The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide #1)(66)
“To transitioning,” Cash said.
“To transitioning,” Sam repeated.
Chapter Seventeen
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
The Downers Grove gang allowed themselves to sleep in on Thursday morning since it was one of the lighter days in their schedule. The extra hours in bed were very much needed after spending the previous night on the concrete of an abandoned theme park. Sam didn’t get to bed until three thirty after his rooftop talk with Cash, so he was especially grateful for the additional rest. He woke up with a slight headache from the whiskey but also with an enormous sense of relief. His problems weren’t over by any means, but getting a chance to talk to someone made his spirits soar higher than they had in years.
At ten o’clock Topher, Joey, Sam, and Mo gathered outside the door of teepee number 5 to let Cash know they were headed to the car for their trek to Albuquerque, New Mexico. They could hear him talking on the phone through the door and the actor didn’t sound happy.
“Hi, Carl, this is Cash,” he said. “Yeah, I lost my phone.… I’m calling from Amarillo.… Listen, I just got your message.… Is this something we need to respond to right away or can we wait until I’m back in Los Angeles? I should be back by Monday.”
“We should wait by the car,” Topher told his friends. “It’s really messed up to eavesdrop on him like—”
“A fucking lawsuit?” Cash yelled.
With that, Topher, Joey, Sam, and Mo abandoned all their moralities and leaned closer to the door to hear the actor better. Mo even emptied her Starbucks in the grass and held the cup against the door like a stethoscope.
“That’s completely fucked up!” Cash went on. “We’ve never begun stunt training this early before a shoot.… If they wanted to send a message they could have done it over the phone, not legal documents.… Damien wants it to leak and embarrass me.… Yeah, I know they don’t have all the information but I don’t want them to have it yet.… Because they’ll find a way to use it to their advantage.… Fine, if it’ll prevent a lawsuit from becoming breaking news, send them whatever you have to.… They can do whatever they want, but I don’t want anything announced until after, well, you know…
Cash hung up the phone and emerged from teepee number 5 so fast the others only had a split second to reassemble themselves in a non-eavesdropping position.
“Good morning,” they said in unison.
Cash didn’t respond and didn’t look anyone in the eye.
“Where are we going now?” he asked, disgruntled.
“Albuquerque,” Topher said. “But we’re making stops at the UFO Observation Tower and Dinoworld along the way.”
“Gotcha,” he said. “Well, let’s quit standing around and get to it, then.”
The actor put on his sunglasses, pulled his backpack over his shoulder, and led the charge toward the station wagon in the parking lot. The Downers Grove gang shared a moment of uneasiness before following him. They had seen many sides to Cash Carter in the past week, but he was acting totally different today. He was groggy and grumpy, like the wind had been taken out of his sails. They knew something was wrong but didn’t want to ask.
What do you think is going on? Mo mouthed to the others.
I think it’s all starting to hit him, Joey mouthed back. Hopefully the observation tower will cheer him up.
The station wagon pulled onto Interstate 40 with Joey behind the wheel and began its westward haul to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Cash didn’t seem like he was in the mood to talk, so everyone stayed silent and listened to the radio along the way. Cash could tell they were giving him space and appreciated it.
“Sorry I’m so quiet,” Cash said. “I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”
“That’s okay,” Topher said. “Especially after the week you’ve had.”
“I suppose so,” he said. “What’s this UFO Observation Tower thing, anyway? Why are we stopping for it?”
“It’s the site of the famous UFO crash in 1948,” Joey said, but it didn’t register with the actor. “You’ve never heard of it?”
Cash shook his head. “Guess I was too busy losing my virginity,” he said. “Sorry, that was rude. I should probably explain myself so you guys know my attitude isn’t personal.”
Everyone else sat a little taller in their seats, anxious to know what his phone conversation had been about. The actor took a deep breath and rubbed his eyelids under his sunglasses before he explained.
“I found out this morning that stunt training did begin yesterday. It always starts three weeks before production begins on a new season, and we aren’t scheduled to shoot until the middle of August. I think the St. Louis thing made the producers nervous and they moved training up a month to reel me in before I cause another scene. They threatened to sue me if I didn’t go back, but my contract clearly states I need two weeks’ notice before training begins, so my lawyer is taking care of it. Needless to say, my Black Swan is out today. So I’m going to keep my mouth shut until it all rolls off my back.”
“No worries,” Topher said.
“Yeah—take all the time you need,” Sam said.
Three and a half hours later, on the one-thousand-and-two-hundredth mile of their initial two-thousand-mile journey, the car pulled into the parking lot of the UFO Observation Tower, a few miles beyond the small town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico. The tower resembled the Seattle Space Needle, but was about five hundred feet shorter, a quarter of the size, and made out of cheap tin. It was shaped like a flying saucer and suspended off the ground by five concrete pillars.