Page 7 of Jacob Michaels is Dead

Nelda Hammersmith wore glasses when I first arrived in Hollywood. Big spectacles that made her eyes look like they were staring out at me from behind fish bowls. Even then, as we had our first meeting, I knew that she didn’t need the glasses. Mrs. Hammersmith, agent to some of the biggest and brightest stars in the universe that was Hollywood, liked to make statements. Sometimes those statements simply announced what an odd duck she was, but they were statements nonetheless. As I remember it, I don’t recall how I found my way to Nelda’s office in the heart of Los Angeles. I didn’t remember much of my trip from Ohio to California. In fact, I couldn’t even remember if I took a plane or rode in a car…I just knew that I had decided to leave Point Worth for Hollywood, and that was all there was to it.

Then I was in Nelda Hammersmith’s office, telling her I wanted to be a star.

At first glance, she simply sniffed at me, appalled that some kid off of the street would be so brazen as to demand anything of an agent of her caliber. Seconds later, a cloud seemed to pass over Nelda’s face…and then I was suddenly being proclaimed the Hot New Thing she had been waiting to discover.

You don’t have anywhere to live in L.A.?

You can stay with me!

You’re not old enough?

We’ll lie!

Make up a backstory!

Change your name!

Suddenly, I was Nelda Hammersmith’s new best friend who was going to help her become even richer—and hopefully, myself along the way. Even when she said my scene reads weren’t all that great or my voice wasn’t stellar, she looked hungry.

I had “IT.”

That intangible, elusive thing that the biggest stars always possessed.

Nelda Hammersmith told me that if I “stuck with her,” there wasn’t anything I couldn’t achieve in show business.

So…I stuck with her.

The Rolling Stones were playing on the radio when I was suddenly jolted awake in the passenger seat of my car. Lucas had obviously hit a pothole or speedbump because I was jostled in my seat, and my eyes flew open as the seatbelt bit into my chest. As one does in such situations, after the evening—and I guess proceeding weeks—we had endured, I looked around frantically, expecting an attack of some kind. Had Jason and his wolves caught up to us in their trucks, and were they now attempting to run us off the road? They were all dumbass country boys with pickup trucks, so I didn’t feel that it was beyond them to attempt to spin us out, roleplaying their favorite NASCAR fantasies. They probably even had a wad of dip in their protruded lips with Gatorade bottles full of dip spit snuggled securely between their thighs as they slammed into my much smaller car. Or worse, cups filled with spit-soaked paper towels tucked between their legs. My mind raced, wondering if we had become complacent and hadn’t expected them to come after us. I had fallen asleep so suddenly as Lucas drove that it was apparent I had let my guard down. A person who had gone through the day I just had would have to be stupid to just fall asleep and expect to be safe while they slumbered.

Of course, I had never claimed to be smart.

Lucas chuckled, though it was tense and slightly higher in pitch than normal as he glanced over at my worried expression and the crazy whipping around of my head as I looked all around. In my frenzy, it took a moment for me to realize that he was simply driving us east on the dark and deserted highway 2 towards Cleveland. We had just needed to get out of Point Worth and get to Hopkins airport so that we could fly to Los Angeles. Put as many miles between us and our former lives as we could, as quickly as we could. Of course, I didn’t know how long I had been asleep or what had jostled me awake, so I had no idea how close to Cleveland we were when I awoke. Cleveland is no Los Angeles, but it is big enough that if we were nearby, I would at least see the lights in the distance. But the road and horizon ahead of us were dark.

“What’s wrong, babe?” Lucas managed to mumble.

“Did you hit something?” I turned to him, trying to calm myself down. “I felt a bump.”

“Must’ve been a big bump.”

More nervous chuckling.

“So…you did hit something?”

“No.” He turned his head to glance at me briefly, a worried expression chasing away the brief look of amusement. “You just startled awake, Rob. I didn’t hit anything. You must have been having a bad dream.”

“How long was I asleep?” I frowned to myself as my fingers found their way through my hair, pushing it off of my forehead.

“Um,” Lucas frowned, “I don’t remember when you fell asleep. But I’ve been driving for, like, maybe an hour?”

Turning my head briefly to glance out of the windshield, I looked out at the road before us. My eyes darted to either side of the road, taking in nothing but darkness around us.

“We should be getting kind of close to Cleveland,” I said as I turned back to Lucas. “Right?”

“Right.” He gave me a firm nod as his eyes stared out at the road before us. “We’ll go straight to Hopkins, babe.”

“Two one-way tickets.” I smiled at him, but there was an uneasiness in my gut.

“We’ll be in L.A. before the sun peeks over the ocean.” He smiled happily as he steered.