The next couple of days had a regular rhythm to it: wake up at 7am to go to 'Sarah's barn' near Napoleonville (even Napoleon wouldn't fight for this hellhole), get coffee from a PA, discuss the scene with Rian and get feedback, do the scene with Emily—the best part of the day—and go back to the hotel at 11 pm.
He was sitting down on a lawn chair chatting amicably with Rian under a rainbow umbrella.
"Have you got any new movie ideas you want to do?" Ryan stretched out his legs.
"I don't know. I always wanted a murder mystery movie. But some of them are too gimmicky," the middle aged director said.
"Like a whodunit. I do like Agatha Christie novels, specially Murder of Orient Express"
"Me too. Although, Endless Nights is my favourite. I know, it's controversial."
"Oh. I didn't like how the poem was repeated so many times"
"You just have to sit near a Gothic church with a cup of coffee and listen to the sound of rain with books like those. Reading is magical; where else does the creative have complete control? Look at me: I have to bow down anytime James Stern or a studio head walks in, like a parent watching a child draw with markers in the living room."
"Bow down? If you bow then they won't see you at all" Ryan smirked and saw the director chuckled in a high pitched voice.
"Remind me not to cast you in my next project" He ran his fingers along the stones, marveling at how no two were alike.
"Oh why? I'm cheap labor," Ryan said, throwing up his hands as if the umbrella had just punched him.
"True". Rian got up from the chair and grabbed the script nearby while Ryan went off to talk to Pierce Gagnon (Rainmaker/Sod) about video games.
'Will he deliver? The kid needs to do well too' The relatively inexperienced director thought to himself.
"Okay guys, come around" Rian and Pierce walked together towards 'Sarah's' house. Emily sipped the last bits of her iced coffee and leisurely strolled towards the group. Garret Dillahunt (Jesse), wearing all black, waltzed towards the group. Rian started, "So good morning. You all know the scene, right?". All of the actors nodded. "Any questions?" and seeing none so he said, "Okay get in place".
As the actors were going to their marks in 'Sara's house', Rian thought about the importance of this scene and was filled with nerves but he trusted Ryan and Emily to deliver the performances needed.
"Okay…Action!"
"Hello, Joe" He was walking down the stairs with a gun.
"Jesse"
"Put this down and let her go." Jesse was holding Sara tightly.
"Sara, Jesse here is the best shot with a gat that l know. When he lets you go, just sit on the couch. Don't do anything stupid."
"He's coming here, Jesse. My loop is coming here. "
"I gotta take you in. I got 948 bars of pure silver. I close my loop, l get right with Abe. Whatever he gives back, l'll split it with you."
"Was that your plan?"
"Okay, take all of it."
"Are you delusional? You aint getting right"
"Long as Abe got one gat man standing he gonna hurt you until his dying day"
"We're gonna go now. Gonna get my truck and you're just gonna…"
The kid creaked the wooden stairs and the gat man looked up with the gun which caused Sid to fall down on the stairs. The furniture — rigged with pneumatic and wires — goes flying up and Jesse, who wore a harness rig, goes up too.
"Cut!". "Be careful".
The actors got away from the impending danger and Rian, not wanting to lose momentum said, "Go!"
'The air canons could be used only twice. Don't fluff it'
Jesse dies and the whole house explodes through a bunch of pistons and canons. Sarah and Joe made it time and jumped on the grass outside the porch.
'Perfect'
Joe and Sarah stood up and she screams, "Oh my god. Cid! Cid!"
"It's him. What is he, some TK freak? You knew".
"What are you doing?"
"How did your sister die"
"What are you doing with those guns?"
"How did she die? Is that what happened to her?!" Ryan was filled with rage but the actor in him told him to portray more of fear than anger.
'Perfect'
"No!"
"He killed her like that. No he was climbing a bookshelf and it fell back on him. He can get scared. It exploded—"
"Jesus fucking—"
"He learn to control it"
"Imagine whats he gonna do!"
"If he did good with it, though. If he grew up with me raising him. If he grew up good—"
"He doesn't" said flatly.
"You stay away from him, Joe." Joe looks for Sid in the sugarcane crops, hacking away the plants with his blunderbuss.
"Cid! Stay away from Joe, baby! Follow me baby "
Joe saw Sid sitting down with blood all over his figure. He approached him slowly and had a stone cold killer face. The camera pans to a close up of the child looking up with tears in his eyes and goes back to Joe's face crumbling with resolve.
He approached the kid with a gun on his right and pats the child's head. He looks down and gives a comforting smile.
'That's it!' Rian thought. 'How can anyone look at this child—covered in blood and fear—and think of killing him.' Rian remembered bringing his newborn son into his car and driving away with him towards his home: a freshly assembled crib waiting beneath a mobile of hand-painted stars and moons. He swore to himself that he would do everything for him and love him no matter what.
The crew thought of similar promises they had made to their own children, nieces, nephews, or anyone they loved unconditionally. Only a raw performance like that could evoke such a primordial feeling—one that every adult understands: a deep, instinctive urge to shield a child from harm, from the harsh truths of the world, and most importantly from themselves.
Sid leaned into Joe's knee and Sara rushed in to hug her son who appeared from the dense sugarcane crops crying and saying, "It's okay, baby".
The camera cut to Joe saying, "Right now two things have happened. My loop knows Cid's the kid he's looking for. And my gang knows lm here. That means in 15 minutes, one or both of them are coming down that highway. Pack up the truck. Take everything you can and go"
Sarah nodded with tears still in her eyes and Joe continued, "Drive north away from the city."
"Thank you". Both people go in opposite directions and Rian yells, "Cut! Well done."