the script for the scenes we’re going
to shoot in which Betty dies. I’m a little concerned. If we shoot that,
Betty will never come back. Do we REALLY want that?”
Lyla, in her office, replied with a laugh: “George, George, George. You
should know by now that nobody who dies on a soap opera is absolutely
and completely dead. The writers can always think up some way to bring
any dead character back. Remember two years ago when we brought your
dead neice back.”
“Oh, yeah. The
character, Stella, who died turned out to be someone else – a secret
agent who had facial reconstruction to make her look like Stella
because the plastic surgeons happened to use her face – on record
because she had had a bit of nose work at the same surgeon. She just
looked like her. The real Stella was actually on a hiking trip through
the Himalayas.....”
“Don’t worry
George. We’ll see how it goes. Her death will be a ratings grabber in
any event. You never know, she may get tired of real nursing – it is a
tireless job – and be happy to come back later.We can ask her again in
a year. On the other hand if the fans turn their attention to something
else on the show in the meantime, well, it won’t be an issue any
longer.”
“Alright, Lyla,” replied
George. “I just felt uncomfortable about the finality of it all – I
mean these scenes with Betty dying.”
“This isn’t real life, George. Nothing is final in this play world.”
“Hmm.” George switched off his cellphone and put it back in his pocket.
He paused for a few reflective thoughts and then prepared to turn the
ignition key. But, feeling eyes on him he looked behind, and saw the
old black Lincoln with the thugs in it some distance away. He took the
key out again, and cockily climbed back out of his car, and walked over
to the old black Lincoln with Louey and Carl in it. Carl opened the
window. George leaned on it. “Now why did you have to do that?” he
asked.
Carl was having a pop again, as before. “Do what?”
“Cut up her seats. She was very upset about that.”
Carl was unmoved but polite. “Sorry about that. How about some fries?
My friend here can’t eat his. His chest aches when he moves it, on
account of his being still recuperating from his quadruple bypass
surgery which you caused.”
“I caused!?”
“We were paying you a social call at the hospital. Saw you go in. Louey
got mistakened for a patient.”
George was reminded of what Betty had told him and his guess that it
was Louey who got mistakened for a patient. “Yeah. I heard about the
mixup. But look on the bright side. I watched the operation, at least
some of it, and it was a great success. Your friend has a heart that is
as good a new. Should last him to a ripe old age.”
“So, like I asked you. Want some fries?”
George shook his head and added: “You know, you might do well to give
up on greasy food yourself. You don’t know what condition YOUR heart is
in.” Carl didn’t react. George continued: “I suggest when you are
spying on me or Betty, you get your food from a health food store. It
will do your health a lot of good. I got some healthy food in my car.
Hey, I’ll bring it to you. . . ”
Carl responded. “If I were you I’d be more concerned about your own
health. We can’t quite figure you out yet. But if you are looking for
the drugs too, maybe trying to get information from the woman by your
CHARM, well, we’re not going to be very happy about that.”
That reminded George of the other time they met and had been shown a
gun. “By the way, ” he reminded them, to be clear, “I haven’t breathed
a word to Betty about you watching us. We’re cool about that aren’t
we?” Carl didn’t respond. Just eyed him as he sipped his pop. So George
continued: “And by the way, so you know, my Range Rover is equipped
with the latest safety devices. If you touch it, the sirens will go off
and you’ll have your picture taken from all angles. Like I said before,
my interest in her is purely romantic. She’s REAL you know. I haven’t
known a REAL woman for a long time. You two could do well to get REAL
too – a REAL job instead of being a couple of thugs.”
No further response from Carl; so George decided he had had enough, and
began to walk away back to his car. As he went, Louey, who had been
simmering with anger at this man who he blamed for everything that
happened to him, took out a gun and pointed it at his receding back.
“I’d like to blow him away right now,” he said trembling with anger.
“Look, I could have a perfect shot right now.”
Carl pulled down the gun. “Not yet. Not until we know how he fits into
the picture. He’s an actor, and he is probably acting, and bullshitting
us. He’s playing us like we’re idiots. But he’s useless to us if he’s
dead. We can’t make the mistake that Charlie and Wesley made killing
Del before they had all the details about where the drugs were hidden.
Remember that, Louey. They screwed everything up because they killed
Del too early. So, just in case he actually knows something, we wait.
He might already have it and be looking ways to launder it so his movie
project money looks clean.”
“You still think he’s dealing in drugs to finance a movie project?” said Louey.
“Yeah. What else?”
They watched George reach his car, open it, and as he was about to get
in he got an idea. Then he came back carrying his bags of groceries.
“Wha..? – The asshole is coming back…” exclaimed Carl
George peered in the Lincoln window again. “To show you how generous I
am,” George said, “I’m going to give you everything I bought in that
supermarket. Healthier food than the fries, pizza, hamburgers, fried
chicken, and pop. Whole wheat bread. Oranges. Tomatoes. Cabbages. Where
are you staying? Does it have a stove? Do you know what to do with
cabbages? Here! My treat. Eat healthy.”
With that, George dropped three bags of groceries through the window
into Carl’s lap and walked away before Carl could react. Louey was now
incensed, and pointing his gun again, his finger on the trigger began
to tremble. In fact, his whole body was trembling, scarcely able to
keep from pulling the trigger. Carl had to grab the gun and calm him
down.
“Stop. There’s a windshield
between you and him too. You’ll put a hole in the windshield. That’s
Charlie’s windshield you know. The memory of Charlie won’t like that.
We can blow him away later, if needed. Let’s see what he bought in
groceries. Maybe there is something good in here.”
As Carl drew attention to the groceries, Louey was distracted enough to
calm down. Meanwhile George’s Range Rover drove off. Carl was taking
things out of the bags and handing this and that to Louey.
“I can’t eat nothing today,’ said Louey.
Carl retorted: “Well hold them for me! I want to see what we got in
here.”
9.
Scenes are Shot
Back at home a short time later, Betty was inspired to make something
from the cabbage she had bought on sale. She made cabbage rolls. As she
was removing them from the oven, Rosa entered the kitchen, having just
returned to their apartment. She removed her jacket as she investigated
what the heck Betty was doing.
Betty, seeing her, said, while putting her cabbage rolls out on a
plate: “You wouldn’t believe who I ran into when I stopped in at the
supermarket on my way home – George. He was buying groceries too.
He seemed like an ordinary person. I have never seen that side of him
before. Very normal...”
“I don’t
believe it. Anyway, I still wouldn’t trust him.” She looked over
Betty’s shoulder at what Betty was doing. “What are you making? Smells
like cabbage in here.”
“I made cabbage rolls. I bought a cabbage today. I have to get some cooking done whenever I can.”
Betty sat down at the table, put some on a separate plate for herself,
and another an a plate for Rosa, which she pushed in Rosa’s direction,
inviting her to sit down and enjoy.
“Cabbage rolls?” said Rosa as she sat down. “What are they like?”
“Well try it. My grandmother taught me. She brought the recipe from the old country.”
Rosa tried some and nodded in agreement.
“Robert tends to take me to restaurants,” said Betty between mouthfuls,
“or have his cook prepare meals. So I’ve missed cooking, and eating my
own food recently.”
“It’s good.
You are a good cook. I’m afraid I’m not. My mother always did the
cooking, even after I became a working girl and I lived with the
family. Never been any reason for me to cook for anyone.”
“Well maybe soon you’ll cook for Juan, for Dr, Garcia,” said Betty
referring to Rosa’s doctor boyfriend.
Between mouthfuls Rosa responded: “I’m starting to wonder about my new
doctor boyfriend. We haven’t yet – you know – gone beyond the
goodnight kiss. Normally it is the woman who resists. But... ”
“Isn’t that what you always wanted? A guy who wasn’t immediately after
your body?” said Betty looking up questioningly. And then she
continued: “Don’t worry, Rosa. Maybe he is a devout traditional
catholic. No sex until married, you know.”
“I wish he were not that extreme!!”
“Oh I meant to tell you. Someone did a nasty thing to my car today. Cut
up the seats. George said someone is probably still looking for what
Del stole. I’m sure Del’s stupid criminal behaviour will haunt me until
what he stole is found.”
Rosa was surprised by this. “I thought the cops found it?”
Betty shook her head. “The whole case died down when I was safe and the
thugs were dead. And nothing unusual happened while I was in nursing
school. Anything unusual happen when you loaned the car?”
Rosa shook her head.
“But suddenly someone has decided to keep looking,” Betty continued. “Why?”
“Must be really valuable, whatever it was. The seats are destroyed?”
“Sort of sliced so someone could feel around for something hidden in
the seats. I’ll get new seats or maybe even a new car when I get my
money for my final appearances on ‘A Reason to Love’”
“Mmm. These are good,” said Rosa turning her attention back to the
cabbage rolls. “I’ll have another.”
Betty got up and got her more cabbage rolls. “For some reason, George
bought four cabbages. They were on sale. What else can you do with
cabbages? With that many? ...Maybe he is making sauerkraut.”
“When do you shoot your scenes?”
“Next Wednesday and Thursday. I’m doing a weekend shift at the hospital
so that I can get midweek off.” Betty sat down again and continued:
“Robert is quite enthusiastic about it too. Big fan of ‘Reason to
Love’. He wanted to come and watch me act, but I said ‘no’. I don’t
want to mix up my new life with him with my former life. Besides I
think George is jealous of Robert, because Robert is a real heart
surgeon, the real thing. It makes him – only PLAYING a
world-famous heart surgeon – feel inadequate. So I figure it is
wise to keep them apart.” Betty was reminded of the stack of papers on
the kitchen table, off to the side. “And HERE is the script they sent
me.” She pulled from the side of the table, the small pile of pages,
and put it front and center. Flipped some pages she added. “I can’t go
out with Robert for the next while. I have lines to learn.”
Rosa’s view on this was predictable. “Well, get the shooting done, die,
take your money and run. The sooner you get that over with, the better,
if you want my opinion.”
Rosa’s
negative view towards George and the soap opera world was known. Betty
shrugged. There was no point debating the pros and cons. Once it was
done, she would be free of it all, and could continue her life being
ONLY a real nurse.
__________________
The day of the shoot came, and Betty arrived at the set
of ‘A Reason to Love’. She was
overjoyed to see some familiar faces from before. She was greeted
warmly and hugged old friends from before.
“Here I am. . .” she announced. “I’ve missed you guys”
“Congratulations on getting your nursing degree,” said the actor who
played chief surgeon Blake Daniels.
“You’re a nurse now, in the real world?” said the actress who played nurse Chloe. “Good for you.”
“Sorry we have to kill off your character,” said the actor who played
rival surgeon Lonnie. “It means you can never come back.”
“Wanna bet?” said the actress who played Chloe. “If they really wanted
someone back, they’ll figure some way. But at least the chances of your
coming back are less if you’re dead, honey.”
“Well I’m ready,” said Betty. “Point me to costume, hair and makeup.”
She looked around. “Where’s George.”
“Oh he always wanders off. Needs to get immersed into his character, he
says... See you in some minutes…”
_________________
The following scene was soon in progress. In the interior of Loma Vista
hospital, Dr David Ravell is removing his mask and surgical gloves
after an operation, as Chloe arrives with a sense of urgency.
Chloe says: “They’ve brought in Betty Lamour. The ambulance has just
brought her in from the airport. She wants to see you.” She signals him
to follow and David Ravell played by George McCord hastens to follow
her.
“Thank God the
illness has not claimed her yet,” he says as they push through
swinging doors into the corridor. “Why are there so few antiviral drugs
in Africa to treat AIDS. So many people there die needlessly that in
developed countries would not because of the lack of drugs. Thank
goodness for organizations like Doctors for African Relief who are
trying to get more antiviral drugs there! I hope to God it is not too
late for Betty. How was her long flight from Zamimia...?”
The director called “Cut”, and stepped out of the shadows. “The name of
our country is Zamovia, George. Do it again.”
The actors returned to the other side of the swinging doors and pushed
through again continuing down the corridor as the camera trucked with
them.
David says again: “How was her long flight from Zamovia?”
“She took it well,” Chloe replies. “There was a doctor and nurse
tending to her all the way.”
The
two meet the ambulance paramedics coming from the other direction,
bringing in Betty Lamour on a gurney. David waves the medics aside and
goes close to Betty, and looks down into her face. “Betty! Why didn’t
you let me bring you back earlier?”
Betty responds. “David....David....I’m sorry...They say the illness is
terminal... I WILL die....It is only a matter of time...Forgive
me......”
David is shaken. “Betty! Betty! What has Zamibia done to you, my love?!”
The director called “Cut” again. “George, you got the country name
wrong again. It’s Zamovia, not Zamibia. We’re going to hold the cue
cards at your eye level. Every time you have to say the name of the
country, glance at the cue card, will you?”
George’s patience has worn thin.“What’s this all about? What am I
dealing with here? What’s this disease all about?”
Betty, made up to look pale and ill, meanwhile got up onto an elbow,
behind George. There were cameras, soundmen, makeup people, the
director.....all poised to do their specialty at the instant they were
required.
Lyla, the
producer, who had been looking on in the shadows, answered him from the
side: “Well technically it is AIDS, because that is the big issue in
Africa these days, but the drama here is about her slipping away from
you. You know, like in the movie 'Love Story' which was not about AIDS
but something else. The important thing is that it is terminal. And it
is a matter of time before she dies. The drama is not about saving her,
but about keeping her alive as long as possible and your character’s
coping with her slipping slowly away.”
George said in a resigned tone: “Alright, she is slipping away...
Frankly, I don’t like the idea of someone dying in the end. I was
brought up on happy endings. Can't we have her recover and get hit by a
bus or something? That is, ironically, less scarey.”
“We can’t give it a happy ending, George. Betty wants her character to
come to an end. Look on the bright side. This is much better than how
we terminated Leslie, your former love interest.”
Head writer Larry, was watching too and broke in on a cue from Lyla. He
offered further information. “Our approach is that the progress of the
disease is counteracted by love. Every time the love heightens between
David and Betty, Betty gets better.”
Lyla added: “Right. David gives Betty a reason to love and a reason to
live. Get that? It plays into our title very well. Betty, when you see
David, he gives you a reason to live, and you look visibly better. Of
course in the end, the disease overtakes you.”
Betty, still perched on an elbow on the gurney repeated it. “Alright.
Whenever some other person talks to me I’m really sick, and when David
talks to me I start to look better.”
“Alright, let’s go again,” said the director. And they continued.
____________________
It was a long day, and at the end of a day of shooting, George and
Betty got together for a coffee at a nice casual place where they had
often gone after shooting, in the old days. They were seated at a
table, unwinding.
“Frankly
I’m exhausted from today – all that emoting I had to do,” said
George. He remembered earlier times when they met after shooting. “It’s
great to stop for a coffee afterward. Feels like old times – when we
used to chat like this after working.”
Betty agreed: “It does feel like old times. I’m surprised we got so much done so fast today.”
“They weren’t complex scenes. Mainly me looking devastated and you
looking as sick as hell. Now they are preparing the sets for the big
wedding and death scenes we shoot tomorrow.” George was still enamoured
with Betty. “Look, Betty, it’s great to work with you again. And it’ll
be sad when it’ll all be over, when we can’t bring you back ever again.
Are you sure you won’t come back to acting with me SOME day? Then we
can work together again.”
Betty was philosophical in her answer this time. “Sometimes it’s hard
to decide between choices in life. When we take one path we sometimes
give up another pretty good one. Life is a lot of paths. We can’t
follow all of them. And if we make the wrong choice we have to live
with the consequences…”
George
took a sip from his cup. “And I suppose your path will be to walk into
the sunset with that heart surgeon boyfriend Robert Matheson?”
Betty responded reflectively. “That seems to be where it is heading,
George, yes. . . .He’s suggested he may ask me one day soon, to marry
me. It’s now been about a half a year since I met him. We have been
going out weekly. Good thing he mentioned the possibility he may pop
the question, since it gives me a chance to think about it in advance,
and decide what to say. Of course, I’d prefer to follow my nursing
career for a longer time before that question comes, but I’m in my late
thirties and he’s in his forties. We don’t have the luxury of thinking
too long about such things.”
George was equally reflective and philosophical. “If you had taken the
path of staying in acting, it could be ME asking you rather than him.
Maybe I WAS flirting with you in those earlier times, not being too
serious; and then you left and I forgot about you – except that
the show had me pining for your character for all that time, so it was
not easy to entirely forget you. But things have CHANGED now.”
“Changed?”
George became increasingly earnest in tone. “Seeing you wearing a
nursing uniform for real, being a real nurse in a real hospital –
it has done something to me. Suddenly you are more real than ever
before. You’re super-real now. Real, real, real. Suddenly I’m aware
that there is this real world out there. Real surgeons, real nurses,
real hospitals, even real people suffering from disease in Africa. The
world is now larger. You’ve opened my eyes Betty. What if I left
acting, Betty? What if I got real too? Would you start seeing me as a
real person too?”
Betty responded
sensitively. “Well acting is real in its own way – entertaining
the world, giving people an escape from reality. I didn’t mean to
suggest that this show isn’t good, or that actors are not good. When I
was in my miserable life years ago working in a diner and not getting
love or respect from my husband anymore, the world of ‘A
Reason to Love’ was my escape.”
George reminisced about his own path in life. “You know, I never
really wanted to be an actor. When I was a boy I wanted to be a
surgeon. However, when I reached university I was a wild guy, partied
all the time, didn’t keep up with my studies, and just didn’t get the
needed grades. I got into acting by chance, just to get work in some
way. So my role as Dr. David Ravell is a substitute, it now seems, and
in its own way a symbol of my failure to do what I REALLY wanted. And
that is why Robert irritates me so much. He HAS what I really wanted in
life!”
“Well maybe you
should have stuck it out, David. Stayed at university, repeated courses
to get your grades up. You could go back...”
“Too late now. I’m in my 40’s.”
“Maybe it isn’t too late to complete a degree. I did it and I’m in my
late thirties now. All my fellow students at the nursing school were
over ten years younger than me. It’s never too late if your heart is
set on something.” Betty changed the subject. “I have to go now,
George. Robert has invited me to join him at his house for dinner. Just
a casual evening where he will leave me to myself and let me study the
script for tomorrow’s shooting.”
George grudgingly acquiesced. They got up, left money for the waiter
and said goodbye as each carried on to their respective evening
business.
_________________
Betty spent the evening with Robert, as she had told George; but it was
still distracting to study her lines there at his place, rather than at
home. His place was a luxury home in the hills. Food had been prepared
by his private cook, and afterward they both relaxed on a leather couch
in the luxurious living room, sipping wine. She was leaning on Robert
who had his arm around her. While he was watching his plasma TV with
sound off, Betty was studying the next day’s script.
“Stop reading tomorrow’s script for a minute, Betty. You haven’t told
me much about how the shooting when today.”
Betty broke from reading the script to reply. “It went great. It was
good to meet everyone again. They shot lots and lots and lots of
footage of me looking really ill and lying in bed. Enough material to
cut me into the story for weeks and weeks. Tomorrow’s scenes are more
complicated. There is a marriage scene, and a scene were I die. It’ll
be a heart wrenching scene. Fortunately I am the dying person and that
doesn’t need much acting. But I pity George. He’ll have to perform
loads of agony and tears.”
“I’m proud of you, Betty. Imagine, you’re not only a nurse, but an
actress too, a famous one – at least in the world of soap fans
who identify with you because you are just like them. When you were on
the show a couple years ago, you were immensely popular – fans
everywhere latched onto the idea of an ordinary fan like them being on
the show. They identified with you, and they will now be THRILLED to
see you back. Even I was a big fan and watched you every day. Getting
to meet you and know you is a fan’s wish come true for me.”
“Oh yes, you are a fan of the show,” Betty remembered. “You record it
and later watch it when you go to bed.”
“It’s a release after a long day doing surgery to see my complex and
stressful world simplified on TV. In fact I too have been for a long
time wondering when Betty Lamour will show up again. And then she
– you – appeared at my hospital!”
Wanting to get back to learning her lines she said sarcastically: “So I
guess you also know that actors have to spend time learning their
lines.” She realized it wouldn’t work. Robert would continue to
distract her, even if he didn’t intend to. “I better go home now,
Robert, and REALLY learn my lines...There are too many distractions
here, Robert.”
She got up from the couch, and he followed, accompanying her to the front door.
She turned to him at the door. “Thank you, Robert, for the nice dinner.
You have a very good cook. By tomorrow evening all my scenes will be
done, and we can celebrate.”
“We’ll go somewhere special.”
“I’d like that.” said Betty smiling.
“Somewhere REALLY special!” he emphasized.
Then with a quick goodbye kiss Betty headed out and down the steps to
the driveway. The driveway and front of the house was well lit. She
went to her maroon LeSabre which was parked beside his Mercedes.
His house and property were quite luxurious.
Well, thought Betty, that is what it means to be a top highly paid
heart surgeon. He can afford all this! Then the ex-housewife from
Kansas got into her old LeSabre, whose cut-up seats had been
temporarily repaired with several rolls of duct tape, and waved back to
Robert who was watching from the balcony above, and then drove off.
Inside her familiar old vehicle she was a very ordinary woman once
again. She didn’t mind being who she was. She turned on the radio
according to habit, hummed along, and repeated some lines from the
script.
“I love you David… How
should I say it? I love you…David.” No…I am really ill and I can barely
breathe. It should be more likeI- I…..l-lo..ve…y-you…David.” She
laughed.
She continued to
hum to the tune on the radio, and then repeat under her breath some
more lines she would speak tomorrow.
10
More Scenes are Shot
The shooting continued the next day. A new scene begins with Betty
lying in the hospital bed hooked up to all kinds of equipment, as Dr.
David Ravell arrives to tend to her.
“David? I-I ...l-love..y-you...David..”says Betty Lamour, looking deathly pale.
David can barely hold back his emotion but musters: “How are you this
morning, my darling? ...We have given you the latest drugs that have
been developed.”
“I’m...always better when you’re here, David.”
“I'm afraid the disease has been progressing, Betty. Time is running
out.... Your disease is claiming you.... You don’t have much more time.”
“I don’t mind, David..... We all have to go one day. I have but one wish, David.”
“What is it, dear?”
“That we be married. I ran out on our wedding, and I feel badly about
that. I promised when I returned that....”
“I love you Betty. I’ll marry you. We can get a priest in here.”
“No. It has to be the same as before, the same place, same
arrangements....You can manage to get me there somehow, can’t you? All
this medical equipment can go along with me, can’t it?”
David nearly cannot see through his tears. He says quietly: “Of course.
I’ll arrange everything as before...We’ll be married in my garden...and
invite everyone again..... “
Betty smiles up at David....For a moment she forgets she is ill...
The scene dissoves to the same garden scene as in the wedding scene
when she failed to show up. Everyone is assembled waiting for the
bride. And then Betty Lamour, pale and sickly, head propped up on a
pillow, monitors and tubes attached to her, is being pushed forward on
a gurney by best man Lonnie. Chloe and other nurses of the hospital
follow behind as bridesmaids. David, the groom, dressed in tuxedo,
waits for her. There is the bower of flowers as before. The priest is
waiting. Music is playing from the sound system.
When Betty’s gurney is beside David, the priest begins, making it as
brief as possible. “Dr David Ravell, do you take this woman, Betty
Lamour to be your lawfully wedded wife (etc) “
“I do.”
“Betty Lamour, do you take this man, Dr. David Ravell to be your
lawfully wedded husband (etc)”
“I do,” she gasps.
“I therefore pronounce you man and wife. You may put on the ring...”
The rings are slipped on. David becomes tearful, Betty smiles.
“You may kiss the bride…”
David and Betty Lamour kiss, and David falls apart with grief, sobbing uncontrollably.
The scene was over. The director yelled “Cut”. The cast and crew
relaxed. George wiped his acting tears with a hanky. Betty, all green
and pale with makeup, rose to her elbow from the gurney…
“Everyone relax as we set up the next scene,” announced the
director.“The next scene is the climax. Betty dies.”
____________________
Chloe rushes up to Dr David Ravell.
“Dr. Ravell,” she exclaims. “we’re losing her. Come quickly.”
David Ravell follows Chloe again, hastens through the corridor to the
room where Betty Lamour lies, hooked up to tubes and monitors, gravely
ill and dying. Entering the intensive care room, David goes to Betty’s
side, and bends over the dying Betty.
“Betty, can you hear me?”
Betty Lamour, turns her head a little and opens her eyes slightly.
“David?”
“It’s me.”
“I have to go back to my work with the poor children in Zamovia...They
need me...There is so much disease there…”
“You will. You will.”
“If I can’t, David, will you go back for me?. Will you go finish my work there?”
Betty Lamour breathes with difficulty, coughs.
“I will, Betty. I promise. I will. But don’t go yet, Betty. Don’t go
yet. Hold on a little longer.”
Betty closes her eyes. Her monitors show she is fading.
David turns towards Chloe. “Is there nothing we can do? Is there
nothing we can do? She’s going!”
Chloe calls for assistance and nurses and doctors rush in, to take
emergency measures. But what’s the use! David holds them off, takes
Betty’s head in his arms and begins to silently sob. The beep of the
heart monitor becomes continuous indicating her heart has stopped. He
kisses her and then lays her head down on the pillow. Chief surgeon
Blake has arrived, and puts a comforting hand on David’s shoulder.
“There’s nothing more we could have done,” he says. “Come away.”
Blake pulls David away from Betty, and with arm around his shoulder,
leads him out of the hospital room.
Out in the corridor, David temporarily regains his composure.
In fatherly fashion Blake tells him “Take the day off, David. Take as
much time as you need. We’ll look after everything, finding her
relatives, arranging the funeral. Go to your beach house, David. You’ve
done as much as you can. Now take a rest.”
The director yelled “Cut! We’ve got it.” With that everyone relaxed and became casual.
George became normal and Betty got out of bed and ripped off all the
phony tubes attached to her. Lyla stepped forward clapping.
“That was great,” said Lyla to everyone. “A really fine death scene!
You had me in tears!” Then she turned to Betty. “Betty, that’s it. We
have all your scenes. You’re done.”
Betty was elated. “I’m done? Whew! All I want to do is go home and take a nap.”
The cast converged on Betty; congratulating her, wishing her good luck for the future.
“Great job, Betty.” said the actress who played Chloe. “That’s the end
of you. I was getting a little tired of talking about your character
away in Africa to George’s character pining over her. Maybe now we’ll
move onto something new and exciting.”
The actor who played Blake extended his hand to shake Betty’s. “Yes. Great job.”
“Oh it was nothing,” said Betty. “ I think George deserves all the
credit. He had all that crying to do. Where is George?”
He looks around. “I think he’s gone to his dressing room to unwind,
come out of character. This one was quite intense. Normally the script
does not require he cry so much. Actually quite rarely. He hasn’t had
to cry and sob this much in all the years I’ve been on the show.”
The actor who played Lonnie, and others came forward to Betty too, to
congratulate her and wish her well.
“Well I guess this is it,” said Betty to them all. “You’ll never see me
here again.. I’m good and dead now, aren’t I? Gone, vanished,
non-existent!”
“Right,” said
Lyla. “You are good and gone. Of course it hasn’t happened yet on TV.
It could be months from now that the scene we shot will be broadcast.
You can get out of costume and makeup Betty and go home. But the rest
of you are scheduled for a location shoot this afternoon at the
Resthaven Cemetery. The burial, you know. We don’t need Betty for that.
We thought it would be best to shoot that scene this afternoon right
away, while everyone is psyched to being sad and sorrowful, and while
we have all these extras here from the wedding scene. We have buses out
front to take you all to the Cemetery.”
_________________
The final scene of Betty’s demise progresses. Camera zooms into a group
of people, David, Blake, Chloe, various nurses, other members of the
Loma Vista hospital staff, friends, relatives. A priest is saying the
final rites and the coffin is lowered. Then the gathering breaks up and
the various people begin to depart. David, however, lingers in front of
the grave. Chloe sees him lingering.
“Come on David,” she says. “You can’t stay here.”
“Just give me a few more moments with her and I’ll rejoin you,” replies David
David looks up as if to the horizon, a lost faraway look in his eyes.
The director called “Cut! That was good, I think we’re done.”
The cast and crew relaxed and some started clapping.
George lingered where he had been in the last scene, and with the same
faraway gaze. Lyla came towards George
“George,” said Lyla. “Didn’t you hear? It’s a wrap. Come on. You can go home.”
But George preferred to remain in a reflective state. “No. I think I’ll
stay in character for a while. I’ll walk around like Dr. Ravell might.”
“Why the hell for?”
George was serious. “I’d like to figure out what David Ravell will do
with Betty gone. How he’ll behave. His attitude, and so on.”
“George, this is only a soap opera, not a big movie production.”
“I’ll just walk here among the gravestones. It’ll give me a sense of
how the future storylines should go. I can give some direction to the
writers. In the script Blake told me to take time off, to go the my
beach house. Maybe that’s what I should do in the scripts that follow.
Who do we know who has a beach house?”
“You’re starting to worry me George. Snap out of it. See you on set tomorrow. That’s an order.”
Lyla shrugged and left George roaming among the gravestones while the
production crew disassembled the equipment and put it in the trucks.
Soon the trucks were gone and George was still wandering there with far
off look in his eyes.
11.
World Is Turned Upside Down
As Robert promised, he took Betty to a special place to celebrate the
completion of the scenes. Dressed formally, Robert and Betty, were led
to their table, and sat down.
When settled down, Robert said: “This is a special place, Betty –
like I promised you, to celebrate the end of shooting your new scenes
for ‘A Reason to Love’.”
“We’ve never been here before.”
“It’s a special place for me,” said Robert. “I used to come here with my late wife.”
“ Oh...?”
“Let’s have it become OUR special place too.”
The waiter interrupted to bring menus. Robert continued as he looked at
the menu: “Have you thought any about what I said the other time, about
us possibly becoming married?”
“I
thought about us getting older and not having the luxury to take our
time about marriage and that sort of thing....... And I decided you’re
right, we don’t have the luxury of dwelling on the question too long.
So probably, Robert, we ought to get married. It seems the logical
step. I’m not inclined to oppose it...Seems like a good thing to do....”
Robert put down the menu, and with a glint in his eye said: “I was
hoping you’d say that, because I have something here in my pocket.”
Robert took from his pocket a small box. He opened it. It contained a
ring. Betty swooned over it. Robert took it out of the box, got out of
his seat and knelt in front of Betty. He began to propose. He had
obviously something prepared, and paused a moment to remember it.
“I want to begin by telling you all the reasons I want to marry you,”
he began. After a pause he continued: “You’re smart. You light up my
life. You’re kind, generous. But most of all, I admire the fact that
you are not only a nurse working beside me at the hospital, lighting up
my day, but you have managed to be an actor in a TV series, and I fell
in love with you already years ago when you were on ‘A Reason to Love’.
Having you is a fan’s dream come true. And I know that although you say
you will not be an actress again, I’m sure you will soon do further
acting. You have the talent. It’s IN you. You’re a natural.”
For some reason Robert had never got it, that she was through acting.
“But Robert I’m not...” Betty stammered.
Robert continued: “We are similar you and I. I’ve never told this
to you yet, but I have invested a great deal of money over the years in
various TV and film projects. And when I was little, Betty, I didn’t
want to be a great heart surgeon. I never wanted to be a doctor. But my
parents pushed me in that direction. The truth is when I was young I
actually dreamed of becoming an actor, like Sir Lawrence Olivier, when
I saw the movie where he played Othello. But my parents said there was
no living to be made in acting so I went through medical school and
became a heart surgeon. But you have inspired me, Betty. You have
proven I am not stuck with being a heart surgeon. I’ve learned from you
that I can also pursue acting on the side, like you, and pursue my true
childhood dream. Who knows, I may be successful, and it will be the
beginning of a brand new career. Then I may quit being a heart surgeon,
and devote myself to acting full time. Then you and I can be actors
together, just as we are now medical people together. You are therefore
the absolutely perfect companion for me. Betty, . . . .will you marry
me?”
Betty couldn’t believe her
ears. She was utterly stunned, and her head began to spin. Robert said
more, but all she could see was his face and his mouth moving and voice
echoing.
All she could see and
hear now were replays of earlier situations starting with Robert just
now saying: “When I was little, Betty, I didn’t want to be a great
heart surgeon. . . . . .When I was young I actually dreamed of becoming
an actor.” The last word echoed in her mind: “ – an actor –
an actor – an actor”
Next she relived a scene from her party at the diner when she said:
“All my life I wanted to be a nurse. I was always unhappy that I didn’t
continue in nursing school, but now I’ve completed nursing school. Now
I’m now a REAL nurse, guys. Not pretending to be one, and not acting
one on ‘Reason to Love’ for 63 episodes, but a REAL nurse” And again
the last words echoed in her mind: “– a REAL nurse – a REAL
nurse!”
Next she re-experienced
George saying: “But I never really wanted to be an actor. When I was a
boy I wanted to be a surgeon – a surgeon – a
surgeon . . ”
Finally Betty
returned to the present and Robert’s face came back into focus. Where
was she? What was happening? She saw Robert at her feet, holding the
ring up to her. He had stopped talking and was waiting for her answer.
What she now saw was an obsessed fan, who became infatuated with her
when he saw her playing Betty Lamour, and was now seeing her as a
validation and a path for his own deep aspirations. He did not know her
AT ALL!!!
Betty got up, grabbed her purse, and ran out of the restaurant.
Robert was stunned. “Betty! What did I say!?”
Betty exited onto the street, distraught and uncertain what to do. She
needed to get away. She simply ran along the sidewalk past people out
for the evening. Robert emerged from the restaurant an instant later
and began to chase her, but lost her and was utterly bewildered by
this. In a minute or so, Betty ran into Rosa and Juan, her doctor
boyfriend.
Rosa, saw her in an upset state and stopped her. “Betty! What’s the matter?”
“Robert is coming after me. I gotta hide somewhere!”
“Let’s go into this pizza place. You can tell me there. Come Juan. Let’s get a table.”
Once inside the restaurant, Rosa commanded Betty to sit down. They had
not waited to be shown to a table. It wasn’t such a luxurious place.
Juan joined them at the table they chose.
Rosa pressed her for answers: “What happened? Did he hit you?”
Betty shook her head. “Robert proposed. ...”
Rosa replied sarcastically: “Oh yeah!! That’s terrible!!”
But it had to be something more, as Betty was agitated. Betty
continued: “But it was the weirdest and most unexpected proposal I have
ever heard. All about his not ever wanting to be a heart surgeon and
that he actually wanted to be an actor and I was inspiring him to give
up being a surgeon to become an actor. And.... It seems the reason he
was so interested in me is because I acted on ‘A Reason to Love’
for 63 episodes. He turns out to be, Rosa, a very shallow person, an
obsessed fan even. He’s never seen me to any greater depth than my
Betty Lamour character he watched on the show he taped. He has no idea
of who I am and what I think on a deeper level!”
“Are you sure?”
“The strange thing is that George may be the opposite –
shallow-looking on the surface but deep underneath – which we
never see of him except sometimes there are glimpses.” Betty felt a
little calmer having gotten it out and felt apologetic. “I’m sorry I am
spoiling the evening for you and Juan, Rosa”
“It’s no problem, Betty,” said Juan, Rosa’s doctor boyfriend. “Order
something nice, my treat, to get your mind off it. Waiter!”
“I think I should go to the ladies room first,” said Betty. “Could you
excuse me? I’ll be back right away Rosa. No stay, Rosa. I’ll be fine.”
“Alright.”
Rosa watched as Betty departed to the ladies room. Juan was a little
distracted by these things which seemed more girl matters between Betty
and Rosa. As Rosa fretted and watched Betty go and waited for her to
come back, his eyes wandered and rested frequently on a handsome
gentleman sitting by himself at another table
“Juan,” said Rosa, “while Betty is in the ladies room, there is
something I wanted to ask you...Why haven’t we ...ah...done it yet? Are
you a devout catholic?”
Juan didn’t hear as he glanced again at the gentleman.
Rosa noticed it. “Why are you glancing over at that gentleman over there? Do you know him?”
Juan was a little embarrased. “Um...He looked familiar...I thought I knew him... ”
Rosa looked at him questioningly. “Well he looks cute. I wonder why
he’s alone. Perhaps he is waiting for his date to arrive....As I was
saying, I wanted to ask you why we have never...you know.....?”
A thought crossed Rosa’s mind. She turned to look at the gentleman
again. She realized the truth. Her mouth dropped open as she stared at
her boyfriend. “You’re gay!!” she exclaimed.
“No, no...I mean yes. And no. I don’t know.. ”
Rosa lept to her feet. “How dare you lead me on!!!”
Juan began stammering. “I thought maybe I wasn’t, and I could find out
if I tried having a girlfriend for a while......”
Rosa was extremely upset. She felt she had been used as an experiment.
She ran to join Betty in the ladies room.
While Betty was straightening herself in the mirror, Rosa ran in, sobbing
“Rosa!” exclaimed Betty. “What’s the matter!”
“I asked Juan why he and I had never gone beyond a goodbye kiss and
found he was staring at a handsome guy at the table next to me. Guess
what! Juan is gay! Or bisexual or something, and was using me as an
experiment to find himself. He admitted it! I feel so decieved! So
USED!. I mean, if he had been forthcoming right off, I could have still
gone out with him, but he gave me false hopes. That’s wrong isn’t it?!!”
Betty now comforted Rosa. Finally Rosa calmed a little. The two women
leaning on each other studied themselves in the mirror in the ladies’
room.
“Know what?” said Rosa
“What?”
“We’ve had doctor boyfriends and lost doctor boyfriends, both together. How about that!”
Betty was on the same page. “Right. Let’s go home and order a pizza and
watch a movie on the TV. Robert and Juan no longer exist!”
____________________
Within a short time they were back at their apartment both of their
dates suddenly cut short leaving them a half an evening to fill. They
had a girls’ night at home, forgetting all their miseries. They ordered
a pizza. Their pizza guy, arrived at the door. He was the same dark
handsome guy, who always delivered their pizza. He was becoming quite
familiar. He handed Rosa the pizza, she fetched money, paid. There was
chemistry between them as they dealt with the pizza and the payment,
and then he went. Then Rosa and Betty sat back on the couch, feet up on
coffee table, and tore into the pizza and watched a movie on the TV.
Chewing on a slice of pizza, Rosa said: “Who needs men!”
“Yeah! Who needs them!”
“Except the Pizza Guy. We need him to deliver us our pizza!”
Both laughed.
“I’ll call in sick for a few days,” said Betty. “I need time to think
of a strategy for avoiding Robert. He’ll never understand why I
rejected him. He’s too shallow to figure it out.”
“Consider yourself lucky.” said Rosa between mouthfuls. “If you had
married him, you would never have been allowed to make your
grandmother’s cabbage rolls from the other day, because he wouldn’t
have wanted you to be yourself. He wanted you to be some idealized
Betty Lamour – a product of the soap opera plus all the crap the TV
show public relations put out on you. I feel sorry for actresses who
get involved with a man who starts out being an intense fan. The guy
can never see them for who they are, until they are living together,
and then he puzzles at who this person really is.”
Betty laughed. “Yeah! If I had married Robert, after living with me a
while, he would have looked at me and wondered: ‘Who is this woman?
What happened to the Betty who I fell in love with on the TV?’”
Just then Betty’s cell phone rang. It was on the side table, and Betty reached for it.
“Hello?” Betty answered. “This is Betty. Lyla? No I don’t know where
George is . . . .What do you mean you haven’t seen him for two days and
you’ve had to shoot around him?! . . . .He is not answering his cell
phone either? Yes that’s strange . . .I can try now and then. What is
his number?” She grabbed a pen and wrote down the number on the pizza
box. “...Thank you Lyla. I’ll phone you if he happens to phone me.”
Betty hung up and turned to Rosa. “George has disappeared. Nobody has
seen him after they shot my funeral scene.”
They exchanged puzzled looks.
12.
George has Vanished
Next day, after calling in sick, Betty hastened over to the TV studios,
pushed past the receptionist and assistants and rushed into Lyla’s
office.
Lyla was not
exactly expecting her. She was at her desk. Betty was earnest. She felt
she may have been somewhat responsible for George’s disappearance.
“Any word on George yet?”
“Nothing yet,” replied Lyla. “He’s not at home, and he’s not answering
his cell phone. We only get his answering service. I’ve left thousands
of messages.”
“Any ideas where he is?”
“When I saw him last, at the end of our shoot at the cemetery he said
he wanted to stay in Dr. Ravell’s character for a while. I told him he
was ridiculous, but now I think that’s what he’s done. What do you
think? You know him quite well too. Do you have any ideas, Betty? ”
“If he is staying in character, he would do what Dr. Ravell would do
after the death of his beloved. He’d go to his beach house.”
“But George McCord doesn’t have a beach house.”
“Well he’s obviously loaning someone’s beach house! Do any of his friends have a beach house?”
“Good idea,” said Lyla. “We’ll call around and see who among his
friends has a beach house and if he has loaned it.” Lyla dialed her
phone. When someone replied she said: “Do any of George’s friends have
a beach house? . . .Well ask around. That’s where he’ll probably be
– at one of his friend’s beach houses. Call me back.” She put her
phone back down.
Betty finally
sat down. Her face was filled with deep concern .“I feel badly,” she
said. “I may be somewhat responsible.”
Lyla was surprised. “How’s that?”
“I think he’s been hurt. At the end of our first day of shooting, we
met for coffee and I told him that I was probably going to marry
Robert, that is, Dr. Robert Matheson, that heart surgeon at the
hospital who I have been dating for six months now, who you met at the
African fundraiser. And I’m worried he didn’t take it too well....And
with the death of Betty Lamour too, it may have been a little too much
for him.”
Lyla had a glimmer of
understanding. “Ah-ha. Dr.David Ravell loses Betty Lamour to a disease;
and George McCord loses you, Betty Blaine, to a REAL doctor. That WOULD
make him feel like shit. A double whammy – if he has affection
for you.”
“If only I could reach
him to tell him I’ve turned down Robert. I’m not only NOT going to
marry him, but I’ve broken off our relationship altogether. He was not
what he seemed.”
“The
moment we figure out which beach house, we’ll call you, and you can go
there and tell him. You may be right. He’s probably still in character
and stuck in it enough so as to not be inclined to phone in as George.”
___________________
At that moment, George was walking along a lonely stretch of beach. It
was suitably barren and melancholy. It was windy, cloudy, not too warm.
He gazed towards the sea with a faraway look in his eyes.
“What would Dr. Ravell do? How would he take her death?...:” he asked himself.
There was another figure on the beach, coming towards him. An older
woman walking a large dog. When they came close, George took an
interest in the dog, stopped to pet it.
“Nice dog,” said George.
The older woman said: “You look familiar.”
“I’m Dr. David Ravell,” said George as he petted the dog. “...from the
TV show ‘A Reason to Love’.”
“Oh my goodness! You’re he! You’re Dr. David Ravell! I’ve watched you for years on TV!”
“Actually I’m George McCord, the actor who plays Dr. David Ravell. But
I’m trying to remain in character right now. My beloved Betty Lamour
has died, and I’m wondering what David would do in the period
afterward. I figured he’d go to his beach house; so I’ve borrowed a
friend’s beach house.” He turned to point at a house a quarter mile
away. “That one over there. And now, I figure Dr. Ravell would walk
along the beach just like this, and gaze out into the sea.”
“That woman in the African hospital dies? Your beloved Betty dies? How
awful for you! When will it happen?”
George replies firmly: “Sorry, I can’t give away the storyline, but
that is where it is all leading. She comes back from that African
country, Zommamiam or Zimmimia, whatever, where she was working to save
the children there; but she is terminally ill and gradually dies.”
Being in character he choked back tears. “Pardon me for my tears, but I
want to stay in character. We just shot the cemetery scene a few days
ago...” George could bearly hold back some sobs. The woman with the dog
attempted to comfort him. Dog tried to lick his face.
“Don’t cry,” said the older woman. “You’ll get over it in time.... I’ll
leave you alone now.” George hung his head, wiped his face with his
hand, as if cameras were aimed at him and he was acting. The woman,
finding his behaviour a little strange, continued down the beach with
her dog, glancing back a couple times as she went.
________________
After the walk beside the surf, George returned to the beach house of
his friend. In the living room, sitting on the couch, he continued to
act as he imagined his character would. A TV set was on. There was a
glass coffee table in front of him, upon which he has a number of DVD’s
– a set of earlier episodes of ‘A Reason to Love’. George was
holding a remote and operating the DVD player. The TV showed scenes
from the ‘A Reason to Love’ – earlier episodes that had Betty in
them. George fast forwarded from time to time. He was only looking at
scenes with Betty Lamour in them. He had a very serious and studious
look in his eyes.
“What would Dr.
David Ravell do?” he asked himself. “Obviously he’d look at home videos
they made when they were together.....From their happy times... He
froze the video and studied the freeze-framed image of Betty Lamour. He
left it freeze-framed as he remembered something, picked up his cell
phone and dialed it.
“Lyla?
....Where am I? you ask.... I’ve arranged to borrow my friend Joe
Beechwood’s beach house...And I’m letting my answering service take
messages. I’m not answering the phone...It’s been three days? Sorry.
Got lost in my Ravell character.”
Lyla, back at her office was clearly apprehensive. “What are you doing
George? Where are you? We need you on the set.”
“I told you, I was staying in character to get some insight into what
will happen next. Right now I’m looking at videos of Betty Lamour from
earlier shows. I bought that DVD box set of shows from two seasons ago.
What David Ravell would do, is watch home videos of them together. Give
me a week. Call it sick leave or something. Shoot around me for a
while.”
“The address?” implored
Lyla. “The address of the beach house? Joe Beechwood, did you say?
We’ll send someone down to see you. What’s the address?...”
“Don’t worry, Lyla. It’ll be good. I’m getting some great storyline
ideas for the writers ...Bye, Lyla.”
He turned his cell phone off and put it on the coffee table. Lyla was
frustrated from her failure to get an address. She would have to find
it out from the friend’s name.
George returned to the TV where Betty’s face had been freeze-framed,
and set it to play again. After a minute he got up poured himself a
drink while the scenes played, sound turned down. Then he returned to
the couch, putting his feet up onto the coffee table. He expected this
would be what he would do all afternoon.
Suddenly the two thugs Carl and Louey appeared at the sliding doors of
the balcony. They rushed him, carrying guns. They pinned him down on
the couch. Then as George relaxed a little, Louey held him while Carl
stepped back to interrogate him.
George, having a moment to look at them, recognized them. “Oh..hello
guys. Let me go. I thought we were friends…”
“What are you up to George?” demanded Carl, showing a mean side George
had not seen earlier. “We’ve been following you, watching your peculiar
behavior. Waiting for a drug pick up maybe? We’ve seen you walking on
the beach scanning the horizon. Maybe expecting a courier coming by
boat? Want to know what I think? You took a package of money to Betty
at the hospital. You picked the stuff up at the supermarket. Maybe
disguised as bricks of margarine. And now you are waiting for your
buyer to come pick it up here by boat. See I’m smart. I know how to
piece things together.”
“Every thought of a career in writing screenplays?”
Louey wacked him. Nobody liked his wisecracking manner. “Listen to Carl when he is talking!”
Carl paced around as Louey held George down, and continued: “Even if
the woman is not in on it, then at least you found the stuff and you’re
about to transfer it. How will it be? A motorboat coming in to the
beach?”
“You’re still imagining
everything. I’m here on a break to study my Dr. Ravell character. If
you want to watch me, watch me. I’m watched by the media a great deal,
sometimes with telescopic lenses trying to capture me in compromising
situations. So be my guests. Watch me as much as you want. No need to
barge in on me and....”
“We got
tired of watching you!” shouted Louey. “We’ve watched you for months,
always getting between us and Betty for some reason. This time we’ve
had enough watching.”
Carl
continued: “We’re not going to wait for a boat to come ashore and then
see the drugs slip out of our hands. We figured it would be easier to
search this place. So we know the stuff is in here somewhere. And we’ll
tear it apart.”
“But if you’ll
tell us where it is,” Louey added “we won’t have to tear this place up,
nor your face.”
“What do I
have to do to convince you?” pleaded George. “There is nothing
happening here to do with drugs. I’ll TELL you what’s going on here.
I’ve just finished a scene in which my beloved died, and I’m exploring
the response of my character to it. I’m an actor. That’s what I do. I’m
practicing possible scenes like walking along the beach looking
forlornly into the distance. It’s all preparation, acting... ”
“We’re getting tired of your endless bullshitting,” shouted Carl. “What
do you think I look like, an idiot? You actors are all liars, 24 hours
a day.”
Louey, stirred by Carl’s
words, gave George a wack that sent him sprawling off the couch. Then
he gave him a couple of kicks while he was on the floor.
George groaned from the pain but replied “Well if you can’t believe it, that’s YOUR problem.”
“No”, exclaimed Carl. “it’s YOUR problem, because I am the one holding
the gun that can blast you away!”
Louey was easily stirred up. “Do it. Do it. We can tear this place apart without him.”
Carl always had to calm down his companion. “No. We’re not going to
make the same mistake as Charlie and Wesley did with that Sizemore guy.
If he’s dead, he’s useless. So... we’ll BEAT the information out of
him.”
Carl started kicking George
as well, and Louey joined in again. George rolling around on the floor
groaned in pain and shouted: “Lyla! Lyla! Stunt double! Where’s my
stunt double! I’m hurting here!”
Carl had no hope in getting him to talk so easily. It would take time.
Impatiently he said: “Enough Louey! What a sissy! Leave him for now.
Save your strength. Let’s tear this place apart. If we don’t find the
stuff, we’ll get back to him.”
Carl – previously quite self-controlled – was now as animated as
Louey in tearing through cupboards, etc. starting in the living room.
Suddenly Carl grabbed his chest. Curled over he said “I’ve got..pain in
my chest...I can’t.... ” Carl keeled over. Fell lifeless to the floor.
Louey rushed to him, knelt over him. “Carl! Carl! What’s the matter
with him?” He turned to George who was moaning on the floor, but quite
alive. “Hey you! What’s the matter with him? What’s the matter with
him!?”
George regained some sense
of awareness of what was happening. He rolled over, lifted his head,
looked towards Carl collapsed on the floor.
“I asked you, what is the matter with him? Answer me or I’ll blow you away.”
“It seems to me,” began George, speaking in gasps, “your friend has had
a massive heart attack. I would not be surprised if he’s dead.”
Louey was shouting. “You tell me if he’s dead! Go! Go!”
George dragged himself along the floor to where Carl was lying, put an
ear to his chest, and then declared. “He’s dead. No heartbeat. Do you
......want me to try some resuscitation on him? They say that.... the
first few minutes after a heart attack are most crucial, before the
brain is deprived of oxygen....”
“What’s that? You’re bullshitting again! You’ve done enough damage,
already, you asshole.” With that he gave George another kick. George
rolled over again in agony, while Louey knelt over Carl again.
Meanwhile George mustered some strength for a comment. “It’s all that
greasy food, you know.... The hamburgers, fries, fried chicken.
...Clogs up the heart arteries. ..You should thank God YOU got a
quadruple bypass surgery. Your heart was really bad you know. Otherwise
it could be YOU on the floor TOO, .....”
That was enough “bullshit” to totally enrage Louey, who got up and gave
him a swift kick to the head. George slipped into unconsciousness.
13.
Road to Zamovia
It was morning, the next day. Sun was streaming in from the patio
doors, lighting up a trashed livingroom. George was lying face down on
the floor, but was stirring. He opened his eyes and tried to understand
where he was and what had happened. There was sun coming in the
windows, and the sound of the ocean lapping on the shore in the
distance. As he lifted himself off the floor, he found he had bruises
and cuts to his face and aches all over. He struggled to his feet and
looked around. The place was a wreck. Louey had removed Carl; but
George had acquired amnesia, and could not understand what had
happened, where he was, why he was bruised….
“What happened? Why is this place all wrecked? What happened?” he wondered to himself.
He found his way to the bathroom and looked himself in the mirror,
attended to cuts and bruises, bump on the head, etc. “Who am I looking
at? My name is…Dr. David Ravell? Or is it George McCord? Let’s see.
This is a beach house and that is the ocean. So I must be David Ravell,
because he has a beach house. I know that much. Why am I here? ....
Betty Lamour has died, and I want to be alone...Hmmm. And I have to go
somewhere? But where? ...The airport? Yes, that was it. I have to go to
the airport. I think..”
Suddenly
he had a vision of looking down at Betty Lamour dying, and she was
saying: “I have to go back to my work with the poor children in
Zamovia...They need me...There is so much disease there…If I can’t,
David, will you go back for me?. Will you go finish my work there?”
He shook himself back to reality, but now he understood.
“Zamovia...That’s it!”
He tried to return to normal, clean himself up, shave, etc. Talked to
himself, trying to make sense of things. He found band aids in the
bathroom cupboard that he could apply to the cuts on his face to make
him look a little more decent.
Returning to the living room from the bathroom, he began to tidy up as
much as possible. He found his sports jacket on the floor having
slipped underneath the couch. He pulled it out and straightened it out.
He checked its pocket, took everything out - car keys from the side
pockets, billfolds, pocket organizer, wallet, credit cards, passport,
etc and laid them on the counter.
“Thank goodness, those burglars or whoever did this, didn’t get into
this jacket. Everything - my id, credit cards, passport, wallet, car
keys - is still here. I could have trouble making my flight if they
weren’t.”
He put on his
jacket and restored everything to its pockets. His cell phone was not
so lucky. He found it on the floor, smashed. There was a regular phone
in the room, and he tried it, only to discover the wire had been torn
from the wall.
“I guess
they didn’t want me to phone out until they got away....Oh well, I
better get going to the airport. I’m sure that’s where I’m going. But
where am I flying? I hope I can remember...”
A bit like a zombie, soon he was packing his bags, took them to his car parked outside.
But he found the car had also been trashed, seats slashed, trunk pried
open. Luckily the tires were still whole and it was drivable.
Inspecting the damage he said: “Oh, no! This is going to cost
me!......But I guess I’ll have to leave it till I get back.”
He put his suitcases inside, got in, turned the key, and found it
worked fine. Turned his head to back out, got onto the highway, drove
off.
____________________
The day was sunny. This part of the coast was beautiful. The highway
followed the coast like a ribbon meandering into the distance. There
was a maroon Lesabre on the highway. It was Betty’s car.
Inside was Betty, Rosa, and their pizza delivery guy. They knew the
address of the beach house, since Lyla had figured it out from the name
Joe Beechwood, and were on their way there. The pizza delivery
guy was along to show the way, as he was familiar with this part of the
coast.
“Turn next right...” the pizza guy was saying from the back seat. “No the next turnoff...”
Betty, driving, said: “I knew Lyla would come through in finding the
beach house location. I hope George is alright...Thanks Pizza Guy for
coming along to give us directions.”
“Call me Sam. It’s my pleasure. As a pizza delivery man I know the area
well. We’ll be there in a minute.”
“Thanks for coming along, Sam,” added Rosa, “to help us find our way.
You’re the nicest pizza guy we have ever met. You didn’t have to do
this, you know.”
“Hey, I
deliver you pizza all the time and when my favorite customers need
help, I’m there for them.”
Soon they found the beach house in question. Betty lept out of the car
first, and ran to the door. She knocked. There was no answer. They went
around to the front and found a sliding door unlocked, the one by which
Carl and Louey had entered, and went in. They found the place basically
trashed. There was some blood on the rug where George had bled when on
the floor. Betty was alarmed. She hunted for the phone and found it
dead. She then fetched her own cell phone, which she had brought along.
She called Lyla.
“Lyla!
George is gone. The place is trashed like someone has been looking for
something. And they may have taken George.....I’ll call the police
now......I'll call you back after calling the police.” Betty
immediately terminated the call and dialed again. “Have to call the
police...This is just terrible!...This is just awful....!!”
____________________
By this time George was driving into the L.A. airport. There he parked,
got out, and walked to the terminal. Entering through the doors he
headed to the ticket counters.
“Where to? ” the ticket clerk asked.
“I’d like to get to Zammamia, Zomminima, or something.”
“What is that? Where is it?”
“I think it’s in Africa,” George replied
“Is it a country?”
“Yes”
“Well in Africa there is Zimbabwe and Zambia. Which one?”
“Zambia, sounds more correct. Yes that’s it”
“Well our airline doesn’t go there. We can give you a ticket to maybe
Cairo...and you can then take another airline from there.”
“That’s fine. No problem. I realize that it is a long flight and I may
have to make several connections. I recall it was not that easy
bringing Betty Lamour out from there. She had to be transferred several
times. I’m going there to take her place, you know. She asked me to
continue her work there.”
“Ah-huh,” said the disinterested ticket clerk as he prepared for him a
ticket to Cairo. “You have to make some connections, but there is a
plane from here in a half hour. Do you have your passport?”
“Yes.... The robbers didn’t take the contents of my jacket. I think
because my jacket got pushed under the couch....”
“Your name?”
“Dr. David Ravell.”
The ticket clerk looked at his passport “Your passport gives your name as George McCord.”
“Really? Sorry, I’m an actor. I sometimes get my character name mixed
up with my real name. You can use ‘George McCord’ if you prefer. I
really have to get to Zamovia.”
“Zambia.”
“Yes, Zambia”
George began rummaging into his pockets again, for his wallet. “You’ll
be wanting my credit card too,” he added. “Here.” He handed it to the
ticket clerk.
She made up his tickets and gave it to him.“Here you are. Have a good flight, Mr. McCord.”
“Ravell”
“Whatever.”
It was a long journey. Many takeoffs and landings. Finally he landed in
a smaller plane in Zambia. George appeared from the plane, with other
passengers, and proceeded through checkout. A black customs official
checked his passport, compared his picture with that of the passport,
and then let him through. "Welcome to Zambia," he said.
But that was not the end of the road. He now had to ride in an old bus
into rural Zambia. After the bus, he was a passenger in an old beaten
up truck, and finally he arrived at a refugee camp filled with the ill
and hungry. He made his way to a large tent. Before long he was seated
before an authoritative man in a white coat, about 55, bearded and with
white hair. He sat behind a wooden desk on bare ground. Some file
cabinets around. Boxes of medical supplies. Etc. Nothing like a city
hospital. The man was a doctor and administrator in this medical aid
camp.
“My name is Dr. David
Ravell,” George was saying. “I’m here to volunteer my help at this
relief camp field hospital.”
The
administer wrote down his name. He noted: “It is very unusual for a
doctor to simply show up in our relief camp. But we need all the help
we can get. We’re not going to refuse anyone willing to help, who also
has credentials. What kind of a background do you have exactly Dr.
Ravell?”
“I worked as a heart surgeon at the Loma Vista hospital in Los Angeles”
The administrator replied with a smile; “We don’t have much need for
heart surgery here. The biggest problem here is hunger, AIDS, malaria,
and even common illnesses that are so easily cured in the civilized
world.”
“That’s fine. I don’t
need to perform heart surgery. I’m just here to help. My late wife, a
nurse, was here a while ago. It was in the center of Zamovia..”
“Zambia.”
“..and this one seems to be in the center. She died of after returning
home. Her name was Betty Lamour. Have you heard that name before?”
“I have not heard of that name. Are you sure she worked here? It could
have been elsewhere in Zambia. There are other humanitarian
organizations here administering aid.”
“I don’t have to work in exactly the same place as her. I just want to continue her work.”
“We need all the help we can get. And what about your references. Do you have them?”
“Oh, sorry. I forgot to bring them. I can...”
Getting up, the administer declared: “It doesn’t matter. We don’t do
high tech medicine here, and you’ll work under an experienced doctor
who will get you oriented. You are new to this and very little of city
hospital procedures apply in this sort of down-to-earth work. So much
that is wrong in this land is easily treated by food and common
medicines, and hardly need specialized skills. As a volunteer you will
of course get your meals and shelter from our funds, but there will be
no salary.”
“That’s fine. I just want to help. To carry on Betty’s work.”
As the months pass, George began to fit in well with all the other
medical staff taking care of the malnourished children, AIDS patients,
and men and women displaced by war and drought. George lifted their
spirits with his charming manner. Dr. David Ravell was in his true
element. Happy.
14.
Adapting to George’s Disappearance
Six months after George’s disappearance, Nurse Betty was still at the
hospital in L.A., as before. But unlike before, she was not seeing Dr.
Robert Matheson any longer. Whenever she saw him coming, she tried to
avoid even eye contact. But she couldn’t always avoid him.
“Good morning, Nurse Betty,” said Robert as she passed him.
“Good morning Dr. Matheson,” she replied coldly
He tried every time to engage her in conversation. “I hope the
authorities have some leads on George McCord’s disappearance. ..At
least they managed to show the episodes in which you died, using the
footage that had been shot.”
“Yes. I know. And then when they had no more footage of George, the had
Dr. Ravell go to Africa to take Betty Lamour’s place, like she had
wanted. It was a clever way for the writers to deal with the actor who
played Ravell – George – being missing.”
Betty kept walking, but he walked with her, keeping up with her.
“Well at least if they find George,” Robert continued, “Ravell can come
back... In the meantime the producers have let me guest on the show as
a visiting heart surgeon, to fill in for Dr. Ravell while he is in
Africa doing Betty Lamour’s work. Isn’t that good news? I am realizing
my dream to be an actor.”
Sarcastically Betty said: “It would be just like you to take advantage
of George’s disappearance!! Did you apply for the job the day after the
news reported his disappearance?”
Betty hastened to escape him by joining another nurse at the nurse’s
station. She rested her head in her hands on the counter, as Robert
gave up and continued on.
The other nurse remarked as she had done many times before: “I’m sorry
they haven’t found George McCord.”
Betty was weary of it all. “Nobody really cares about him. The show’s
ratings went through the roof with the footage of me and George they
took earlier - plus a few shots of George stand-ins from behind where
they needed more footage of George. And now I’m dead, and because
George McCord is missing, they have sent Dr. Ravell off to Zamovia to
carry on the work of my character. Have you seen? At the end of every
episode of ’A Reason to Love’, they give an ‘Update on the
Disappearance of George McCord.’ Some people think it’s all a big
publicity stunt. That his disappearance is all staged for ratings. But
it’s for real. He’s totally vanished. Oh it is all so depressing. What
could possibly have happened to George? I hope he’s not dead. There was
blood in that beach house, his blood. I fear that the same people who
trashed my car also trashed the beachhouse of his friend thinking
George had what they wanted there.”
Sometimes it was too much for Betty and she became teary eyed. The
other nurse comforted her. Then Betty gathered herself, wiped a tear
with tissue
“I’d rather not think
about it.” She sighed. “I’ll bury myself in my work if you don’t mind.
I have to continue my rounds. Excuse me....”
She continued on her rounds, taking temperature, blood pressure, and
pulse, of patients. But she was not bright and cheery like before. She
entered a hospital room where she found a patient who was an old
Native American man whose name turned out to be Billowing Cloud. He had
long white hair framing his wide high cheekbone face. His right leg was
in a cast. There was a bandage around his forehead. Betty looked at his
chart and sat down on the bedside stool.
“Hello. I’m Nurse Betty. That was quite a fall you had....” She looked
at his name from the chart. “Mr Billowing Cloud. That sounds
Native American, is it?”
The old
Indian replied: “Yes, I’m from up the Klamath River. I was visiting my
daughter here in Los Angeles and had a fall.”
“I see from the chart that besides breaking your ankle you struck your
head on a lamp post. Because of the head injury, your daughter agreed
to let us to keep you overnight for observation. I’m Nurse Betty. I
have to take your temperature, blood pressure, and pulse – just
routine.”
As she began to do so,
the old man began to speak: “A shadow covers your face. Great sadness.
You can tell me about it. In my village, I am the shaman.”
“I shouldn’t. We can’t get personal with hospital patients. Even if I
wanted. My supervisor may catch me.”
Betty applied the instruments for taking blood pressure.
“In my village,” the old Native continued, “people come to me all the
time. I am a professional, like you; except I practice Native American
shamanism.”
“A Native American shaman? I don’t know very much about that.”
“A shaman is like a priest, psychiatrist, and psychic rolled into one.
We had regular doctors too. We set broken bones, administered medicine
like acetacylic acid. But not as high- tech as here. I’m not a physical
healer, though. As I said. I’m a shaman. A shaman deals with troubles
of the SPIRIT world.”
Betty
paused in her routine, bent down a little and told him in a whisper: “A
man I knew disappeared six months ago. They have no idea what happened
to him. His car was found at the LA Airport. Someone that looked like
him used his credit card to take a flight to Cairo. Cairo!! Some think
terrorists killed him and stole his identity and someone else went.
Anyway, they were able to use credit card tracking. But the trail ends
in Cairo. His credit card was used in Cairo to obtain a good amount of
cash. And the credit card was not used again. I’m so worried that he
may be dead. That his passport and credit cards were used by some
terrorist to get to Cairo, who then collected as much cash as possible
because they knew the credit card would be cancelled the moment the
authorities found him missing. I worry day in and day out, Mr.
Billowing Cloud.”
Billowing Cloud
closed his eyes. “I can see you love this man, and have loved him for
years and years. I hear the name David...Ravell.”
“No, no , no! That’s the character he played on the soap opera ‘A
Reason to Love’. I was in love with that character on TV for years and
years. I’m not talking about the TV character. I’m talking about the
actor, the actor!”
Billowing
Cloud opened his eyes and continued. “I just saw Dr. Ravell very very
happy. Lots of people around him calling him ‘Dr. Ravell’. Very happy.
Dark face people, boys and girls, always happy to see him....”
“That’s because the writers had to send Dr. Ravell off to Zamovia to
help with the medical aid there as Betty Lamour had wanted. You are
seeing the soap opera plot. The ACTOR, whose name is George
McCord, is missing, so they had to write him out of the show,
until he shows up. You’re seeing the new storyline of Dr. Ravell
– who went to Africa. I’m interested in the man who played him.”
Oh it seemed hopeless to explain it “What’s the use?..Forget it!” She
had to get back to her work. “I now have to take your pulse and
temperature...”
Billowing Cloud
closed his eyes again. “But you are covered with another dark cloud,
which you have carried for some time....horrible things done to a man,
lots of blood, used car dealer....”
“How did you know? That would be what the two thugs did to Del a few
years ago..... He was my husband some years ago back at Fair Oaks,
Kansas. He stole something from somebody, they came to search for it,
and they killed him.”
“I see an
ancient Native American warrior custom used on him – scalping. It was
done by bad men who had no idea what they were doing, no idea of why
Indian warriors did that.”
“Yes,” Betty replied. “I witnessed it. It was so terrible, that my mind
blocks out most of it. I can’t understand why Native warriors did that.”
He opened his eyes again. “It is because we believed that the spirit of
the person resided in the scalp. You know how some say, not just
shamans, that the aura of a person is found mainly around the head. The
aura shows the spirit, and the spirit remains with the scalp for a
while. Have you ever held someone’s hair after it has been cut, like at
a barber shop? It feels eerie doesn’t it, as if you can feel the person
who owned that hair? That lasts for some time afterward. That is why in
war, Indian warriors could not leave the enemy scalp attached because
they were afraid the spirit of the enemy would remain WHOLE and come to
take revenge – to follow them and haunt them and cause harm. By
taking the scalp, the warrior incapacitated the spirit of the enemy
they killed.”
“But how can a spirit hurt someone living?”
“A spirit works on the spirit. Makes a person make mistakes, have
accidents, become sick, even kill themselves.”
“Like the two men who killed Del got killed themselves...?”
“Is that right? Well my guess is that these men did not take the scalp.
The scalp was reunited with the victim, allowing his spirit to be whole
again and to go after them, to get into their minds and cause them to
make stupid mistakes.”
“That’s
right,” Betty responded. “The morgue people put his scalp back with him
right away. They didn’t think it right to keep it separate. They say
the funeral people even reattached it and that Del looked good as new
in the coffin. Maybe you’re right. Maybe Del’s spirit did go after them
and haunt them. He was that type of person, you know – wanting
revenge and all, if crossed. I suppose maybe there was a soft spot
still in him that wanted to protect me. Where is Del’s spirit now? He
made me very unhappy when he was alive, but still, I hope he is in
heaven, not hell. I wouldn’t want ANYONE to go to hell.”
“Native American beliefs did not think in terms of heaven and hell, but
rather of either reaching a happy afterlife place, or remaining a
restless spirit eternally wandering the earth, possessing unsuspecting
people. This man, who you call Del, is probably still wandering the
earth...Give me something that belonged to him and I can tell more...
Come, do you have something?”
“Well the only thing I’ve got connecting me to Del is the Buick LeSabre
I got from his used car lot. I should have bought myself a new car by
now, but I’ve been so worried about George McCord, I haven’t had a
chance. Maybe the keys to the Buick LeSabre will do. I have the
original set here in my pocket – which he handled. I have it on
me as it makes it easy to run off to lunch to meet Rosa on a moment’s
notice....”
Betty took the keys
from her uniform pocket, and gave them to Billowing Cloud. He took the
keys and turned them over and over between his wrinkled fingers. He
closed his eyes. “He’s trying to tell you that there is – or was
– something in the trunk underneath the spare tire, in the
compartment at the bottom. ... The two men who murdered him and then
died, discovered it when they pried open the trunk, but they didn’t
remove it. ....They pushed it all behind a loose liner to the trunk,
behind the back seat before they left to visit your apartment. Nobody
looked there.... You’re in danger Nurse Betty, he says,....until you
get rid of it..... And only when you do, will this spirit, Del, be able
to continue on to his happy land.... His happy land looks like an
enormous used car lot filled with sales women with large breasts.....”
“That sounds about right,” she said sarcastically.
Billowing Cloud opened his eyes and handed the keys back. “These
impressions I have are not always correct. But have a look. Just in
case.”
“But I doubt I will find
anything Mr. Billowing Cloud. Before George disappeared, someone tore
up the seats. Unless they failed to look thoroughly they would have
found it, if there was something. But thanks anyway Mr. Billowing
Cloud, for your suggestions, but are you sure you don’t see any George
McCord? You said Dr. Ravell was fine. But the actor’s name is George
McCord. Do you not see anything about George McCord? You can’t see
anything about George McCord?”
“I’m sorry Nurse Betty. I can only see Dr. Ravell. The name George
McCord doesn’t come to me. I only hear the name Dr. Ravell, over and
over and over. Nothing but Dr. Ravell. And he is well. Don’t worry. It
will all be fine...”
Betty
gathered up her instruments. She sighed. It bothered her that he could
not see George, but only the TV character. “Well I have to continue my
rounds of patients. I’m sure that you will be fine, and be able to
return to your daughter later today. Other than having to wear a cast
on your ankle for a while you’ll be good as new. Bye now”
“Goodbye Nurse Betty. Everything will unfold for you as it should. Don’t worry.”
Before long, Betty was back at the nurse’s station. She conversed with the other nurse there.
“That’s an interesting patient in room 301. The Native American.”
“What Native American? We don’t have a Native American here.”
“His name is Billowing Cloud and I just took his temperature, pulse and
blood pressure . . .Who did I just see..?”
The other nurse could only give a blank look. Betty said: “Am I losing
my mind from worry that I imagine patients! .....Excuse me, I’ve got to
go out to the parking lot to check on something in my car... Be back in
a minute.”
Betty began running
down corridors. Finally she was running through the front lobby and out
through the glass doors to the parking lot. Arriving at her car, she
opened the trunk, and searched for a loose portion in the trunk lining
material. Finding it she pulled it, and revealed an area behind. There
she found the brown-paper wrapped bricks of obviously drugs –
probably heroin.
She could only
stare at them and exclaim to herself “He was right. They’ve been
here all along!! All along for the past three years. How could anyone
miss it?! Even the thugs who tore up the seats!!”
15.
Resolutions
The news hit all the entertainment magazine covers. “DRUGS FROM SOAP
FAN ORDEAL DISCOVERED” and “ FORMER ‘REASON FOR LOVE’ ACTOR BETTY
DISCOVERS STASH” etc.
__________________
In a seedy cheap motel somewhere, Louey was lying in bed with a woman,
watching a TV. A newswoman was speaking on the TV. “The bizarre story
of the father and son killer team continues today with the discovery
behind the lining of the trunk of the soap opera fan’s car, of a large
quantity of drugs. This is what the killers seemed to be searching for
several years ago, when they tailed soap opera fan Betty Sizemore, who
is now using her maiden name Betty Blaine. Apparently the police did
not check the car too carefully at the time since they assumed the
killers had already done so owing to the trunk having been pried open.”
Louey leapt from the bed, and threw the fries he had been eating,
across the room in anger.“Damn! Why the hell didn’t we look there! We
looked in the trunk, inside the spare tire, and inside the seats! How
could we miss that!!”
His female companion was puzzled. “What are you talking about?”
“Damn!” Louey repeated. “Carl said that the trunk had already been
searched by Charlie, so we didn’t look more than inside the spare tire.”
“What the hell you talking about?”
“Damn!!”
____________________
Betty’s car ended up in the police lab, where it was searched and
tested from top to bottom. Finally it was ready for Betty to pick up.
The pizza guy drove her and Rosa to the police facility. The three of
them were leaning against a counter waiting for the attendant to attend
to them. A large window looked into the adjacent facility. Forensic
specialists in white coats there combed through cars for fingerprints,
fibres etc. Betty’s maroon Lesabre was visible.
“Thanks for coming along, Pizza Guy, giving us a lift in your pizza
van, to let us pick up my LeSabre.”
“My name is ‘Sam’. Not ‘Pizza Guy’.”
“Sorry. We’ve known you as ‘Pizza Guy’ every time you’ve delivered our
pizza,” said Rosa. “It’s hard to get into the habit of calling you
‘Sam’.”
Finally the counter
attendant appeared and declared: “Alright, your car is ready, Miss
Blaine. We’ve gone over it top to bottom, for fingerprints, fibres, the
whole bit. We don’t know how this will serve criminal investigations
into the drug trafficking but at least the drugs are recovered and not
on the streets. Alright, just follow me to do the paperwork, and then
you can take your car back.”
“At last. I have my car back again. I’ve gone through so much with it,
maybe I should keep it a little longer, Rosa.” said Betty.
Betty followed the attendant and disappeared into the adjoining office.
Rosa and the pizza guy waited at the counter. Alone now, Rosa was bold
enough to lean on the pizza guy and even put an arm around him. He was
much taller than she, and had been leaning on the counter all this time.
“Thank you Pizza Guy, Sam. You’re sweet. Did you know that? I’ve grown
to like you very much.”
“And me you,” he replied, frankly.
Betty returned from the office.
“They’re bringing my car out front,” said Betty. “Rosa, are you coming
with me or going in the pizza van with Pizza Guy?”
“Sam,” reminded Sam.
“I’ll go with Sam in his pizza van,” said Rosa.
“I see,” said Betty seeing what was going on between them. “You two
have something going on. I’ll follow you guys home.”
And so, Rosa went with the pizza delivery guy, in his van. Betty
followed. Travelling through the urban streets, they became separated
by a changing stop light. Betty got a red light and had to stop at the
intersection to wait for the return of a green light.
As Betty waited, Rosa and Sam the pizza delivery guy in the front seat
of the pizza van, realized they had lost Betty.
“We lost Betty,” said Rosa. “She had to stop for the stop lights. Oh
well, she’s a big girl. She knows her way home.”
“She’ll catch up after the light changes.”
They drove in silence for a moment or two. Then Rosa asked: “You’re not gay are you?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
“My last boyfriend, a doctor, turned out to be gay, and was just taking
me out to see if he could be straight, without telling me. That really
hurt. He should have been upfront right off, and it would have been
fine – for going out, anyway.” She was reflective. That
experience for her had been a great disappointment. She had thought she
had landed a perfect husband, a doctor even. She continued: “I’ve never
told anyone this, not even Betty, but when I was little I dreamt of
marrying a handsome doctor. But I’m afraid that dream will never come
true. What dreams did you have when you were little?”
“I guess ever since visiting a hospital when I was a kid, I always wanted to be a doctor.”
Rosa laughed. “Well there is another dream that will not come true!
Being a pizza delivery guy is quite far from being a doctor.”
Since Sam was driving, Rosa was free to let her attention roam. Out of
curiosity she inspected a book on the dashboard. She opened it where
there was a bookmark. It showed an illustration of the human body
“What’s this? Some kind of porn?”
Sam looked and replied: “That’s a medical school textbook. This pizza
delivery job is just part time while I do my studies. I’m a medical
student. I’ve only one year to go. I carry my medical textbooks with me
in the van, to study them whenever I have some spare moments between
pizza deliveries.”
Rosa’s
eyes opened and became like saucers. She looked at him dreamily and
snuggled up to him, smiling broadly.“I wonder how far behind we’ve left
Betty,” she said. “I’ve got something to tell her.”
Meanwhile back at the intersection, Betty was waiting impatiently for
the light to change. Her eyes flitted about from one thing to another
in the activities at the intersection. She tapped her fingers
impatiently on the steering wheel. She closed her eyes for a moment.
She saw some images and sounds. She saw in her mind’s eye a brief image
of the mysterious old Native, his face framed by his long white hair.
Then she heard Lyla saying as she did those months ago when George had
disappeared: “Yesterday when we finished shooting the cemetery scene on
location, George said he wanted to remain in character for a while.”
Realizing she was daydreaming, Betty opened her eyes, looked to see if
the light had changed yet. Not quite yet. In doing so she saw a large
billboard up high on one of the buildings. She strained to look up and
read it. It said: “Help the starving children in Zambia. GIVE TO
AFRICAN RELIEF.” And it showed an image of a sorrowful eyed black child
being held by a doctor that looked like George McCord.
Betty looked perplexed, and furrowed her brow. “George?” she asked
herself, “. . . . .WHY are you up there on that billboard
about African relief holding that black child?”
Suddenly she figured it out, and her eyes widened “Zamovia - Zambia!
He’s in Zambia continuing the work of Betty Lamour or so he thinks! He
stayed in his Dr. Ravell character and never got out of character!! And
Betty Lamour wanted him to go to Africa and continue her work there!!”
The light changed to green, and Betty now knew where George was. He was
in Zambia for real but in his Ravell character not-for-real.
_____________________
A month later, George/David, still in the character of Dr. David Ravell
after about eight months since he arrived, was in the midst of happy
children in a refugee camp, entertaining them with his charm. Another
doctor interrupted and called to him .“Dr. Ravell, there is someone to
see you.” He pointed to someone standing some distance away amidst all
the people.
There not far away
was Betty, with suitcases in hand. When they saw each other she dropped
her suitcases and ran towards him, put her arms around his neck.
“Betty! You’re alive!” exclaimed George/David
“And so are you!” Betty replied.
“But they said you were dead. There was even a funeral and burial.”
“And I thought you were dead. You disappeared suddenly...”
“You’re not even ill anymore?....”
“I didn’t marry the other doctor, you know. I changed my mind, George.
We broke up. He looks charming on the outside but is a jerk inside. You
are a jerk on the outside, but a sensitive person on the inside. I’m in
love with YOU, George, NOT him.”
“George? You just called me George...” He had to think for a moment.
“Oh, the character I played along with your character on that TV show.
What was it called ‘A Reason to Leave’? I can’t think of the name of
the actor who played that surgeon, Robert, who was after you.”
“I forget too. Who cares?. I broke up with with him eight months ago.”
“I suppose he rigged the heart monitor to flatline, and then took you
away, and staged your death?”
“Yes, that’s what he did. That’s it, ” Betty lied. “Only just until you
had left for Africa. Then he revealed his trick, and everyone was mad
at him.”
“You’re really
feeling well now, my darling Betty Lamour? No lasting effects from the
disease? Did you ever return to the role of Betty Blaine? The show
wanted you back... Or...am I getting things a little mixed up? Hell, my
name could actually be ‘George’. It rings a bell too.”
“You may have some things a little backward, David. Your passport will
be in the name of George McCord, right?”
“I thought the wallet contents may have been props for some episode.
But if not, that means Dr. Ravell is the character I acted and George
McCord is my real name.” He read from Betty’s eyes that he was right
and laughed. “Don’t tell anyone. Everyone here calls me Dr Ravell. I’ve
been too busy here to think about those details – they seem so
irrelevant when there are so many people suffering here.”
“You’re right. Names are just labels we carry around. They have nothing
to do with who we really are as people. So, never mind, George. There’s
lots of time to sort things out.” She hugged him. “I’m just glad to
have found you. Are there any openings for nurses here? I've quit my
job at the hospital in L.A. I’ve come to assist you.”
“I’m sure there are. I’m sure there are.”
The two kissed briefly, and then he said: “Come, I’ll take you to the
administration tent, and sign you in. Then I can show you around.”
They walked in the direction from which Betty came, hospital tents and
relief camp in the distance. Betty and George picked up the two
suitcases Betty had put down, and continued towards hospital tents.
A crowd of happy black children followed their heels.
While this story is served to entertain, it does address a major crisis
occurring in Africa in the real world, and the reader is reminded about
it and urged to support the cause through supporting the real world
charitable organizations similar to the fictional ones presented in
this story
16.
Epilogue
We are told the following: Betty joined George aka David in serving the
medical aid cause in Africa. It wasn’t long that George got his
identities straightened out. They worked together in Africa for two
years and then they returned to California, where George fast-tracked a
medical degree and finally realized HIS dream of becoming a medical
doctor.
Rosa of course
married the pizza guy. Betty attended Rosa and Pizza Guy’s wedding, and
that marriage succeeded. Pizza Guy became a doctor before George. He
helped George in his studies. Betty kept in touch with Sue Ann, and
visited her hometown of Fair Oaks as often as she could.
As for ‘A Reason to Love’, George and Betty never returned to act on
the show, after they returned to L.A., despite pleading by the
producer, Lyla Branch. They were too busy. When Lyla found George would
not return to the show, she had his character Dr. Ravell, remain in
Africa to continue on Betty Lamour’s work. However to satisfy fans,
through the miracle of ingenious writing – Betty’s death turned
out to be a bad dream – the show restored Betty Lamour to life
and placed her in Africa as well, to be together with David Ravell,
since neither actor was any longer available.
To fill the vacancy left by Dr. David Ravell’s exit, the show had hired
Dr. Robert Matheson, to play a new heart surgeon at Loma Vista. He was
a really bad actor, so eventually he was fired and had to return to
being a REAL heart surgeon.
Louey
gave up crime and with his quadruple heart bypass, lived to a ripe old
age even though he didn’t deserve it. Del’s spirit continued onward
into used car dealer heaven – a sparkley used car lot filled with
sales babes.
The old Native
American shaman continued to project his mind towards people and places
touching upon his Native culture, to help restore balance to his spirit
world
THE END.
AUTHORS COMMENTS MARCH 2011
The
above story was written at a time when there was considerable attention
to Africa. Attention has since then shifted to other parts of the
world. With so many new areas of the world recieving attention,
like earthquake and flood ravaged areas, the above story could be less
focussed on Africa and all references to 'Africa' becomes 'Third World' and the charity becomes 'Doctors for Third World Relief'.
While the story was inspired by and designed to fit Nurse Betty, a
standalone version of the story is possible. In that story, the lead
character was originally playing a nurse on a soap opera in a secondary
role that was not going anywhere and then quit to study nursing to
become a real nurse. When getting her first nursing position in
the same town as the soap opera (it could be New York or some other
city which produces TV series) the lead actor and the show producer
want her for a guest appearance. This is completely stand-alone plot -
and one which actually is a little more realistic (since the original
Nurse Betty story is somewhat unusual). The standalone story, has
to develop a new subplot involving thugs. One way of doing it is
in making the Betty character's friend a Native American,
and her having a brother who is into illegal trafficing across
the border. It could be the American-Canadian or American-Mexican
border. I already see an amusing story if it is the American-Canadian
border and the drug being trafficed is cigarettes. That then also ties
into the medical world. I may one day get inspired and try some
revisions in this direction.
I have no objection to someone
showing an interest in this or other stories and contacting me
regarding some further development possibilities
-Mar 2011, A.P.
(c) A. Paabo
Box 478, Apsley, Ont. Canada K0L 1A0
(705) 656-9387