Everything Leads to You(85)

Charlotte works on the DVDs and books; I take artwork off the walls, framed photographs and souvenirs from his travels and mementos from movies off his shelves. Charlotte takes pictures so we’ll know how to replace everything when we’re finished shooting. I move the sofa and roll up the shag rug, ready to replace it with the ones Rebecca found at the Rose Bowl. The orange chair stays, but I’ll be covering it with a Southwestern-style blanket to tone down the color.

Charlotte and I wrap up Toby’s dishes, which are too modern for Juniper. Instead, we’ll use Rebecca and Theo’s plates and bowls and mugs, handmade, from San Francisco. They’re way too expensive for Juniper, but this is the movies, after all, and the simple feeling of them is perfect.

“Hey,” Charlotte says. “Did Ava call you?”

She’s looking at her phone and I realize I don’t know where mine is, which only happens when I lose myself in this kind of project. I find it under a pile of pillows on the couch.

“Yeah,” I say. “Twice.”

“Me, too,” she says.

“Did she leave a message?”

“No.”

“Not for me, either.”

“We can call her later,” Charlotte says, and I set my phone back down and keep working.

A few minutes later there’s a knock at the door and Morgan walks in.

“You made it!” I say, and I can feel Charlotte’s disapproval over my enthusiasm, but I can’t help it. Morgan’s here to rig the hanging plants contraption; she’s here to affix wallpaper to removable panels. In other words: She’s here to make my dreams come true.

But only some of them.

“Did you doubt me?” She laughs.

“No,” I say.

“Though she had every reason to,” Charlotte says.

“Hey, Charlotte,” Morgan says, ignoring her comment.

Grudgingly, Charlotte says hey back.

I show Morgan my plans for the apartment and she’s the perfect person to help me because she’s done this sort of thing so many times. She knows, for example, how low the plants should hang in order for them to be in a lot of the shots.

“Once I worked on a set where I did all of this detail work on the wall near the ceiling,” she tells me. “First I put up this molding and then I painted it gold and blue. Really intricate. And then, when the movie came out, it wasn’t even in it. The camera never panned that high. One thing you need to do when a shot is being set up is stand with Charlie and look at the monitor. Be sure to tell him when you want something in the shot, when you think it’s important.”

“I’m allowed to do that?”

“Oh yeah,” Morgan says. “They’ll expect you to do it. And be prepared for him to ask you for changes, too. Like if he’s trying to get a certain shot but he needs it to be simpler, or something’s in the way.”

“I’m so glad you’re telling me this.”

“There’s more,” she says. “But first let’s talk about this hanging thing.”

I show her the pots I’ve collected, explain that I’m going to be borrowing some others from my parents’ house and from Theo and Rebecca’s jungle-like yard. Many of them will sit on the low wooden table in place of Toby’s TV, but I want a cluster of them to hang by a window to the right, not blocking the light, but catching it. I show her some red twine I found.

“I want this to be wrapped around the pots as if it’s hanging from a hook in the ceiling.”

“That’ll contrast well with the green.”

“And I want them to be at various heights, and a lot of them—a dozen at least. There’s that scene where she’s watering her plants and crying, remember? I want the plants to go on forever.”

“But no holes in the ceiling,” she says.

“Is that possible?”

“Anything is possible.”

She takes some measurements, sketches something out, and then tells me she’s going to pick up some supplies.

“We have a friend who might be able to get a discount,” I say. “Let me see if he’s working.”

I find my phone again and see that I have a text from Ava: Finding Caroline’s death certificate. Meet me downtown?

I text back: Can’t today. I’ll call you tonight.

Then I text Jamal to see if he’s at work and he is. Any chance you could share your discount? I write.