Invisible(28)

She knew Jake was back in San Francisco by then, and she wondered if he had found a job yet. He wasn’t looking for anything related to acting. He just wanted something that would pay him enough to make pocket money for school in the fall. He was willing to do almost anything.

She spent the weekend exploring L.A. by car, and checked out the studio location so she’d know where to go on Monday, and wouldn’t be late. The studio had a huge parking lot for employees where she could leave her car.

    She finally reached Jake on Sunday and told him all about it. He said he’d found a job as a busboy at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. It sounded like a cushy job to her, and he was going to spend three weeks in August at his parents’ house in Lake Tahoe before he went back to school.

“Maybe I’ll come to see you in L.A. before I go up to Tahoe,” he said before they hung up. She loved the idea, and wondered if he’d get around to it, between his job and family and their summer plans. She promised to tell him all about her internship as soon as she started.

She reported to work promptly at nine the next morning, after parking in the employee lot. She went to the main studio office, and asked for the person whose name she’d been given. She was a serious-looking woman wearing a shocking pink silk blouse and white slacks, with her hair in a neat French twist. Antonia had worn a black cotton dress and flat shoes in case she had a lot of running around to do. She looked businesslike and efficient, and very young, with her hair in a ponytail and very little makeup. She didn’t want to stand out. Her first assignment was to deliver a manila envelope to the third assistant director on the set of the movie they were making. The woman she had reported to drew a quick map. The studio lots looked like a maze to her, as she started out to find the set where she had to go. It took her fifteen minutes to find it, and the day was already blazing hot. When she reached the right place, a security guard stopped her. She told him her mission and who the envelope was from and he let her through, and told her to be very quiet when she entered the set. The cameras were due to start rolling any minute.

    As it turned out, they already were, and she had to wait half an hour before they allowed her on set to find the third assistant director. He was slouched in a chair when she found him, studying the shooting schedule for the day. He opened the envelope and saw that it was the script changes for the day that had to be delivered to all the actors and the principal director. She had seen the list of actors working on the film, and wondered if she’d see any of the stars. She guessed that they were probably in their dressing rooms.

He sent her to another assistant to give the script changes to, and the girl thanked her pleasantly and asked her if she was new. The third assistant director had hardly looked at her.

“I’m a summer intern,” Antonia said softly. “Today is my first day.” She was scared, but excited to be there. And she didn’t want to make any mistakes on the first day.

“That’s how I started too.” The girl smiled at her. “Good luck!” Antonia thanked her, and made her way back to the office. She got lost twice and had to double back, but she got back to the main office an hour after she’d left.

“Mission accomplished,” she reported to the woman in the pink blouse. She sent her on a similar mission to another set, where a different movie was being made.

She was sent out four times in the sweltering heat by lunchtime. She felt wilted by the time she got back to the office after her fourth delivery, but at least it was cool there.

They gave her a heavy metal box to deliver after that, with a padlock on it. It was money for one of the directors on set. The woman in charge of her told her she could go to the employees’ commissary for lunch after she made the delivery, and to be back in an hour. It didn’t give her much time to eat since it took so long to get around. The studio was as big as a small city, or so it seemed, as she hiked across hot pavement and found the studio where she was supposed to go. They took the box from her, and she headed for the commissary. She had seen signs along the way.

    It was a giant tent, with a whole cooking area, long tables with plated food on them, and refrigerated cases with salads and dairy products, and another one filled with drinks. There were at least a dozen people setting up the food. She took a salad and a bottle of water and went to sit at one of the tables. And a few minutes later, a good-looking blond boy came and sat down across from her, with a hamburger and a Coke on his tray. She wondered if he was an actor. He was handsome enough to be one. There were attractive people everywhere, and it was impossible to guess what their jobs were.

“Mind if I sit down?” he asked her after he did, and smiled at her, and she shook her head and ate her salad. She noticed that he was wearing a striped T-shirt and jeans, and sandals. He looked like he was going to the beach. He seemed very confident. He dropped a script on the table, and ate his hamburger. She guessed him to be about her age. She could sense him watching her, and she finally got up the courage to ask him the burning question.

“Are you an actor?”

“Yes, but not here. I’m a drama student at Northwestern. I’m a summer intern. What about you?”

“I’m a summer intern too. From NYU.” They smiled at each other and the coincidence that they wound up at the same table on their first day.

    “It’s a fantastic place, isn’t it? I hope I get to make a movie here one day,” he said hopefully.