Five for Forever (17 page)

Rick went upstairs to brief the kids about what was going on.

“Will we become famous now?” Charles asked, his forehead knitted.

“Yes and no. You will be famous because you are close to Louise, not because you did something great. Remember what you learned in the media training and you’ll be fine.”

The entrepreneurial kids next door had the time of their lives tending for the media mob. By noon on Sunday they’d run out of the stock of ice-cold beverages, and their mother was hitting the supermarket to buy replacement cans and lots of ice. It was the first real hot day of the summer, a scorcher with temperatures hitting the midnineties, and the media people were being murdered by the climate. Izzy’s security service had been setting up a perimeter, and Oxnard police had two cruisers keeping an eye on things, and blocking the Flints’ road from both sides. All major outlets had sent camera crews over; the exclusivity of
hot!’s
asset had evaporated the second Izzy had started his media blitz. The reporters tried to interview the Flints’ neighbors and were received politely but left with relatively little information that they couldn’t have found on the family’s social-media sites. Only one neighbor, a little farther away, gave some details of how he remembered the Flint family moving in and the death of Isabella Flint a few years back.

The media baked and camped until three p.m., and then, with morale and motivation at an all-time low, Izzy arrived. Everyone knew him to be Louise Waters’s long-time agent, and some of the old-timers remembered him from his prog-rock days in the late seventies. Izzy raised a lazy hand and then walked over to the house, rang the doorbell, and vanished inside. His thin assistant, Arielle, started making the round to prepare the sharks for the press conference, resulting in a buildup of microphone stands and cameras on the pavement before the Flint driveway.

Izzy came out again and stepped in front of the mob. “People, calm down. You will get statements, you will get photos, you will get Q and A.”

Adjustments and shuffles for best angles ensued.

Izzy turned. “Here she is! Louise would like to say a few words to you.”

Louise and Rick came down the driveway hand in hand, a perfect couple on a Sunday, with three of the kids—Britta had decided to stay out of this—in tow. Dana hid behind Agnes’s legs, and Charles nervously pushed his glasses back on top of his nose.

Since he’d been dating Louise, Rick had dreaded this moment most. The situation they were now facing was clearly his worst fear realized. About fifty reporters, cameramen, and technicians were waiting for them and already starting to shout questions at them. Cameras were clicking or zooming in on each and every one of them.

Britta made the right decision to stay away from this
, Rick thought. Holding Louise’s hand gave him some security.

Louise stepped up to the forest of microphone stands. “Thanks for coming, everyone. I hope you’ve had a good day so far. Rick and I decided to give a short statement, to get most of your questions out of the way. Otherwise, we will make an appearance on
Access Hollywood
later this week. There will be no other interviews or exclusives, so you can save that call to my agent; the answer will be no. I am committed to starting a new life after a great ride in film. But over the last year I’ve started to feel like I wanted something more. Meeting Rick, and the kids, is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me. We would ask you to please respect our privacy, especially that of the kids. Rick?”

Rick moved in Louise’s place. His heart was beating as if it were going to explode, and he felt sweaty all over, not only from the sun. He cleared his throat. He noticed that it had become so quiet that it was suddenly possible to hear a pin drop. Even the photographers stopped their clicking.

Jesus, they are waiting to hear me say a word. This is ridiculous.

“Um, hello. Louise said her part. I am not as eloquent as she, but I would like to underscore that we are serious about the privacy of the kids. Don’t hunt them down because their dad is dating a movie star. Well, former movie star. Thank you.”

Izzy came up. “Time for some questions, folks. Make it count and skip the stupidest ones, please! Yes,
New York Times
first.”

“Are you in love?”

Izzy laughed. “That’s the best the
Times
has? What part of ‘stupidest’ didn’t you understand? Fox next!”

“Rick, will you continue to live in Oxnard?”

Even though he was tempted to answer with a simple, lonely yes, he remembered the media training.
Full simple sentences.
“The kids are at home here, going to school and all; I have my company here. There is no reason to move because my new partner is an ex-movie superstar—she is actually willing to move here, too.”

“I promise, I will learn to cook,” Louise chimed in, which brought some guffaws from the media.

“Channel 8!” directed Izzy.

“Any new projects for you Louise?”

“Yes, pool cleaning once a week.” That drew a laugh from everyone. “Oh, you mean movies? I don’t know yet, but what I do know is: I will take it slow and seek no new engagements.

The Q and A continued for ten minutes, and when Izzy thought the group had run out of steam, he cut it off.

“Thanks everyone for coming, don’t forget to watch
Access Hollywood
!” Izzy closed the press conference and the Flint-Waters gang walked back into the house.

The media people wrapped up their reporting with last-minute recorded statements with the Flint house in the background, packed up, and were gone half an hour later. A group of hard-core paparazzi remained and sweated in their cars. Any attempt to idle the motor to get the air-conditioning going was immediately prohibited by the police, which eventually dissuaded most of them from staying around much longer.

“The Odd Couple,” “Notting Oxnard,” and “The Empress and the Sailor” were the headlines, and they all focused on the romantic aspect of Louise and Rick. The one Rick liked best was the headline on
Entertainment Tonight
’s website, which simply declared “Boatstruck!” Most media had cut the ten minutes of press conference down to fifteen seconds of sound bites. The family sans Britta was only shown for a brief moment. Izzy told them that it was far from over; this had only been the header. Deep dives and dirt digging would follow.

Access Hollywood
was taped at Universal City; Stephanie Bauer had landed the exclusive coup to interview the couple of the week and NBC had decided to make it a half hour special, kicking a rerun out of the prime time program. Rick had never been inside a TV studio and found it interesting and exciting, similar to his family’s visit to the
Sell! Sell! Sell!
set. So many things had happened in such a short time from when the limousine had dropped them off; all the handshaking, small talk, and makeup and then the recording itself—Rick’s head was reeling. Louise, the professional, gave Rick little cues of what was happening and how to behave. Then they were led to their places at the table that separated them from Stephanie. They did some small talk while the crew got ready. Then shooting started. The host gave some introductory remarks and advertised some upcoming features on the regular show. She then introduced her guests, gave a quick rundown of Louise’s bio, and then cut to the chase and Louise’s announced retirement.

“Retiring at thirty-six after reigning in the movie industry for more than a decade.
Giving up her crown
for the love of a
common man
,” Stephanie read from a cue card and then cited some of the cheesiest headlines from earlier that week. “How romantic can it get?”

Louise smiled, held Rick’s hand under the table, and patiently answered the questions about her state of mind, the chance that this love brought to her, and the movie obligations to come. Rick could feel one of the cameras sneaking up from the side to catch the hand-holding detail.

“Rick, you are a boatbuilder, you run your own company in Oxnard, you’re a widower who’s raising four children. Now you are with one of the most recognized actresses on the planet. Isn’t this strange?”

“Well, Stephanie, you make the
now
sound as if all the other stuff went away. It is more like
on top of everything
. I am indeed with a very famous woman. It is still so bizarre to me, same as sitting here with you. On the one hand, I have memories of going to Louise Waters movies or watching her on TV, and then at the same time, I see her getting integrated into our household, playing Barbies with my youngest, or helping my second oldest daughter with homework.”

“You are still getting used to it?”

“Still so fresh that every time I look at her I think, Pinch me, is this for real?”

Louise patted his arm. “Usually that’s the point when I take a fork and poke him.”

Rick nodded. “In all fairness, she first eats the food off it.”

“Hollywood relationships are usually short-lived; breakups are feeding the tabloid industry. How long do you give yourselves? Rick first.”

“You are asking the impossible. If this is a dream, I hope I sleep for a long, long time.”

“Louise? Your early marriages lasted less than two years each. How long now?”

“We aren’t married, so you can’t compare. I hope Rick and the kids will be five for forever to me.”

“I will ask some of the typical tabloid questions. I’m keeping in mind that I’m the only interview you are planning to give before you wind down your career, so I have to make everyone happy. Marriage? Rick?”

“I am a conservative guy, I guess. So for me a yes, in time.”

Louise smiled at him and nodded. “Let’s first survive the media madness.”

“Children of your own? Louise.”

“Too early to tell. I am thirty-six, which gives me a few years to decide.”

“The Flint kids?”

“Awesome! Don’t have any other word for them. They are fun, they are inspiring, and they took me gracefully into their midst.”

“Louise, how is it to get an instant family?”

“Pretty convenient. All the benefits without the stretch marks.”

seventeen

The Mall Incident

The school year came to an end mid-June, and the summer holidays were stretching ahead. For Agnes and Britta, this meant fun time, spending endless hours hanging out with their friends at the beach or in the mall, working part-time to earn some money. Britta landed her first babysitter jobs in the neighborhood, and Agnes had taken a temp job at the marketing agency that handled web design for various local enterprises. For Charles the summer meant undisturbed time reading, experimenting at home, or going to Oxnard Science Club events. For little Dana, not much changed at all—she still went to day care.

Louise was on a trip somewhere on the planet to promote a science fiction movie that had been shot over one year ago, and Rick ended the last day of school on the couch, watching Jimmy Fallon to come down from the daily events. Agnes came into the room; earlier in the evening, she’d go to an introductory barbecue at the home of the agency founder to meet some of her new colleagues.

“Hey, how was it?” greeted Rick from the sofa.

Agnes flopped down beside her father and gave him a kiss. “Very nice people. A bit intense, as you always feel that they are trying to sell themselves too hard. But that is marketing, right?”

“Don’t expect an answer from me, being owner of a company with marketing and sales problems.”

“Actually, I talked about that with some people, and they came up with some ideas how to advertise your services better.”

“Not tonight; I am beat from the week,” Rick said and yawned.

“Sure, no worries.”

“Tomorrow let’s go through the college brochures and come up with a plan,” Rick proposed. “I’d like to get the process going over summer so that we don’t get into trouble later this year. Prep a trip for West Coast and East Coast colleges.”

Agnes didn’t look too enthusiastic.

“What’s the matter? College anxiety?”

“Not anxiety. More like lack of motivation. I know that you went to college, and Mom, too. But right now I’m having a hard time picking a major that will somehow determine what I will do the rest of my life. Look at yourself. You own a business and are a great boat designer. But what of the stuff you learned at college was actually of help to you achieving your goal?”

Rick looked at Agnes and thought back at his college time. “You are right, I admit it: not much. But I had a great time figuring out what I
didn’t
want.”

“What was your major?”

“Don’t laugh: liberal arts and English,” Rick said. “Don’t ask me anything about art. But during my freshman and sophomore years, I had already scratched off a lot of the stuff that I had sat through. I knew I would never become a scientist. Math was out of the question, although I need a lot of it right now when I do my boat designs. You know, the tonnage and volume calculations. I liked English enough to read a lot of the required stuff and beyond. And economics was also not for me, as I found out. So I selected some sort of lesser evil.”

“And still ended up in Maine to cut trees into boats.”

“Yeah. That’s the thing. I liked sailing, I liked fixing things, I liked to see the result at the end of the workday. That doesn’t happen in many professions, where the fruit of your labor either can’t be seen for years or sits somewhere buried within the layers of a corporate hierarchy. Some may call this a handyman mentality, but that is what I like. Plus, I had Hal to kick my butt to get into business with him.”

“Maybe I’ve inherited this gene? I like to see concrete results.”

“You won’t know in advance, will you?” Rick yawned again. “Go through college and pick topics that sound interesting and see wherever they lead you. You’re temping in marketing this summer, so you’ll get some ideas about advertising, products, clients, and company life. That’s one step. College will give you a lot of insight and further ideas. And most importantly, you’ll have a lot of fun.”