Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (22 page)

But then, a miniature, unnoticeable smile
appeared on his face. Even though the warm, dark howling wind
grasped onto the leaves, blowing them in circular motions, causing
them to create sounds of fright, Damen felt like he was back in
Sugar, and back in the forests that surrounded the small town of
Ridge Crest. That’s why they didn’t use any fake light to guide
their way, such as flashlights, or lighters; the boys were used to
using their own night vision, and the help of the moon’s glowing
self, to guide their bodies to a specific destination.

Suddenly, Damen felt a stiffness to his
bladder, making him forget the thought of his hometown. He walked
over to a pine tree, saying at the same time, “Alright, just five
minutes, and then we start climbing again.”

He began relieving himself. Going to the
bathroom by a tree gave him a feeling of recognition, for some
reason. After all, this was what he always used to do, back in
Ridge Crest, and the thought of it grew a smile on his face. During
his thinking, and recognizing this familiar habit, he noticed some
noise that resembled people talking; the noise came from the
direction that the hill was leading higher toward. He finished his
business and ran back to where Jose and Darell were lying, thinking
that it was the party, his hurrisome self caused a little urine to
settle on his clothes; not that much, but enough to know that he
wet himself. Damen pulled a branch from off his head, being that
the branches hung low and stiff, saying, “I think it’s up that way,
beyond those trees.”

“I don’t see the sign ... I think we’re
lost,” Jose shouted, looking through the darkness for a big sign
that formed the word (Hollywood).

They all became silent, listening to the
sounds that Damen claimed to hear, they started to clean out their
ears with their fingers. Concentration. Silence. Quietness.
Concentrating on the silence, Darell suddenly heard something,
without knowing what it was, it was still a noise that didn’t sound
like it came from nature. So, he put his finger over his mouth and
said, “Wait a second, guys ... Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked Jose, trying desperately
to hear the noise. Some people, if they can’t hear the same noise,
or see the same thing that someone else sees, tend to make
themselves see it, or even hear it, without their senses even
knowing what to search for. “Yeah, I heard it.” Jose’s fake voice
was showing that he didn’t hear anything; Damen and Darell knew he
was lying, so Jose covered up his lie with humor. “Yeah, I
definitely do hear it, it sounds like, like, oh, I know, it sounds
like a U.F.O.” Though his sarcasm was ticking Darell, and even
Damen, off, they both still grinned a little bit but held in their
laughter.

“Yeah, I heard it too, when I was over there
going to the bathroom.” Damen became excited; perceptive that the
noise was relevant to their search, and knowing that Darell heard
the same thing, he knew it had to be the party. His smile, that was
due to him wanting to see Vivian, stretched a mile long, and kept
on running across his face. “Come on, let’s go check it out.”

“Well, I still don’t hear it,” Jose said,
getting up from the ground, aggravated.

“The noise is coming from that direction,
follow me,” Damen said with intense excitement. Darell jumped up
from the ground and began following them, like a lamb following the
herd.

Mr. Schultz’s eyes saw branches and more
branches coming into his view, or the way of his sight, when
suddenly, in the distance, a bright light shot through the foliage,
like a bright U.F.O., landing and shooting out its pulsating rays.
The bright sign then came into focus, reflecting its radiant light
off of its body. Damen shouted, “There it is,” with excitement
hanging off each word.

My, God, Damen, you are actually here, in
front of the Hollywood sign. We made it, Jose, Darell, and I
actually made it...

“Wow, look at all those people,” Darell said,
noticing a crowd of people under the sign. The guys stood there for
a moment, watching this sign that symbolized their dream, ambition,
happiness, and fulfillment. They concentrated on the letters of the
word, spelling out the thing that brought a smile to their faces:
the word that brings a smile to all actors’ minds.

“Hollywood,” spoke Darell with deepness to
his speech.

“Hollywood,” Jose added.

Damen stared at the sign, and spoke the same
word, but in a more, captivated way, “Yeah ... Hollywood...”

They ran over to the sign, where people were
sitting. Not even knowing who anyone was, they didn’t feel
uncomfortable being amongst all these strangers; the sign made this
feeling possible. Humans, that reached the number of seventy, or
even a hundred, stood around the sign and the trees that were close
to this indentation in the mountain, and drank beers, had smiles on
their faces, and talked while making laughter come out of their
speech. Like Indians, sitting around a campfire, but instead,
parading around a sign that could be seen two miles away, this
tribe of young people suddenly stared at these three strangers.

It wasn’t a long stare, but long enough to
make Damen feel eyes on his back, and enough to make him know that
someone was going to break the ice soon.

Okay, people, do you have a staring
problem?

Damen was getting agitated toward the stares,
that is, before they ended. His thoughts were showing anger, and
his eyes were showing a silent yell as he stared back at these
people, making them turn away their own silent stares at this group
of friends. But, luckily, the ice was about to get broken.

A woman came up to them, with laughter in her
tone, and asked, “Are you guys Demean, Darell, and Jose?”

Smelling a little alcohol that lurked on her
breath, Damen noticed the little mistake in pronouncing his name,
and made it known. “Yeah, that’s correct, but it’s ‘Damen,’ not
‘Demean.’” She gave a quick laugh, knowing now of her mistake, this
girl, woman, this attractive piece of work, who was kind enough to
break the hard ice that Damen, Darell and Jose made at this party,
gave out a smile, letting Damen know that she was sorry for the
mispronunciation of his unique but simple name.

As she smiled, Damen knew it was kind of
rude, the way he made her mistake known so quickly, he thought in
his mind, that maybe he should apologize, or say some joke, that
will make her comfortable around her mistake.

She’s drunk, Damen, anyone could make a
mistake on your name. Man, say a joke, or something, you just met
her...

So, Damen hurried up, grabbed this moment of
introduction, and tried to make it right, comfortable. “But, people
call me Demean all the time, if you want to, that’s fine.”

Jose and Darell started laughing, being that
the way Damen was kissing her ass, the suction could be heard miles
around. Luckily her drunken mind didn’t hear his last words.
Punching Jose and Darell for laughing, Damen made it discreet so
this girl wouldn’t see or ask why he was hitting them.

“Why don’t you just kiss everyone’s ass?”
asked Jose, before Damen punched him in the chest, lightly of
course, but enough to stop his laughing.

“So, anyway, um, how do you know our names?”
questioned Damen in a voice of confusion, mixed with
nervousness.

“Vivian told me. She said she’s sorry, but
she can’t make it,” the girl replied. Jose and Darell looked around
the party, seeing that it resembled a miniature village to their
eyes, while Damen looked at this girl, with a smile upon his mouth.
“I’m her roommate, my name’s Helen,” she added, shaking hands with
him, while Jose and Darell still looked at the other people. They
suddenly turned to Helen, and shook her hand, Damen still keeping a
smile toward her, and everyone started to feel more
comfortable.

“So, her name is Vivian?” asked Damen,
following her over to where the party stood. Jose and Darell ambled
behind them, feeling out of place that Damen had something in
common with her, and they didn’t.

“You must be ‘Damen,’” Helen said with a
giggle.

“Yes, how did you know?” After his question,
they all began to lean against a tree the size of a large sewer
pipe.

“Vivian never tells the guys she likes her
name,” Helen replied. She picked up a beer from a small cooler and
gave it to Damen; Jose and Darell stared at him with jealousy. “You
could say that’s her signature.”

Damen grinned, took a sip of his beer, felt
the ice-cold water drip down his right hand, allowing him to put
the can down for a moment. He then spoke, “Why can’t she make
it?”

“Because, she’s working late tonight. But she
said to call her... Here, this is her number.” She handed him a
piece of paper, folded up to make a triangle. “You know how agents
are, they need their secretaries.”

“Cool. Ah, so what do you guys do up here? Do
you just get drunk?” Damen took out a beer from the cooler and
handed it to Jose. “Or, do you do some sort of devil, cultlike
worshipping that Vivian chose us to be a part of?”

Laughing at his remark, Helen answered in a
quiet, subtle fashion, “You’ll see.”

Darell couldn’t take it anymore. Seeing
everyone, including Jose and Damen, with a beer, caused his hands
to reach into the cooler and pull one out himself. “Do you mind?”
He looked at Helen, hoping that she’d say no.

“Not at all. Are you Jose or Darell?” Darell
took a sip of his beer, smiled toward her question, and knew he got
in the conversation. That was one thing about Darell, he knew
people. Just as Damen was good at his flirting, humor, and
good-looks, or Jose was good at smooth talking, and his boyish
smile, Darell was great, a perfectionist, at finding one thing that
he could cause a person, a stranger, to look at him, and say
something. Plus, Darell was a little bit interested in Helen’s
beauty, the way her long, black hair hung, and her stunning, almond
eyes twinkled in the moonlight; he made sure to move a little bit
closer to her, and give all his attention to her question.

“I’m Darell. Pleased to meet you.” He stared
into her beautiful eyes, like staring at an angel, and grinned
toward her, allowing her to know he had some interest in her
character, as well as her looks.

Jose saw that Damen already got in the
conversation and Darell slid in on his own, so now he had to get
in, in order to look like he wasn’t left out. But, because he was a
little upset and jealous toward his friends talking to Helen, and
him staying silent, Jose opened his mouth and accidentally asked in
a rude way, “What do you guys do here? Do you just drink beer?”

“No, you’ll see,” Helen replied, getting out
a pile of papers from her book bag at the same time. “Here, take
one.”

She handed them a script, a little bit bent,
with old beer stains on its frame, but still it was recognizable as
being some pattern of a screenplay. Helen handed one out to
everyone who was there, passing it around to each person, this
script being made up of thirty pages, it was noticeable as being
part of a play. After she dispersed all the scripts into everyone’s
hand, Helen walked away from them, climbed on top of a big boulder
that was in the center of the crowd, and stood there like a leader,
leading the herd of worshippers into salvation; it was like she was
getting ready to begin preaching to them. She announced, yelling it
to the highest pitch, “Alright, everyone begin ...”

Darell spoke with puzzlement, “Begin
what?”

“Oh ... I’m sorry, I forgot this is your
first time up here. Let me explain it you.” Helen stepped down from
the boulder and walked over to them, grabbing onto Damen’s script
and using it as an example. “Each person reads and acts out a
certain character from the script. The one who does the best acting
wins.”

“Wins what?” Jose asked, finishing up the
last drop of his beer; a little foam splashed onto his face,
dripping down in a shallow rhythm.

“What do you mean? They just win ... we’re
doing this for fun,” Helen replied. “Plus, this is good practice
for theater work. Now, each person has to have a partner. So, get
one,” she added, grabbing Darell by the arm and choosing him to be
her partner. “It’s really fun, especially when you’re plastered,
drunk and stoned, this game can get really interesting
sometimes.”

Jose looked around the crowd and spotted a
girl that was standing alone. Attractiveness stood in his view, a
little on the weighty side, but she still had potential to his
eyes. He walked up to her inconspicuously and asked, “Would you
like to be my partner?”

“Sure,” she replied. Jose opened up the
script to begin practicing, smiling at the same time; he smiled
like a child, getting ready to play dodge-ball. “Hey, I read this
one before.” Practicing down in the Valley sure paid off for them,
and Jose’s assuredness of winning this game, allowed an evil grin
to erect from his smile.

Damen looked around for a partner, but he
couldn’t find anyone. He was lost, tired, he felt bad for Vivian’s
vacancy, so he sat down on a tree stump and stared at the Hollywood
sign.

Suddenly, Helen came up to him and asked, “Do
you need a partner?”

“No, I’m fine. I just don’t feel up to acting
this time, maybe next time.” His voice showed sadness. Helen,
knowing he really did want to play the game he just discovered,
could feel that he was lying.

“Listen, I know I just met you, but I can
sense you’re lying through your teeth.” Helen’s voice, and the way
she put her words, made Damen reveal his teeth through his little
smile. “Are you sure you won’t participate in this little childish
and corny game?”

“Yeah.” That’s when Darell called out for
Helen, allowing Damen to turn away from her and stare back at the
sign.

“Alright, Darell, I’ll be right there,” she
shouted. Damen looked at the ground, taking his eyes off the sign;
he was sad for Vivian’s appearance being absent.