Like a Star, page 26
She returned that night with Mr. Brown. Lionel went back with Frank and Stella. They were talking about Summer the whole way. It was funny how Stella, who at the beginning was very upset, ended up coming to Summer’s defense. The actress couldn’t help but understand the young actress’s craving to pursue the character’s truth. After all, she once loved the art of becoming someone else.
“Come on, Frank! You were an actor too!” Stella said. “What was she supposed to do? Jane is a girl who has been raised by wolves. Of course her instincts would have driven her to a pack! Mine would have too. And yours as well! That is totally normal.”
No, that is not normal at all, thought Lionel. He didn’t speak his mind. Especially when he knew Frank thought it was normal too.
“Besides, give the girl some credit.” Stella smiled. “That Summer of yours was honest enough to be accepted by the alpha couple. That is some serious talent… She made the wolves believe she was one of them. How long has it been since you’ve seen a performance so real it could fool an animal?”
Stella had a point.
Summer had proved herself to be in another league. She was getting closer to Joe’s level. She could even become the Moon someday. And, somehow, that didn’t feel as nice as it should.
Lionel remained silent, thinking things he usually didn’t think. Summer’s talent had made him realize his feelings. He was scared to lose her. Watching her sleeping with the wolves made him consider how he would feel if something bad ever happened to her.
Summer also remained silent on her way home. She listened to everything Mr. Brown had to say and that calmed him a little. To be honest, Lenin was seriously impressed. He couldn’t show it yet, it was time to scold her. But it wasn’t every day you saw a pack of wolves embrace a girl who behaved like a wolf pup. He’d truly come across an amazing girl. A part of him was very proud of her, but this wasn’t the time to say it. He looked at the girl sitting beside him; she could have personified peace itself. She was indeed her father’s daughter. She didn’t only have his eyes; Summer had inherited and evolved her father’s extraordinary talent for storytelling.
Lenin was the only one who knew it. The detective inside him couldn’t suppress himself when he met Summer last year. Summer Lee Taylor. The last name, and the name Summer, just like the heroine in many of his books. His gut told him there was more to that girl than her clumsy, hardworking attitude. So, he looked into her past and he uncovered things only a detective of his caliber could have discovered. Making him the only one who knew about her famous Sun father.
With time, he understood Summer didn’t know just how great her father was. He even showed her the movies that Milky Way made from her father’s books. And she didn’t have a clue about them.
She hadn’t read her father’s books. She didn’t know her father’s artistic name was S.R. Taylor. She didn’t even know who S.R. Taylor was, and he learned that she didn’t like to talk about her family. Oh, if she knew just how that man had influenced not only James Warner, Shonny Faith, Stella Clarke, and Frank Hills, but also many screenwriters and directors, such as J.K. Wales.
Steven Robb Taylor was a magnificent man. Lenin was happy to have his only daughter smiling next to him.
And how could she not smile? She was holding the Neverland flowers, feeling blessed that she had found her anchor at last. Now it seemed a little silly—how didn’t she notice it before? What anchored her to herself was a deep desire to meet her benefactor one day. It was her dream and goal. And it made her incredibly gratified.
* * *
After Summer’s crazy adventure at the wolf sanctuary, Nathan came with her every weekend until opening night. He was the first to notice the girl had finally found her anchor. He’d been looking forward to this moment. It meant the time to work with her had come. That was the reason he came back as an assistant director, the reason he came back to Milky Way and the entertainment world he tried to leave behind.
Since he was a little boy, Nathan had always seen the world differently than others. He could always see the best in people, and not in a poetic way. No, he could see the full potential in people, and if he wanted, he could unleash that hidden talent. His father told him he was an innate director, and the powerful eyes of all Warners had evolved in him.
Hazel was living proof of her brother’s capacity. She was always proud to call herself Owen Lee’s pupil, but in reality it was Nathan who potentiated all her skills. And even now, with every piece of advice, he was making her a better actress. That was the reason she’d been able to compete with all the prodigies in her life. And why she knew very well that she was not like them.
But Summer was. Nathan knew the moment he saw her face. She wasn’t intimidated by his bright light; on the contrary, she was drawn to it even when she hadn’t noticed. But the more Nathan commented on her acting, the more Summer craved for his approval. And their lights collided nicely. He’d been waiting all his life for a miracle like her.
He secretly lamented that Shonny wasn’t part of his generation. The movies he wanted to make often involved a young heroine. His sister could play some of them, but his favorite characters, the ones he desperately wanted to show the world… there wasn’t an actress capable of bringing them to life.
Until that day at Constellations Studios when she forced the Sun to get serious and he saw the full potential of Summer’s wings. The wings that not even Frank Hills, the Devil of Starland, had seen yet. For only Nathan had eyes that could see into the future, eyes that could see dormant talent and bring out the very best version of people. He could see it and he had the power to unlock it.
Summer was ready now. He knew it the moment he saw her at Monday’s rehearsal. She had an anchor that allowed her to control Jane. She didn’t know how to use this new power, but Nathan was there to guide her.
They were resting in one of Nathan’s favorite spots. Growing up in the Milky Way he knew the place by heart. And in one of the Studios’ natural parks there was a mountain where you could see the NLA’s skyline. An inspiring view that had help him and the Warner men before him to relax and concentrate. It wasn’t the first time he had brought Summer there, but it was the day Summer’s acting changed for the better.
“Breathe,” he told her. “Close your eyes. Relax,” he whispered, getting closer to Summer. “Can you see Jane?”
Summer nodded.
“Where is she?”
“Sitting next to me.”
“Good.” He smiled. “Can you see her clearly?”
Summer nodded again. Nathan smirked.
She didn’t know how hard it was to see your character as clearly as she was seeing Jane. Genius, Nathan thought.
“I want you to keep looking at her, but step back slowly. Don’t lose sight of Jane. Don’t let her come near you either. Just step back. Go farther and farther away from her, but stay at a distance where you can still see her clearly.”
“She wants to come with me,” Summer told him.
“Don’t let her,” ordered Nathan.
And there was something in his voice that empowered Summer to do so. She was finding it extremely hard to walk away from Jane; on the contrary, she wanted to get closer. But Nathan’s voice made him impossible to ignore. She moved ten steps back from the little wolf.
“Good,” said Nathan, almost as if he’d seen what was going on inside her head. “Now I want you to go back to the stage, but I want you to stay at that distance from Jane. Got it? It’s essential that you keep looking at her, you have to always see her. But it is vital that for now you keep acting at that distance from her. If you feel the need to go near, remember your anchor. But if Jane willingly comes near you because she reacts to another actor, then let her come.”
Nathan said all that looking intensely to her eyes. Summer’s instincts understood what he meant. And on the next day, for the first time in a month, Summer came out on the stage without tormenting the other actors.
J.K. looked at Nathan with complicity; he knew it was his boy who had tamed the Stage Storm.
“It’s not like I tamed her,” he told J.K. when they were having dinner at his place. “She knew how to control her character.” He smiled. An honest smile, one that came from the heart.
“Is she the one you’ve been waiting for?” the director asked his assistant.
Nathan sighed. “You know, director Wales. I do admire you very much. I probably even love you more than I love my father, you know.”
J.K. was deeply touched, for he loved the boy like the son he never had. And because he has never expected to hear those words. As happy as it made him, he also felt a little sorry for James.
“But a part of me,” continued Nathan, looking straight at him. “A part of me has always envied you.”
J.K. met his gaze.
“You were part of the golden era, Jason Kay Wales. You have directed Konstantin Vasiliev’s pupils. The three of them, sometimes in the same play. Owen Lee, Samuel Meier, and Stella Clarke. You even directed Frank Hills when he was a Sun actor. You groomed Shonny Faith alongside Owen Lee. You directed Ave Maria, the legendary masterpiece written by the late S.R. Taylor. The play that gave Shonny the Tony Award for her acting debut. And years later, you directed the play that premiered the Young Sun’s talent with the same award. And now… you have found her.” Nathan’s voice was soft and steady, but his eyes were filled with sorrow.
“I was born in the same generation as the actor my father made me hate,” he continued. “I have my sister, the actress I love the most. But none of them could bring life to the stories I dream. I can see so much in people, and yet not one of them had what I’ve been looking for. Stella Clarke could… if she was my age. Shonny could, if she was twenty years younger. Perhaps my sister could one day, but that day is not now, and I live in the now,” Nathan said, confessing to his mentor what had tormented him for years. “I have so many stories I want to direct, so many images inside my head. Yet I, who can see better than any other Warner, can’t find the actors because they belong to previous generations.”
J.K. suspected all this. He also knew the frustration of not having the right actor. But just as Nathan said, he’d worked with the best of the best. This was the first time Nathan had opened his heart like this. And the reason, J.K. knew, was none other than Summer.
“I ran away from this world that couldn’t give me what I was seeking. I found other talents in the sport world, even in the science world. My violin kept me sane, but I cannot deny myself. I am a storyteller. It is in my blood,” admitted the scion of the Warner House.
“I came back because Hazel called me. I left her behind, and she bravely carried the family burden that should be mine. I came back to save my twin from that abyss, but in my return I found what I’ve been craving. I found the girl that could shoulder the full weight of my imagination.”
Nathan’s sorrowful eyes were slowly becoming hopeful. For a director, J.K. knew, there was nothing more thrilling than watching the intangible story that was only in your head brought to life by a wonderful cast. He’d experienced that feeling many times. But Nathan, who was probably the most gifted person he’d known, had never experienced that joy.
That whole week Nathan kept working with Summer. She got better at controlling her energy. The other actors were starting to like her, and Summer was feeling the beauty of being part of an ensemble. She was beginning to lead the others in a natural way, making them respond to Jane. They were still J.K. Wales’s cast, but it was Nathan’s power that harmonized all of Summer’s interactions. She felt with every cell of her body that the closer she got to the assistant director, the purer her Jane became.
With Nathan beside her, she returned to the wolf sanctuary every weekend. With him by her side, she could sleep with the pack at night and come back as Summer without invading their territory. Next to him, she felt safe and strong. Under his direction, she could see a path that wasn’t there before. She understood the meaning of being a servant to the arts. She was a tool for a means, an indispensable tool for something greater than herself.
And the one who showed her that was the handsome man who never stopped looking at her with awe.
The same guy who once again asked her, “do you want to be in my movie?”
ACT 29
Matt was in an incredibly bad mood. It was his birthday and he was having a party tonight, but that didn’t ease him at all. On the contrary, the fact it was his birthday today only worsened his mood. He felt even more terrible than when he discovered that Summer had been coming to Milky Way for a month now because she was starring in a Broadway show, sharing the lead with none other than Hazel Warner.
Being part of the music industry, he was never completely up to date about what was going on in Broadway. But they belonged to the same household, and he couldn’t forgive Tamarah for not telling him before. Especially after learning that Summer was the girl sitting at Joe Starlex’s table the night he met him. How had she come so far? If last year, or any other year, someone told him that his submissive Summer was starring in a Broadway show, he would have had the laugh of his life.
It was common knowledge to any artist that making it to Broadway was even harder than making it to Starland.
But she had managed somehow, and now he couldn’t forget that picture of her on the stage. A wolf girl… like Kayla, the wolf pup they sheltered when they were kids. He wondered if Summer used her as inspiration. Matt was a total stranger to the acting world. He always said that music was way more real than pretending to be someone else. And that was why it was time for a musician to hold the title of Sun.
But the scene he accidentally came across when he first saw Jane was the finale. Her death in Mary’s arms, after talking for the first time, calling her Mary and singing her only song in the whole play. Matt hadn’t been moved by something so real in a very long time.
At the time he saw her, they were barely beginning to shape that scene. But as he kept coming back to see her, the scene was getting better and more genuine. Hazel didn’t allow herself to be eclipsed by Summer’s overwhelming stage presence, and after a few tries she shone as well. Summer’s aura was magnetic enough when she was only growling and howling; Matt couldn’t find the words to describe the feeling that overcame him when he heard the wolf girl sing. That was the day of her first try. As he continued coming, every time he saw that scene, tears threatened to fall.
He even got inspired.
That day he spent the whole night writing and composing. The song that had started forming in his mind the day he took Summer on a picnic was finally making sense. Lyrics mixed with melodies that fell from his lips, all because he couldn’t get Summer’s performance out of his mind. Of course, Matt would never credit Summer for his inspiration. He only thought how awesome he was for writing a whole album in one night.
The next day at the rehearsal, he saw her talking with Nathan. Nathan Warner, the Prince of Starland, Heir to the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Why on Earth was someone as important as him glued like an annoying sticker to Summer? They sat together inside the theater, they ate together, they left together.
Enough! Get away from my Summer, he wanted to yell.
It was getting on his nerves. Nathan’s company and… those flowers, the same ones Joe Starlex gave her the night of the SAG Awards.
They were the cause of his terrible mood.
It was his birthday and Summer would never come to him, because she was busy talking to Nathan and looking after those flowers sent by who knows who.
For his last birthday, she baked him a cake. His favorite cake. She cooked his favorite meal and dessert and decorated their apartment with his posters. Why was he thinking about their life together now? He never appreciated it before. He was used to it. Summer was one of those things he was sure he would always have.
He knew she’d seen him in the theater. She must know today was his birthday. Then why hadn’t she come to say something?
Matt couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Summer, on the contrary, couldn’t stop thinking about opening night.
Time was flying at an incredible speed because she was having so much fun. Every day she discovered a new part of Jane, because every day her co-stars were getting better. Especially Hazel. Her scenes with her were undoubtedly her favorites. Jane would always come closer to her whenever she was acting with Hazel. Mary was there, she could feel it. And her Mary was always the first to respond to her Jane.
The only thing that bothered her was that lately she’d been seeing Matt a lot around Milky Way. He was a musician, so she didn’t understand why he was spending his time in the theater square. But more importantly, as opening night got closer and closer, Neverland had been sending her flowers more often. She loved to see the delivery boy entering the theater with her flowers. Everybody knew now that Summer had a devoted secret fan.
Matt kept on coming back to the rehearsals, but Summer would never talk to him. He was happy because his song ‘The Actress’ had been accepted by James Warner and his new album would begin production soon. He’d proved himself a prodigy once again in the eyes of the King. No other singer could fully compose five incredible songs in a single night. He was already tasting the Grammy’s.
Tamarah wanted him to change the name of the song. ‘The Actress’ was too obvious and rumors about his love for a mysterious star would undoubtedly circulate. Matt was tempted when she mentioned the word love. There was no way he loved Summer. Besides, the only part she could suspect was slightly inspired by her was the last part, when he howled along with his guitar.
* * *
