9 KiB
Chapter IX
Cherish
Sheiny was all the fuss that day. She put on a ridiculous dress. Her mom came with her. Also in a dress. Mother was very proud of Sheiny. Even thought she never went to the filming and was sceptical of the quality of the film. "Mom, hurry up." said Sheiny while looking at the clock. They were fifteen minutes away from the start and mom was still in the toilet. Sheiny took a moment to look at herself in the mirror. It was horrible. Mom painted her face with glitter.
Fourteen minutes left. "Mom, fourteen minutes!" Sheiny screamed at the door. Suddenly a sound of flushing could be heard. The mom came out. Face also painted. Very thick glitter. They both came out of the door. Sheiny was dragging mom with her to speed her up.
"Where are we going?" said mom as they were on the street. Sheiny pointed in a general direction of the cinema. "The Cinerama?" said mother "This place is all ugly now. Nobody even goes there. I thought it would show in the Cinema-house.". "Mom, you know very well that it's Cinerama. And you know very well the reasons for it. You've seen the posters. Stop pretending that you are dumb." said Sheiny dragging mom even faster.
When they arrived to the cinema, there was no time left. Only to sit down as quickly as possible and watch the film. They came to the cinema one minute before the light was off. As soon as they both sat down the movie started. It was pleasing for Sheiny to see so many people in that place. It was not full. There still were some empty sits. But it was a definite success. Even thought, the film didn't start yet.
The light was off and the film begun. Mother sat there, with a face of a parent that has to say "Good job" while looking at stick figure drawings. Suddenly the picture appeared. It was Mendel's saloon. Dark at night. Chloe was walking very quietly toward the toilet. There was an atmosphere of "So what" in Sheiny's mom's eyes. She thought that this was not very hard to do. Chloe opened the ventilation and there were spiderwebs and pigeon feces and other rubbish. It looks quite scary. And then Chloe starts to enter that crap with her hand. A wave of gasps came through the cinema. Even Sheiny's mom had a face of disgust. Sheiny felt a bit proud of her self.
Another huge wave of gasps happened when Chloe revealed the images in the magazine. Sheiny's mom looked at Sheiny with a jaw dropped. It was a realization of how intense the whole thing going to be. Sheiny felt a bit of shame. Her mom was watching and there was a pornographic image for an instance. People kept gasping through out the next scene. As the girl's mother started arguing with the girl about the magazine. It was a rather good performance of Mr. Hambleton's wife. Some dude in the first raw screamed "Fucking cunt!" at the screen. Sheiny's mother was sitting there with her eyes opened in a slight shock. She didn't expect Sheiny to do that good.
Then there was an alien with it's computer generated imagery. This blew the mother away. Where did Sheiny find a real alien? Then the Sinking in the Fire scene started. And mom was fully invested. Laughing, gasping and crying with the rest of the cinema. When the end of the film came in, everybody was applauding. Sheiny thought that this was a time where her dream came true. Perhaps Mendel will never be her family. But this moment of her work being appreciated was monumental for her.
Mr. Humbert came onto the stage under the screen and addressed the audience "Today I was returned to where I was years ago. When I was still a young lad I was making films in Hollywood. Not very good ones. But some people had seen them. One day a little girl came into my cinema. This very cinema. And she was amazing. She had this insane project. A film project that she wanted to do. It was lunacy to put your faith in a little girl. But I could not say 'no' to her. She was just too cute. Welcome to the stage, the writer-director of Sinking in the Fire - Sheiny Goldberg.". Sheiny didn't know what to do. She looked at mom. Mom gestured her to go to the stage. Sheiny thought for a few seconds and went.
She took the microphone in an attempt to give a speech. But she had not prepared any speech. She stood there and looked at the crowd of people that was still applauding her. She started speaking "On the journey of this film I made friends with a lot of people without whom this film would not be possible. I'm talking about my friends and family. Apart from Mr. Humbert that is already standing here, Chloe, come here, Mark, Ivan a wonderful music producer, Mendel a wonderful cinematographer, Mr. Hambleton a teacher from my school who had given me a lot of computers to make visual effects on and my mom. Come here mom.". Mom stood up and went to the stage with the rest of the people whom Sheiny called. All of them went up and stood facing the stage.
Suddenly something happened in Mendel's face. "Cherish?" he said "Cherish! It's you...". Sheiny looked at Mendel. He was not watching the crowd. He was looking sideways. Sheiny traced the direction of his sight. It fell... No. It cannot be. Sheiny checked again. Mendel was looking at. No way. He was looking at...
Once upon the time there was a girl named Amanda. But she didn't like that name. So as many kids do, she made up a name for herself. Cherish was her nickname. Mendel arrived at the school later. After everybody already knew Amanda as Cherish. They fell in love. Amanda's father didn't like Mendel. It was not Mendel's own fault. He was a nice kid. It's just Amanda's father was a paranoid freak. He would not let her date under any circumstances with nobody. Even, perhaps after she would turn eighteen. He always saw Amanda as a small child unable to think. But she was thinking. She had a brilliant mind. He killed it in her. Because of the constant shaming that he did to her, she started feeling that smart is not what she is. He would not allow Mendel to ever come in their house. He would threaten to kill Mendel. He would scream and yell about her own stupidity and Mendel's unsuitability.
When Mendel was celebrating his eighteen's birthday, Amanda's father called police on him. Amanda was still seventeen. And making up a story of how he saw them do things was not very hard. He exaggerated every claim and told lies, everything to put Mendel to jail for as long as possible. Amanda left her father from that point on. She would not see him or talk to him ever since.
It occurred to Amanda that she was pregnant from Mendel. It was a girl. The girl that she named Sheiny. Her father learned about the granddaughter and started to feel a tremendous guilt. He could not let himself talk to Amanda. The trauma that he must've caused her was probably unbearable. So instead he sent her money every month. To which she grew accustom to. When he died, Amanda didn't go to his funeral. Neither did Sheiny. But since the money was gone, Sheiny needed a way to make money.
She loved Mendel so much from the first glance because he was already her family. She felt this connection. She didn't know how to explain it, but as love. It was love. Non sexual. Real love. A love between a little girl and a father. When Mendel saw Sheiny for the first time he saw Amanda. He saw Cherish. He was starring at her because he was wondering. The girl was very similar to his Cherish. He didn't quite understand yet that it was his daughter. That it was Cherish's daughter. This is why she looked familiar. This is why she reminded him so much of her. And since it was his daughter he felt immense love toward her.
When Sheiny learned about it she understood that she was infect Free now. She could choose who ever she wanted and go with him. Dad didn't tell Mom what they were doing all this time. He wasn't even that much against it. He felt like now he had more responsibility to keep her safe. Like a stunt coordinator is responsible to keep stuntmen safe. It doesn't mean that they cancel the stunts. Sheiny and Chloe kept doing their little films in preparation for another big film. This time Chloe would be the writer-director. Sheiny feared. What kind of crazy stuff would she come up with?
Ivan kept acting at their little show. Keeping it very safe, because now he was very careful. He was better and better with music. The next film could probably even be nominated for the best score academy award. He felt like music was a great substitute for games. It required rhythm and precision that he learned on playing games. Ivan and Chloe would sometimes play together. They even thought to release an album. Mr. Hambleton found a new love for his wife. After helping with the production of the stuff for so long, he got desensitised to little girls.
Mr. Humbert, after the closing of the movie felt something profound. He sat down at his little corner where he sells stuff to his lustful customers. The nostalgia of watching a movie that he had direct involvement with struck him. He was alone in that cinema. Suddenly nothing could help him. He started crying. He never believed that a couple of little nine year old girls could return that feeling in him. But they did. And now, he is fulfilled.