The Audition
The room was a large, open, unfinished loft. In the middle
of the space, a nervous Kyle Evers sat in a folding chair holding a script.
Several feet away, movie director Eve Tolbertson sat behind a picnic table, a
script lying on it in front of her.
“Thanks for coming down, Kyle. I know actors hate cold
readings, but it is what it is.”
“Oh, no problem.”
“Great. Okay, let me set up the scene. Your character Jerry
is your age and height. He’s a bartender at a club downtown and…. What’s
wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s just that I’m a bartender downtown.”
“Okay. So Jerry’s goal is to be an actor, but it’s been
tough and he’s only found work as an extra. Then an audition for a film pops up
that he’s very excited about.”
“Look, I’m really sorry to interrupt, but you’re describing
my life…exactly my life. How can that be?”
Eve took off her glasses and set them on the script. “I hope
not, because Jerry finds out that his girlfriend Anna is cheating on him and he
stabs her to death with a butcher knife.”
“Shut the fuck up. My girlfriend’s name is…” His phone rang
and he checked the caller ID. “I’m really sorry but I have to take this.” He
put the phone to his ear. “Jean, what is it?”
“Oh my god, Kyle. Something horrible has happened to Anna…”
“Oh my god, Kyle. Something horrible has happened to Anna…”
I Remember
I remember everything about that night. There was a squeaky
gate in the picket fence surrounding the house. I remember there was no moon
that night, just like tonight, and the air was chilly and damp. We went to the
back door and into the kitchen and there was a chemical, hospital-like smell
that enveloped us.
The door to the basement was just off of the kitchen, and
the stairs going down were old and noisy.
I remember being laid on a cold hard table and the sounds of metal
things clinking together. The light over me was bright and I couldn’t look at
it very long. Something was wheeled up
next to me. Then his piggish, sweaty face suddenly hovered over mine, and his
eyes were wide with excitement and he grinned at the moment I felt the pressure
of the blade on my arm. Then, all I
remember was searing pain and screaming. Waves of pain and screaming.
As I make my way quietly down the hallway, a grandfather
clock chimes three times, and I remember hearing that sound from the basement as
my energy dissipated and death overtook me.
Now in his bedroom, I watch as he snores and his fat body
rises and falls to the grating noise. Tonight, I’m going to help him remember
me.
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