Murder For Revenge

Front Main

“Tell me that again,” I said. “He must have been joking.”

“Mort, you know what it’s like at the networks these days.” My agent sighed. “Cost cutting. Layoffs. Executives so young they think ‘L.A. Law’ is nostalgia. He wasn’t joking. He’s willing to take a meeting with you, but he’s barely seen your work, and he wants a list of your credits.”

“All two hundred and ninety of them? Steve, I like to think I’m not vain, but how can this guy be in charge of series development and not know what I’ve written?”

This conversation was on the phone. Midweek, mid-afternoon. I’d been revising computer printouts of what I’d written in the morning, but frustration at what Steve had told me made me press my pencil down so hard I broke its tip. Standing from my desk, I clutched the phone tighter.

Steve hesitated before he replied. “No argument. You and I know how much you contributed to television. You and Rod Serling and Paddy Chayefsky practically invented TV drama. But that was then. This executive just started his job three months ago. He’s only twenty-eight, for Christ’s sake. He’s been clawing his way to network power since he graduated from business school. He doesn’t actually watch television. He’s too damned busy to watch it, except for current in-house projects. What he does is program, check the ratings, and read the trades. If you’d won your Emmys for something this season, he might be impressed. But ‘The Sidewalks of New York!’That’s something they show on Nickelodeon cable reruns, a company he doesn’t work for, so what does he care?”

I stared out my study window. From my home on top of the Hollywood Hills, I had a view of rushing traffic on smoggy Sunset Boulevard, of Spago, Tower Records, and Chateau Marmont. But at the moment, I saw none of them, indignation blinding me.

“Steve, am I nuts, or are the scripts I sent you good?”

“Don’t put yourself down. They’re better than good. They don’t only grab me. They’re fucking smart. I believe them, and I can’t say that for…” He named a current hit series about a female detective that made him a fortune in commissions but was two-thirds tits and ass and one-third car chases.

“So what’s the real problem?” I asked, unable to suppress the stridency in my voice. “Why can’t I get any work?”

“The truth?”

“Since when did I tolerate lies?”

“You won’t get pissed off?”

“I will get pissed off if-“

“All right already. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how well you write. The fact is, you’re too old. The networks think you’re out of touch with their demographics.”

“Out of-“

“You promised you wouldn’t get pissed off.”

“But after I shifted from television, I won an Oscar for ‘The Dead of Noon.’”

“Twenty years ago. To the networks, that’s like the Dark Ages. You know the axiom-‘What have you done for us lately?’ The fact is, Mort, for the past two years, you’ve been out of town, out of the country, out of the goddamn industry.”

My tear ducts ached. My hurried breathing made me dizzy. “I had a good reason. The most important reason.”

“Absolutely,” Steve said. “In your place, I’d have done the same. And your friends respect that reason. But the movers and shakers, the new regime that doesn’t give a shit about tradition, they think you died or retired, if they give you a moment’s thought at all. Then isn’t now. To them, last week’s ratings are ancient history. What’s next? they want to know. What’s new? they keep asking. What they really mean is, What’s young!”

“That sucks.”

“Of course. But young viewers are loose with their dough, my friend, and advertisers pay the bills. So the bottom line is, the networks feel unless you’re under thirty-five or, better yet, under thirty, you can’t communicate with their target audience. It’s an uphill grind for writers like you, of a certain age, no matter your talent.”

“Swell.” My knuckles ached as I squeezed the phone. “So what do I do? Throw my word processor out the window, and collect on my Writers Guild pension?”

“It’s not as bad as that. But bear in mind, your pension is the highest any Guild member ever accumulated.”

“But if I retire, I’ll die like-“

“No, what I’m saying is be patient with this network kid. He needs a little educating. Politely, you understand. Just pitch your idea, look confident and dependable, show him your credits. He’ll come around. It’s not as if you haven’t been down this path before.”

“When I was in my twenties.”

“There you go. You identify with this kid already. You’re in his mind.”

My voice dropped. “When’s the meeting?”

“Friday. His office. I pulled in some favours to get you in so soon. Four P.M. I’ll be at my house in Malibu. Call me when you’re through.”

“Steve…”

“Yeah, Mort?”

“Thanks for sticking with me.”

“Hey, it’s an honour. To me, you’re a legend.”

“What I need to be is a working legend.”

“I’ve done what I can. Now it’s up to you.”

“Sure.” I set down the phone, discovered I still had my broken pencil in one hand, dropped it, and massaged the aching knuckles of my other hand.

The reason I’d left L.A. two years ago, at the age of sixty-eight, was that my dear wife-

– Doris-

– my best friend-

– my cleverest editor-

– my exclusive lover-

– had been diagnosed as having a rare form of leukaemia.

As her strength had waned, as her body had gradually failed to obey her splendid mind, I’d disrupted my workaholic’s habit of writing every day and acted as her constant attendant. We’d travelled to every major cancer research centre in the United States. We’d gone to specialists in Europe. We’d stayed in Europe because their hospice system is humane about pain-relieving drugs. We’d gotten as far as Sweden.

Where Doris had died.

And now, struggling with grief, I’d returned to my career. What other meaning did I have? It was either kill myself or write. So I wrote. And wrote. Even faster than in my prime, when I’d contributed every episode in the four-year run of ‘The Sidewalks of New York.’

And now a network yuppie bastard with the cultural memory of a four-year-old had asked for my credits. Before I gulped a stiff shot of Scotch, I vowed I’d show this town that this old fuck still had more juice than when I’d first started.

Century City. Every week, you see those monoliths of power behind the credits on this season’s hit lawyer show, but I remembered, bitterly nostalgic, when the land those skyscrapers stood upon had been the back lot for 20^th Century-Fox.

I parked my leased Audi on the second level of an underground ramp and took an elevator to the seventeenth floor of one of the buildings. The network’s reception room was wide and lofty, with lots of leather couches where actors, writers, and producers made hurried phone calls to agents and assistants while they waited to be admitted to the Holy of Holies.

I stopped before a young, attractive woman at a desk. Thin. No bra. Presumably she wanted to be an actress and was biding her time, waiting for the right connections. She finished talking to one of three phones and studied me, her boredom tempered by the fear that, if she wasn’t respectful, she might lose a chance to make an important contact.

I’m not bad looking. Although seventy, I keep in shape. Sure, my hair’s receding. I have wrinkles around my eyes. But my family’s genes are spectacular. I look ten years younger than I am, especially when I’m tanned, as I was after recent daily half-hour laps in my swimming pool.

My voice has the resonance of Ed McMahon. “Mort Davidson to see Arthur Lewis. I’ve got a four o’clock appointment.”

The would-be-actress receptionist scanned a list. “Of course. You’re expected. Unfortunately, Mr. Lewis has been detained. If you’ll please wait over there.” She pointed toward a couch and picked up a Judith Krantz novel. Evidently she’d decided that I couldn’t promote her career.

So I waited.

And waited.

An hour later, the receptionist gestured for me to come over. Miracle of miracles, Arthur Lewis was ready to see me.

He wore an Armani linen suit, fashionably wrinkled. No tie. Gucci loafers. No socks. His skin was the colour of bronze. His thick, curly black hair had a calculated, windblown look. Photographs of his blond wife and infant daughter stood on his glass-topped desk. His wife seemed even younger and thinner than he was. Posters of various current hit series hung on the wall. A tennis racket was propped in a corner.

“It’s an honour to meet you. I’m a fan of everything you’ve done,” he lied.

I made an appropriate humble comment.

His next remark contradicted what he’d just said. “Did you bring a list of your credits?”

I gave him a folder and sat on a leather chair across from him while he flipped through the pages. His expression communicated a mixture of boredom and stoic endurance.

Finally his eyebrows narrowed. “Impressive. I might add, astonishing. Really, it’s hard to imagine anyone writing this much.”

“Well, I’ve been in the business quite a while.”

“Yes. You certainly have.”

I couldn’t tell if he referred to my age or my numerous credits. “There used to be a joke,” I said.

“Oh?” His eyes were expressionless.

“ ‘How can Mort Davidson be so prolific?’ This was back in the early sixties. The answer was ‘He uses an electric typewriter.’”

“Very amusing,” he said as if I’d farted.

“These days, of course, I use a word processor.”

“Of course.” He folded his hands on the desk and sat straighter. “So. Your agent said you had an idea that might appeal to us^”

“That’s right.”

The phone rang.

“Excuse me a moment.” He picked up the phone. Obviously, if he’d been genuinely interested in my pitch, he’d have instructed his secretary that he didn’t want any calls.

An actor named Sid was important enough for Arthur Lewis to gush with compliments. And by all means, Sid shouldn’t worry about the rewrites that would make his character more ‘with it’ in today’s generation. The writer in charge of the project was under orders to deliver the changes by Monday morning. If he didn’t, that writer would never again work on something called ‘The Good-time Guys’. Sid was a helluva talent, Arthur Lewis assured him. Next week’s episode would get a 35 ratings share at least. Arthur chuckled at a joke, set down the phone, and narrowed his eyebrows again. “So your idea that you think we might like.” He glanced at his Rolex.

“It’s about an at-risk youth centre, a place where troubled kids can go and get away from their screwed-up families, the gangs, and the drug dealers on the streets. There’s a centre in the Valley that I see as our model-an old Victorian house that has several additions. Each week, we’d deal with a special problem-teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, runaways-but mostly this would be a series about emotions, about people, the kids, but also the staff, a wide range of interesting, committed professionals, an elderly administrator, a female social worker, a Hispanic who used to be in the gangs, a priest, whatever mix works. I call it-“

The phone rang again.

“Just a second,” Arthur Lewis said.

Another grin. A producer this time. A series about a college sorority next to a fraternity, ‘Crazy 4 U’, had just become this season’s new hit. Arthur Lewis was giving its cast and executives a party at Le Dome tomorrow evening. Yes, he guaranteed. Ten cases of Dom Pérignon would arrive at the producer’s home before the party. And beluga caviar? Enough for an after-party power party? No problem. And yes, Arthur Lewis was having the same frustrations as the producer. It was mighty damned hard to find a preschool for gifted children.

He set down the phone. His face turned to stone. “So that’s your idea?”

“Drama, significance, emotion, action, and realism.”

“But what’s the hook?”

I shook my head in astonishment.

“Why would anyone want to watch it?” Arthur Lewis asked.

“To feel what it’s like to help kids in trouble, to understand those kids.”

“Didn’t you have a stroke a while ago?”

“What?”

“I believe in honesty, so I’ll be direct. You put in your time. You paid your dues. So why don’t you back away gracefully?”

“I didn’t have a stroke.”

“Then why did I hear-?”

“My wife had cancer. She died…” I caught my breath. “Six months ago.”

“I see. I’m sorry. I mean that sincerely. But television isn’t the same as when you created”-he checked my list of crests-“‘The Sidewalks of New York.’ A definite classic. One of my absolute personal favourites. But times have changed. The industry’s a lot more competitive. The pressure’s unbelievable. A series creator has to act as one of the producers, to oversee the product, to guarantee consistency. I’m talking thirteen hours a day minimum, and ideally the creator ought to contribute something to every script.”

“That’s what I did on ‘The Sidewalks of New York’.”

“Oh?” Arthur Lewis looked blank. “I guess I didn’t notice that in your credits.” He straightened. “But my point’s the same. Television’s a pressure cooker. A game for people with energy.”

“Did I need a wheelchair when I came in here?”

“You’ve lost me.”

“Energy’s not my problem. I’m full to bursting with the need to work. What matters is, What do you think of my idea?”

“It’s-“

The phone rang.

Arthur Lewis looked relieved. “Let me get back to you.”

“Of course. I know you’re busy. Thanks for your time.”

“Hey, anytime. I’m always here and ready for new ideas.” Again he checked his Rolex.

The phone kept ringing.

“Take care,” he said.

“You too.”

I took my list of credits off his desk.

The last thing I heard when I left was “No, that old fuck’s wrong for the part. He’s losing his hair. A wig? Get real. The audience can tell the difference. For God’s sake, a hairpiece is death in the ratings.”

Steve had said to phone him when the meeting was over. But I felt so upset I decided to hell with phoning him and drove up the Pacific Coast Highway toward his place in Malibu. Traffic was terrible-rush hour, Friday evening. For once, though, it had an advantage. After an hour, my anger began to abate enough for me to realise that I wouldn’t accomplish much by showing up unexpectedly in a fit at Steve’s. He’d been loyal. He didn’t need my aggravation. As he’d told me, “I’ve done what I can. Now it’s up to you.” But there wasn’t much I could do if my age and not my talent was how I was judged. Certainly that wasn’t Steve’s fault.

So I stopped at something called the Pacific Coast Diner and took the advice of a bumper sticker on a car I’d been stuck behind-CHILL OUT. Maybe a few drinks and a meditative dinner would calm me down. The restaurant had umbrella-topped tables on a balcony that looked toward the ocean. I had to wait a half hour, but a Scotch and soda made the time go quickly, and the crimson reflection of the setting sun on the ocean was spectacular.

Or would have been if I’d been paying attention. The truth was, I couldn’t stop being upset. I had another Scotch and soda, ordered poached salmon, tried to enjoy my meal, and suddenly couldn’t swallow, suddenly felt about as lonely as I’d felt since Doris had died. Maybe the network executives are right, I thought.

Maybe I am too old. Maybe I don’t know how to relate to a young audience. Maybe it’s time I packed it in.

“Mort Davidson,” a voice said.

“Excuse me?” I blinked, distracted from my thoughts.

My waiter was holding the credit card I’d given him. “Mort Davidson.” He looked at the name on the card, then at me. “The screenwriter?”

I spared him a bitter “Used to be” and nodded with what I hoped was a pleasant manner.

“Wow.” He was tall and thin with sandy hair and a glowing tan. His blue eyes glinted. He had the sort of chiselled, handsome face that made me think he was yet another would-be actor. He looked to be about twenty-three. “When I saw your name, I thought, ‘No, it couldn’t be. Who knows how many Mort Davidsons there are? The odds against this being…’ But it is you. The screenwriter.”

“Guilty,” I managed to joke.

“I bet I’ve seen everything you ever wrote. I must have watched ‘The Dead of Noon’ twenty-five times. I really learned a lot.”

“Oh?” I was puzzled. What would my screenplay have taught him about acting?

“About structure. About pace. About not being afraid to let the characters talk. That’s what’s wrong with movies today. The characters don’t have anything important to say.”

At once it hit me. He wasn’t a would-be actor.

“I’m a writer,” he said. “Or trying to be. I mean, I’ve still got a lot to learn. That I’m working here proves what I mean.” The glint went out of his eyes. “I still haven’t sold anything.” His enthusiasm was forced. “But, hey, nothing important is easy. I’ll just keep writing until I crack the market. The boss is… I’d better not keep chattering at you. He doesn’t like it. For sure, you’ve got better things to do than listen to me. I just wanted to say how much I like your work, Mr. Davidson. I’ll bring your credit card right back. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

As he left, it struck me that the speed with which he talked suggested not only energy but insecurity. For all his good looks, he felt like a loser.

Or maybe I was just transferring my own emotions onto him. This much was definite-getting a compliment was a hell of a lot better than a sharp stick in the eye or the meeting I’d endured.

When he came back with my credit card, I signed the bill and gave him a generous tip.

“Thanks, Mr. Davidson.”

“Hang in there. You’ve got one important thing on your side.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re young. You’ve got plenty of time to make it.”

“Unless…”

I wondered what he meant.

“Unless I don’t have what it takes.”

“Well, the best advice I can give you is never doubt yourself.”

As I left the restaurant and passed beneath hissing arc lamps toward my car, I couldn’t ignore the irony. The waiter had youth but doubted his ability. I had confidence in my ability but was penalised because of my age. Despite the roar of traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway, I heard waves on the beach.

And that’s when the notion came to me. A practical joke of sorts, like stories you hear about frustrated writers submitting Oscar-winning screenplays, ‘Casablanca’, for example, but the writers change the tide and the characters’ names. The notes they get back from producers as much as say that the screenplays are the lousiest junk the producers ever read. So then the writers tell the trade papers what they’ve done, the point being that they’re trying to prove it doesn’t matter how good a writer you are if you don’t have connections.

Why not? I thought. It would be worth seeing the look on those bastards’ faces.

“What’s your name?”

“Ric Potter.”

“Short for Richard?”

“No. For Eric.”

I nodded. Breaking-the-ice conversation. “The reason I came back is I have something I want to discuss with you, a way that might help your career.”

His eyes brightened.

At once, they darkened, as if he thought I might be trying to pick him up.

“Strictly business,” I said. “Here’s my card. If you want to talk about writing and how to make some money, give me a call.”

His suspicion persisted, but his curiosity was stronger. “What time?”

“Eleven tomorrow?”

“Fine.”

“Come over. Bring some of your scripts.”

That was important. I had to find out if he could write or if he was fooling himself. My scheme wouldn’t work unless he had a basic feel for the business. So the next morning, when he arrived exactly on time at my home in the hills above West Hollywood, we swapped: I let him see a script I’d just finished while I sat by the pool and read one of his. I finished around one o’clock. “Hungry?”

“Starved. Your script is wonderful,” Ric said. “I can’t get over the pace. The sense of reality. It didn’t feel like a story.”

“Thanks.” I took some tuna salad and Perrier from the refrigerator. “Whole-wheat bread and kosher dills okay? Or maybe you’d rather go to a restaurant.”

“After working in one every night?” Ric laughed.

But I could tell that he was marking time, that he was frustrated and anxious to know what I thought of his script. I remembered how I had felt at his age, the insecurity when someone important was reading my work. I got to the point.

“I like your story,” I said.

He exhaled.

“But I don’t think it’s executed properly.”

His cheek muscles tensed.

“Given what they’re paying A-list actors these days, you have to get the main character on screen as quickly as possible. Your main character doesn’t show up until page fifteen.”

He sounded embarrassed. “I couldn’t figure out a way to-“

“And the romantic element is so familiar it’s tiresome. A shower scene comes from a washed-up imagination.”

That was tough, I knew, but I waited to see how he’d take it. If he turned out to be the sensitive type, I wasn’t going to get anywhere.

“Yeah. Okay. Maybe I did rely on a lot of other movies I’d seen.”

His response encouraged me. “The humorous elements don’t work. I don’t think comedy is your thing.”

He squinted.

“The ending has no focus,” I continued. “Was your main character right or not? Simply leaving the dilemma up in the air is going to piss off your audience.”

He studied me. “You said you liked the story.”

“Right. I did.”

“Then why do I feel like I’m on the Titanic?”

“Because you’ve got a lot of craft to learn, and it’s going to take you quite a while to master it. If you ever do. There aren’t any guarantees. The average Guild member earns less than six thousand dollars a year. Writing screenplays is one of the most competitive enterprises in the world. But I think I can help you.”

“…Why?”

“Excuse me?”

“We met just last night. I was your waiter, for God’s sake. Now suddenly I’m in your house, having lunch with you, and you’re saying you want to help me. It can’t be because of the force of my personality. You want something.”

“Yes, but not what you’re thinking. I told you last night-this is strictly business. Sit down and eat while I tell you how we can both make some money.”

“This is Ric Potter,” I said. We were at a reception in one of those mansions in the hills near the Hollywood Bowl. Sunset. A string quartet. Champagne. Plenty of movers and shakers. “Fox is very hot on one of his scripts. I think it’ll go for a million.”

The man to whom I’d introduced Ric was an executive at Warners. He couldn’t have been over thirty. “Oh?”

“Yeah, it’s got a youth angle.”

“Oh?” The executive looked Ric up and down, confused, never having heard of him, at the same time worried because he didn’t want to be out of the loop, fearing he ought to have heard of him.

“If I sound a little proud,” I said, “it’s because I discovered him. I found him last May when I was giving a talk to a young screenwriters’ workshop at the American Film Institute. Ric convinced me to look at some things and… I’m glad I did. My agent’s glad I did.” I chuckled.

The executive tried to look amused, although he hated like hell to pay writers significant money. For his part, Ric tried to look modest but unbelievably talented, young, young, young, and hot, hot, hot.

“Well, don’t let Fox tie you up,” the executive told Ric. “Have your agent send me something.”

“I’ll do that, Mr. Ballard. Thanks,” Ric said.

“Do I look old enough to be a ‘mister’? Call me Ed.”

We made the rounds. While all the executives considered me too old to be relevant to their sixteen-to-twenty-five audience, they still had reverence for what they thought of as an institution. Sure, they wouldn’t buy anything from me, but they were more than happy to talk to me. After all, it didn’t cost them any money, and it made them feel like they were part of a community.

By the time I was through introducing Ric, my rumours about him had been accepted as fact. Various executives from various studios considered themselves in competition with executives from other studios for the services of this hot new young writer who was getting a million dollars a script.

Ric had driven with me to the reception. On the way back, he kept shaking his head in amazement. “And that’s the secret? I just needed the right guy to give me introductions? To be anointed as a successor?”

“Not quite. Don’t let their chumminess fool you. They only care if you can deliver.”

“Well, tomorrow I’ll send them one of my scripts.”

“No,” I said. “Remember our agreement. Not one of your scripts. One of mine. By Eric Potter.”

So there it was. The deal Ric and I had made was that I’d give him ten percent of whatever my scripts earned in exchange for his being my front man. For his part, he’d have to take calls and go to meetings and behave as if he’d actually written the scripts. Along the way, we’d inevitably talk about the intent and technique of the scripts, thus providing Ric with writing lessons. All in all, not a bad deal for him.

Except that he had insisted on fifteen percent.

“Hey, I can’t go to meetings if I’m working three to eleven at the restaurant,” he’d said. “Fifteen percent. And I’ll need an advance. You’ll have to pay me what I’m earning at the restaurant so I can be free for the meetings.”

I wrote him a check for a thousand dollars.

The phone rang, interrupting the climactic speech of the script I was writing. Instead of picking up the receiver, I let my answering machine take it, but I answered anyhow when I heard my agent talking about Ric.

“What about him, Steve?”

“Ballard over at Warners likes the script you had me send him. He wants a few changes, but basically he’s happy enough to offer seven hundred and fifty thousand.”

“Ask for a million.”

“I’ll ask for nothing.”

“I don’t understand. Is this a new negotiating tactic?”

“You told me not to bother reading the script, just to do the kid a favour and send it over to Warners because Ballard asked for it. As you pointed out, I’m too busy to do any reading anyhow. But I made a copy of the script, and for the hell of it, last night I looked it over. Mort, what are you trying to pull? Ric Potter didn’t write that script. You did. Under a different title, you showed it to me a year ago.”

I didn’t respond.

“Mort?”

“I’m making a point. The only thing wrong with my scripts is an industry bias against age. Pretend somebody young wrote them, and all of a sudden they’re wonderful.”

“Mort, I won’t be a part of this.”

“Why not?”

“It’s misrepresentation. I’d be jeopardising my credibility as an agent. You know how the clause in the contract reads-the writer guarantees that the script is solely his or her own work. If somebody else was involved, the studio wants to know about it-to protect itself against a plagiarism suit.”

“But if you tell Ballard I wrote that script, he won’t buy it.”

“You’re being paranoid, Mort.”

“Facing facts and being practical. Don’t screw this up.”

“I told you, I won’t go along with it.”

“Then if you won’t make the deal, I’ll get somebody else who will.”

A long pause. “Do you know what you’re saying?”

“Ric Potter and I need a new agent.”

I’ll say this for Steve-even though he was furious about my leaving him, he finally swore, for old times’ sake, at my insistence, that he wouldn’t tell anybody what I was doing. He was loyal to the end. It broke my heart to leave him. The new agent I selected knew squat about the arrangement I had with Ric. She believed what I told her-that Ric and I were friends and by coincidence we’d decided simultaneously to get new representation. I could have chosen one of those superhuge agencies like CAA, but I’ve always been uncomfortable when I’m part of a mob and, in this case especially, it seemed to me that small and intimate were essential. The fewer people who knew my business, the better.

The Linda Carpenter Agency was located in a stone cottage just past the gates to the old Hollywoodland subdivision. Years ago, the ‘land’ part of that subdivision’s sign collapsed. The ‘Hollywood’ part remained, and you see that sign all the time in film clips about Los Angeles. It’s a distance up past houses in the hills. Nonetheless, from outside Linda Carpenter’s stone cottage, you feel that the sign’s looming over you.

I parked my Audi and got out with Ric. He was wearing sneakers, jeans, and a blue cotton pullover. At my insistence. I wanted his outfit to be self-consciously informal and youthful in contrast with my own mature, conservative slacks and sport coat. When we entered the office, Linda-who’s thirty, with short red hair, and loves to look at gorgeous young men-sat straighter when I introduced Ric. His biceps bulged at the sleeves of his pullover. I was reminded again of how much-with his sandy hair, blue eyes, and glowing tan-he looked like an actor.

Linda took a moment before she reluctantly shifted her attention away from him, as if suddenly realising that I was in the room. “Good to see you again, Mort. But you didn’t have to come all this way. I could have met you for lunch at Le Dome.”

“A courtesy visit. I wanted to save you the long drive, not to mention the bill.”

I said it as if I was joking. The rule is that agents always pick up the check when they’re at a restaurant with clients.

Linda’s smile was winning. Her red hair seemed brighter. “Anytime. I’m still surprised that you left Steve.” She tactfully didn’t ask what the problem had been. “I promise I’ll work hard for you.”

“I know you will,” I said. “But I don’t think you’ll have to work hard for my friend here. Ric already has some interest in a script of his over at Warners.”

“Oh?” Linda raised her elegant eyebrows. “Who’s the executive?”

“Ballard.”

“My, my.” She frowned slightly. “And Steve isn’t involved in this? Your ties are completely severed?”

“Completely. If you want, call him to make sure.” “That won’t be necessary.”

But I found out later that Linda did phone Steve, and he backed up what I’d said. Also he refused to discuss why we’d separated.

“I have a hunch the script can go for big dollars,” I continued.

“How big is big?”

“A million.”

Linda’s eyes widened. “That certainly isn’t small.”

“Ballard heard there’s a buzz about Ric. Ballard thinks that Ric might be a young Joe Eszterhas.” The reference was to the screenwriter of ‘Basic Instinct’, who had become a phenomenon for writing sensation-based scripts on speculation and intriguing so many producers that he’d manipulated them into a bidding war and collected megabucks. “I have a suspicion that Ballard would like to make a preemptive bid and shut out the competition.” “Mort, you sound more like an agent than a writer.”

“It’s just a hunch.”

“And Steve doesn’t want a piece of this?”

I shook my head no.

Linda frowned harder.

But her frown dissolved the moment she turned again toward Ric and took another look at his perfect chin. “Did you bring a copy of the script?”

“Sure.” Ric grinned with becoming modesty, the way I’d taught him. “Right here.”

Linda took it and flipped to the end to make sure it wasn’t longer than 115 pages-a shootable size. “What’s it about?”

Ric gave the pitch that I’d taught him-the high concept first, then the target audience, the type of actor he had in mind, and ways the budget could be kept in check. The same as when we’d clocked it at my house, he took four minutes.

Linda listened with growing fascination. She turned to me. “Have you been coaching him?”

“Not much. Ric’s a natural.”

“He must be to act this polished.”

“And he’s young,” I said.

“You don’t need to remind me.”

“And Ballard certainly doesn’t need reminding,” I said.

“Ric,” Linda said, “from here on in, whatever you do, don’t get writer’s block. I’m going to make you the highest paid new kid in town.”

Ric beamed.

“And, Mort,” Linda said, “I think you’re awfully generous to help your friend through the ropes like this.”

“Well”-I shrugged-“isn’t that what friends are for?”

I had joked with Linda that our trip to her office was a courtesy visit-to save her a long drive and the cost of buying us lunch at an expensive restaurant. That was partly true. But I also wanted to see how Ric made his pitch about the script. If he got nerves and screwed up, I didn’t want it to be in Le Dome, where producers at neighbouring tables might see him get flustered. We were trying out the show on the road, so to speak, before we brought it to town. And I had to agree with Linda-Ric had done just fine.

I told him so, as we drove along Sunset Boulevard. “I won’t always be there to back you up. In fact, it’ll be rare that I am. We have to keep training you so you give the impression there’s very little about writing or the business you don’t understand. Most of getting along with studio executives is making them have confidence in you.”

“You really think I impressed her?”

“It was obvious.”

Ric thought about it, peering out the window, nodding. “Yeah.”

So we went back to my home in the hills above West Hollywood, and I ran him through more variations of questions he might get asked-where he’d gotten the idea, what actors would be good in the roles, who he thought could direct the material, that sort of thing. At the start of a project, producers pay a lot of attention to a screenwriter, and they promise to keep consulting him the way they’re consulting him now. It’s all guff, of course. As soon as a director and a name actor are attached to a project, the producers suddenly get amnesia about the original screenwriter. But at the start, he’s king, and I wanted Ric to be ready to answer any kind of question about the screenplay so he could be convincing that he’d actually written it.

Ric was a fast study. At eight, when I couldn’t think of any more questions he might have to answer, we took a drive to dinner at a fish place near the Santa Monica pier. Afterward, we strolled to the end of the pier and watched the sunset.

“So this is what it’s all about,” Ric said.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“The action. I can feel the action.”

“Don’t get fooled by Linda’s optimism. Nothing might come of this.”

Ric shook his head. “I’m close.”

“I’ve got some pages I want to do tomorrow, but if you’ll come around at four with your own new pages, I’ll go over them for you. I’m curious to see how you’re revising that script you showed me.”

Ric kept staring out at the sunset and didn’t answer for quite a while. “Yeah, my script.”

As things turned out, I didn’t get much work done the next day. I had just managed to solve a problem in a scene that was running too long when my phone rang. That was around ten o’clock, and rather than be interrupted, I let my answering machine take it. But when I heard Ric’s excited voice, I picked up the phone.

“Slow down,” I said. “Take it easy. What are you so worked up about?”

“They want the script!”

I wasn’t prepared. “Warners?”

“Can you believe that this is happening so fast?”

“Ballard’s actually taking it? How did you find this out?”

“Linda just phoned me!”

“Linda?” I frowned. “But why didn’t Linda…?” I was about to say, “Why didn’t Linda phone me?” Then I realised my mistake. There wasn’t any reason for Linda to phone me, except maybe to tell me the good news about my friend. But she definitely had to phone Ric. After all, he was supposedly the author of the screenplay.

Ric kept talking excitedly. “Linda says Ballard wants to have lunch with me.”

“Great.” The truth is, I was vaguely jealous. “When?”

“Today.”

I was stunned. Any executive with power was always booked several weeks in advance. For Ballard to decide to have lunch with Ric this soon, he would have had to cancel lunch with someone else. It definitely wouldn’t have been the other way around. No one cancels lunch with Ballard.

“Amazing,” I said.

“Apparently he’s got big plans for me. By the way, he likes the script as is. No changes. At least, for now. Linda says when they sign a director, the director always asks for changes.”

“Linda’s right,” I said. “And then the director’ll insist that the changes aren’t good enough and ask to bring in a friend to do the rewrite.”

“No fucking way,” Ric said.

“A screenwriter doesn’t have any clout against a director. You’ve still got a lot to learn about industry politics. School isn’t finished yet.”

“Sure.” Ric hurried on. “Linda got Ballard up to a million and a quarter for the script!”

For a moment, I had trouble breathing. “Great.” And this time I meant it.

Ric phoned again in thirty minutes. He was nervous about the meeting and needed reassurance.

Ric phoned thirty minutes after that, saying that he didn’t feel comfortable going to a power lunch in the sneakers, jeans, and pullover that I had told him were necessary for the role he was playing.

“You have to,” I said. “You’ve got to look like you don’t belong to the Establishment or whatever the hell it is they call it these days. If you look like every other writer trying to make an impression, Ballard will treat you like every other writer. We’re selling nonconformity. We’re selling youth.”

“I still say I’d feel more comfortable in a jacket by…” Ric mentioned the name of the latest trendy designer.

“Even assuming that’s a good idea, which it isn’t, how on earth are you going to pay for it? A jacket by that designer costs fifteen hundred dollars.”

“I’ll use my credit card,” Ric said.

“But a month from now, you’ll still have to pay the bill. You know the whopping interest rates those credit card companies charge.”

“Hey, I can afford it. I just made a million and a quarter bucks.”

“No, Ric. You’re getting confused.”

“All right, I know Linda has to take her ten percent commission.”

“You’re still confused. You don’t get the bulk of that money. I do. What you get is fifteen percent of it.”

“That’s still a lot of cash. Almost two hundred thousand dollars.”

“But remember, you probably won’t get it for at least six months.”

“What?”

“On a spec script, they don’t simply agree to buy it and hand you a check. The fine points on the negotiation have to be completed. Then the contracts have to be drawn up and reviewed and amended. Then their business office drags its feet, issuing the check. I once waited a year to get paid for a spec script.”

“But I can’t wait that long. I’ve got…”

“Yes?”

“Responsibilities. Look, Mort, I have to go. I need to get ready for this meeting.”

“And I need to get back to my pages.”

“With all this excitement, you mean you’re actually writing today?”

“Every day.”

“No shit.”

But I was too preoccupied to get much work done. Ric finally phoned around five. “Lunch was fabulous.” I hadn’t expected to feel so relieved. “Ballard didn’t ask you any tricky questions? He’s still convinced you wrote the script?”

“Not only that. He says I’m just the talent he’s been looking for. A fresh imagination. Someone in tune with today’s generation. He asked me to do a last-minute rewrite on an action picture he’s starting next week.”

“‘The Warlords?’”

“That’s the one.”

“I’ve been hearing bad things about it,” I said.

“Well, you won’t hear anything bad anymore.”

“Wait a… Are you telling me you accepted the job?”

“Damned right.”

“Without talking to me about it first?” I straightened in shock. “What in God’s name did you think you were doing?”

“Why would I need to talk to you? You’re not my agent. Ballard called Linda from our table at the restaurant. The two of them settled the deal while I was sitting there. Man, when things happen, they happen. All those years of trying, and now, Wham, Pow, all of a sudden I’m there. And the best part is, since I’m a writer for hire on this job, they have to pay some of the money the minute I sit down to work, even if the contracts aren’t ready.”

“That’s correct,” I said. “On work for hire, you have to get paid on a schedule. The Writers Guild insists on that. You’re learning fast. But, Ric, before you accepted the job, don’t you think it would have been smart to read the script first-to see if it can be fixed?”

“How bad can it be?” Ric chuckled.

“You’d be surprised.”

“It doesn’t matter how bad. The fee’s a hundred thousand dollars. I need the money.”

“For what? You don’t live expensively. You can afford to be patient and take jobs that build a career.”

“Hey, I’ll tell you what I can afford. Are you using that portable phone in your office?”

“Yes. But I don’t see why that matters.”

“Take a look out your front window.”

Frowning, I left my office, went through the TV room and the living room, and peered past the blossoming rhododendron outside my front window. I scanned the curving driveway, then focused on the gate.

Ric was wearing a designer linen jacket, sitting in a red Ferrari, using a car phone, waving to me when he saw me at the window. “Like it?” he asked over the phone.

“For God’s sake.” I broke the connection, set down the phone, and stalked out the front door.

“Like it?” Ric repeated when I reached the gate. He gestured toward his jacket and the car.

“You didn’t have time to… Where’d you get…?”

“This morning, after Linda phoned about the offer from Ballard, I ordered the car over the phone. Picked it up after my meeting with Ballard. Nifty, huh?”

“But you don’t have any assets. You mean they just let you drive the car off the lot?”

“Bought it on credit. I made Linda sign as the guarantor.”

“You made Linda…” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Damn it, Ric, why don’t you let me finish coaching you before you run off and… After I taught you about screenplay technique and industry politics, I wanted to explain to you how to handle your money.”

“Hey, what’s to teach? Money’s for spending.”

“Not in this business. You’ve got to put something away for when you have bad years.”

“Well, I’m certainly not having any trouble earning money so far.”

“What happened today is a fluke! This is the first script I’ve sold in longer than I care to think about. There aren’t any guarantees.”

“Then it’s a good thing I came along, huh?” Ric grinned.

“Before you accepted the rewrite job, you should have asked me if I wanted to do it.”

“But you’re not involved in this. Why should I divide the money with you? I’m going to do it.”

“In that case, you should have asked yourself another question.”

“What?”

“Whether you’ve got the ability to do it.”

Ric flushed with anger. “Of course, I’ve got the ability. You’ve read my stuff. All I needed was a break.”

I didn’t hear from Ric for three days. That was fine by me. I’d accomplished what I’d intended. I’d proven that a script with my name on it had less chance of being bought than the same script with a youngster’s name on it. And to tell the truth, Ric’s lack of discipline was annoying me. But after the third day, I confess I got curious. What was he up to?

He called at nine in the evening. “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” I said. “I had a good day’s work.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m calling about. Work.”

“Oh?”

“I haven’t been in touch lately because of this rewrite on ‘The Warlords.’”

I waited.

“I had a meeting with the director,” Ric said. “Then I had a meeting with the star.” He mentioned the name of the biggest action hero in the business. He hesitated. “I was wondering. Would you look at the material I’ve got?”

“You can’t be serious. After the way you talked to me about it? You all but told me to get lost.”

“I didn’t mean to be rude. Honestly. This is all new to me, Mort. Come on, give me a break. As you keep reminding me, I don’t have the experience you do. I’m young.”

I had to hand it to him. He’d not only apologised. He’d used the right excuse.

“Mort?”

At first I didn’t want to be bothered. I had my own work to think about, and ‘The Warlords’ would probably be so bad that it would contaminate my mind.

But then my curiosity got the better of me. I couldn’t help wondering what Ric would do to improve junk.

“Mort?”

“When do you want me to look at what you’ve done?”

“How about right now?”

“Now? It’s after nine. It’ll take you an hour to get here and-“

“I’m already here.”

“What?”

“I’m on my car phone. Outside your gate again.”

Ric sat across from me in my living room. I couldn’t help noticing that his tan was darker, that he was wearing a different designer jacket, a more expensive one. Then I glanced at the tide page on the script he’d handed me.

‘THE WARLORDS – Revisions by Eric Potter’

I flipped through the pages. All of them were typed on white paper. That bothered me. Ric’s inexperience was showing again. On last-minute rewrites, it’s always helpful to submit changed pages on different-coloured paper. That way, the producer and director can save time and not have to read the entire script to find the changes.

“These are the notes the director gave me,” Ric said. He handed me some crudely typed pages. “And these”-Ric handed me pages with scribbling on them-“are what the star gave me. It’s a little hard to decipher them.”

“More than a little. Jesus.” I squinted at the scribbling and got a headache. “I’d better put on my glasses.” They helped a little. I read what the director wanted. I switched to what the star wanted.

“These are the notes the producer gave me,” Ric said.

I thanked God that they were neatly typed and studied them as well. Finally I leaned back and took off my glasses.

“Well?”

I sighed. “Typical. As near as I can tell, these three people are each talking about a different movie. The director wants more action and less characterisation. The star has decided to be serious-he wants more characterisation and less action. The producer wants it funny and less expensive. If they’re not careful, this movie will have multiple personalities.”

Ric looked at me anxiously.

“Okay,” I said, feeling tired. “Get a beer from the refrigerator and watch television or something while I go through this. It would help if I knew where you’d made changes. Next time you’re in a situation like this, identify your work with coloured paper.”

Ric frowned.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“The changes.”

“So? What about them?”

“Well, I haven’t started to make them.”

“You haven’t…? But on this title page, it says, ‘Revisions by Eric Potter.’”

Ric looked sheepish. “The title page is as far as I got.”

“Sweet Jesus. When are these revisions due?”

“Ballard gave me a week.”

“And for the first three days of that week, you didn’t work on the changes? What have you been doing?”

Ric glanced away.

Again I noticed that his tan was darker. “Don’t tell me you’ve just been sitting in the sun?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what exactly?”

“I’ve been thinking about how to improve the script.”

I was so agitated I had to stand. “You don’t think about changes. You make changes. How much did you say you were being paid? A hundred thousand dollars?”

Ric nodded, uncomfortable.

“And the Writers Guild insists that on work for hire you get a portion of the money as soon as you start.”

“Fifty thousand.” Ric squirmed. “Linda got the check by messenger the day after I made the deal with Ballard.”

“What a mess.”

Ric lowered his head, more uncomfortable.

“If you don’t hand in new pages four days from now, Ballard will want his money back.”

“I know,” Ric said, then added, “but I can’t.”

“What?”

“I already spent the money. A deposit on a condo up in Malibu.”

I was stunned.

“And the money isn’t the worst of it,” I said. “Your reputation. That’s worse. Ballard gave you an incredible break. He decided to take a chance on the bright new kid in town. He allowed you to jump over all the shit. But if you don’t deliver, he’ll be furious. He’ll spread the word all over town that you’re not dependable. You won’t be hot anymore. We won’t be able to sell another script as easily as we did this one.”

“Look, I’m sorry, Mort. I know I bragged to you that I could do the job on my own. I was wrong. I don’t have the experience. I admit it. I’m out of my depth.”

“Even on a piece of shit like this.”

Ric glanced down, then up. “I was wondering… Could you give me a hand?”

My mouth hung open in astonishment.

Before I could tell him no damned way, Ric quickly added, “It would really help both of us.”

“How do you figure that?”

“You just said it yourself. If I don’t deliver, Ballard will spread the word. No producer will trust me. You won’t be able to sell another script through me.”

My forehead began to throb. He was right, of course. If I wanted to keep selling scripts, if I wanted to see them produced, I needed him. I finally had to admit that, secretly, I had never intended the deception with Ric to be a one-time-only arrangement.

I swallowed and finally said, “All right.”

“Thank you.”

“But I won’t clean up your messes for nothing.”

“Of course not. The same arrangement as before. All I get out of this is fifteen percent.”

“By rights, you shouldn’t get anything.”

“Hey, without me, Ballard wouldn’t have offered the job.”

“Since you already spent the first half of the payment, how do I get that money?”

Ric made an effort to think of a solution. “We’ll have to wait until the money comes through on the spec script we sold. I’ll give you the money out of the two hundred thousand that’s owed to me.”

“But you owe the Ferrari dealer a bundle. Otherwise Linda’s responsible for your debt.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Ric gestured impatiently. “I’ll take care of all of it. What’s important now is that you make the changes on ‘The Warlords’. Ballard has to pay the remaining fifty thousand dollars when I hand in the pages. That money’s yours.”

“Fine.”

The script for ‘The Warlords’ was even worse than I had feared. How do you change bad junk into good junk? In the process, how do you please a director, a star, and a producer who ask for widely different things? One of the rules I’ve learned over the years is that what people say they want isn’t always what they mean. Sometimes it’s a matter of interpretation. And after I endured reading the script for ‘The Warlords,’ I thought I had that interpretation.

The director said he wanted more action and less characterisation. In my opinion, the script already had more than enough action. The trouble was that some of the action sequences were redundant, and others weren’t paced effectively. The biggest stunts occurred two thirds of the way into the story. The last third had stunts that suffered by comparison. So the trick here was to do some pruning and restructuring-to take the good stunts from the end and put them in the middle, to build on them and put the great stunts at the end, all the while struggling to retain the already feeble logic of the story.

The star said he wanted less action and more characterisation. As far as I could tell, what he really wanted was to be sympathetic, to make the audience like the character he was playing. So I softened him a little, threw in some jokes, had him wait for an old lady to cross a street before he blew away the bad guys, basic things like that. Since his character was more like a robot than a human being, any vaguely human thing he did would make him sympathetic.

The producer said he wanted more humour and a less expensive budget. Well, by making the hero sympathetic, I added the jokes the producer wanted. By restructuring the sequence of stunts, I managed to eliminate some of the weaker ones, thus giving the star his request for less action and the producer his request for holding down the budget, since the preponderance of action scenes had been what inflated the budget in the first place.

I explained this to Ric as I made notes. “They’ll all be happy.”

“Amazing,” Ric said.

“Thanks.”

“No, what I mean is, the ideas you came up with, I could have thought of them.”

“Oh?” My voice hardened. “Then why didn’t you?”

“Because, well, they seem so obvious.”

“After I thought of them. Good ideas always seem obvious in retrospect. The real job is putting them on paper. I’m going to have to work like crazy to get this job done in four days. And then there’s a further problem. I have to teach you how to pitch these changes to Ballard, so he’ll be convinced you’re the one who wrote them.”

“You can count on me,” Ric said.

“I want you to…” Suddenly I found myself yawning and looked at my watch. “Three A.M.? I’m not used to staying up this late. I’d better get some sleep if I’m going to get this rewrite done in four days.”

“I’m a night person myself,” Ric said.

“Well, come back tomorrow at four in the afternoon. I’ll take a break and start teaching you what to say to Ballard.”

Ric didn’t show up, of course. When I phoned his apartment, I got his answering machine. I couldn’t get in touch with him the next day, or the day after that.

But the day the changes were due, he certainly showed up. He phoned again from his car outside the gate, and when I let him in, he was so eager to see the pages that he barely said hello to me.

“Where the hell have you been?”

“Mexico.”

“What?”

“With all this stress, I needed to get away.”

“What have you done to put you under stress? I’m the one who’s been doing all the work.”

Instead of responding, Ric sat on my living-room sofa and quickly leafed through the pages. I noticed he was wearing yet another designer jacket. His tan was even darker.

“Yeah,” he said. “This is good.” He quickly came to his feet. “I’d better get to the studio.”

“But I haven’t coached you about what to say to Ballard.”

Ric stopped at the door. “Mort, I’ve been thinking. If this partnership is going to work, we need to give each other more space. You take care of the writing. Let me worry about what to say in meetings. Ballard likes me. I know how to handle him. Trust me.”

And Ric was gone.

I waited to hear about what happened at the meeting. No phone call. When I finally broke down and phoned him, an electronic-sounding voice told me that his number was no longer in service. It took me a moment to figure out that he must have moved to the condo in Malibu. So I phoned Linda to get the new number, and she awkwardly told me that Ric had ordered her to keep it a secret.

“Even from me?”

“Especially from you. Did you guys have an argument or something?”

“No.”

“Well, he made it sound as if you had. He kept complaining about how you were always telling him what to do.”

“Of all the…”I almost told Linda the truth-that Ric hadn’t written the script she had sold but rather I had. Then I realised that she’d be conscience-bound to tell the studio. The deception would make the studio feel chilly about the script. They would reread it with a new perspective, prejudiced by knowing the true identity of the author. The deal would fall through. I’d lose the biggest fee I’d ever been promised.

So I mumbled something about intending to talk with him and straighten out the problem. Then I hung up and cursed.

After I didn’t hear from Ric for a week, it became obvious that Linda would long ago have forwarded to him the check for the rewrite on ‘The Warlords’. He’d had ample time to send me my money. He didn’t intend to pay me.

That made me furious, partly because he’d betrayed me, partly because I didn’t like being made to feel naive, and partly because I’m a professional. To me, it’s a matter of honour that I get paid for what I write. Ric had violated one of my most basic rules.

My arrangement with him was finished. When I read about him in Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter-about how Ballard was delighted with the rewrite and predicting that the script he had bought from Ric would be next year’s smash hit, not to mention that Ric would win an Oscar for it-I was apoplectic. Ric was compared to Robert Towne and William Goldman, with the advantage that he was young and had a powerful understanding of today’s generation. Ric had been hired for a half-million dollars to do another rewrite. Ric had promised that he would soon deliver another original script, for which he hinted that his agent would demand an enormous price. “Quality is always worth the cost,” Ballard said.

I wanted to vomit.

As I knew he would have to, Ric eventually came to see me. Again the car phone at the gate. Three weeks later. After dark. A night person, after all.

I made a pretence of reluctance, feigned being moved by his whining, let him in and offered a beer. Even in the muted lights of my living room, he had the most perfect tan I had ever seen. His clothes were even more expensive and trendy. I hated him.

“You didn’t send me my money for the rewrite on ‘The Warlords’.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Ric said. “That’s part of the reason I’m here.”

“To pay me?”

“To explain. My condo at Malibu. The owners demanded more money as a down payment. I couldn’t give up the place. It’s too fabulous. So I had to… Well, I knew you’d understand.”

“But I don’t.”

“Mort, listen to me. I promise-as soon as the money comes through on the script we sold, I’ll pay you everything I owe.”

“You went to fifteen percent of the fee, to fifty percent, to one hundred percent. Do you think I work for nothing?”

“Mort, I can appreciate your feelings. But I was in a bind.”

“You still are. I’ve been reading about you in the trade papers. You’re getting a half million for a rewrite on another script, and you’re also promising a new original script. How are you going to manage all that?”

“Well, I tried to do it on my own. I handed Ballard the script I showed you when we first met.”

“Jesus, no.”

“He didn’t like it.”

“What a surprise.”

“I had to cover my tracks and tell him it was something I’d been fooling with but that I realised it needed a lot of work. I told him I agreed with his opinion. From now on, I intended to stick to the tried and true-the sort of thing I’d sold him.”

I shook my head.

“I guess you were right,” Ric said. “Good ideas seem obvious after somebody’s thought of them. But maybe I don’t have what it takes to come up with them. I’ve been acting like a jerk.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“So what do you say?” Ric offered his hand. “Let’s let bygones be bygones. I screwed up, but I’ve learned from my mistake. I’m willing to give our partnership another try if you are.”

I stared at his hand.

Suddenly beads of sweat burst out onto his brow. He lifted his hand and wiped the sweat.

“What’s the matter?”

“Hot in here.”

“Not really. Actually I thought it was getting chilly.”

“Feels stuffy.”

“The beer I gave you. Maybe you drank it too fast.”

“Maybe.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” I said.

The beer was drugged, of course. After the nausea wore off, giddiness set in, as it was supposed to. The drug, which I’d learned about years ago when I was working on a TV crime series, left its victim open to suggestion. It took me only ten minutes to convince him it was a great idea to do what I wanted. As I instructed, Ric giddily phoned Linda and told her that he was feeling stressed out and intended to go back down to Mexico. He told her he suddenly felt trapped by materialism. He needed a spiritual retreat. He might be away for as long as six months.

Linda was shocked. Listening to the speaker phone, I heard her demand to know how Ric intended to fulfil the contracts he’d signed. She said his voice was slurred and accused him of being drunk or high on something.

I picked up the phone, switched off the speaker, and interrupted to tell Linda that Ric was calling from my house and that we’d made up our differences, that he’d been pouring out his soul to me. He was drunk, yes, but what he had told her was no different than what he had told me when he was sober. He was leaving for Mexico tonight and might not be back for quite a while. How was he going to fulfil his contracts? No problem. Just because he was going on a retreat in Mexico, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be writing. Honest work was what he thrived on. It was food for his soul.

By then, Ric was almost asleep. After I hung up, I roused him, made him sign two documents that I’d prepared, then made him tell me where he was living in Malibu. I put him in his car, drove over to his place, packed a couple of his suitcases, crammed them into the car, and set out for Mexico.

We got there shortly after dawn. He was somewhat conscious when we crossed the border, enough to be able to answer a few questions and to keep the Mexican immigration officer from becoming suspicious. After that, I drugged him again.

I drove until mid-afternoon, took a back road into the desert, gave him a final lethal amount of the drug, and dumped his body into a sinkhole. I drove back to Tijuana, left Ric’s suitcases minus identification in an alley, left his Ferrari minus identification in another alley, the key in the ignition, and caught a bus back to Los Angeles. I was confident that neither the suitcases nor the car would ever be reported. I was also confident that by the time Ric’s body was discovered, if ever, it would be in such bad shape that the Mexican authorities, with limited resources, wouldn’t be able to identify it. Ric had once told me that he hadn’t spoken to his parents in five years, so I knew they wouldn’t wonder why he wasn’t in touch with them. As far as his friends went, well, he didn’t have any. He’d ditched them when he came into money. They wouldn’t miss him.

For an old guy, I’m resilient. I’d kept up my energy, driven all night and most of the day. I finally got some sleep on the bus. Not shabby, although toward the end I felt as if something had broken in me and I doubt I’ll ever be able to put in that much effort again. But I had to, you see. Ric was going to keep hounding me, enticing me, using me. And I was going to be too desperate to tell him to get lost. Because I knew that no matter how well I wrote, I would never be able to sell a script under my own name again.

When I first started as a writer, the money and the ego didn’t matter to me as much as the need to work, to tell stories, to teach and delight, as the Latin poet Horace said. But when the money started coming in, I began to depend on it. And I grew to love the action of being with powerful people, of having a reputation for being able to deliver quality work with amazing speed. Ego. That’s why I hated Ric the most. Because producers stroked his ego over scripts that I had written.

But not anymore. Ric was gone, and his agent had heard him say that he was going, and I had a document, with his signature on it, saying that he was going to mail in his scripts through me, that I was his mentor and that he wanted me to go to script meetings on his behalf. The document also gave me his power of attorney, with permission to oversee his income while he was away.

And that should have been the end of it. Linda was puzzled but went along. After all, she’d heard Ric on the phone. Ballard was even more puzzled, but he was also enormously pleased with the spec script that I pulled out of a drawer and sent in with Ric’s name on it. As far as Ballard was concerned, if Ric wanted to be eccentric, that was fine as long as Ric kept delivering. Really, his speed and the quality of his work were amazing.

So in a way I got what I wanted-the action and the pleasure of selling my work. But there’s a problem. When I sit down to do rewrites, when I type “Revisions by Eric Potter,” I suddenly find myself gazing out the window, wanting to sit in the sun. At the same time, I find that I can’t sleep. Like Ric, I’ve become a night person.

I’ve sold the spec scripts that I wrote over the years and kept in a drawer. All I had to do was change the tides. Nobody remembered reading the original stories. But I couldn’t seem to do the rewrites, and now that I’ve run out of old scripts, now that I’m faced with writing something new…

For the first time in my life, I’ve got writer’s block. All I have to do is think of the tide page and the words by Eric Potter, and my imagination freezes. It’s agony. All my life, every day, I’ve been a writer. For thirty-five years of married life, except for the last two when Doris got sick, I wrote every day. I sacrificed everything to my craft. I didn’t have children because I thought it would interfere with my schedule. Nothing was more important than putting words on a page. Now I sit at my desk, stare at my word processor, and…

Mary had a little…

I can’t bear this anymore.

I need rest.

The quick brown fox jumped over…

I need to forget about Ric.

Now is the time for all good men to…