Forty-five minutes and six sticks of gum from the time Crystal parked and began reading her copy of People magazine, she was startled by a knocking at the passenger window.
Jan stood peering in pressing something to her chest.
“Oh my god, you scared the hell out of me,” Crystal said.
“What did you lock the door for?”
“Hey what’s that?” Crystal said, pointing to the box Jan had set on her lap.
“Porn!” Jan said with a grin.
When the girls got back to their apartment they opened up the futon and moved the combination TV/VCR onto a wicker footstool about two feet away, hoping to catch every detail on the little twelve-inch screen. Jan popped in the first tape.
Flugelhorn music and the sound of heavy breathing followed shortly after the opening credits. Jan was about to fast forward it when the title appeared in bold letters—“Dark Rendezvous”—then faded to black. A woman sat topless in front of a huge makeup mirror.
Crystal chewed her gum furiously. “If this gets gross or anything, I’m not going to watch.”
“There you go again, it’s not like you’re a virgin,” Jan said.
Crystal spit out her gum. “Yeah but doing it is one thing, watching it is another.”
“For crying out loud, this is a pornographic movie and probably contains more than a topless woman putting on makeup!”
A man stepped out of the bathroom, toweling off his wet hair. He was totally nude and erect. Within seconds, the woman had dropped to her knees and forgotten all about her makeup.
Crystal leaned forward and pressed the stop button. “Ok, truth now, could you do that?” she asked.
“Mr. Hubble said that depending on the script I might be asked to perform only one nude or sex scene the entire week. I could do almost anything once,” Jan said.
“Yeah, I guess after doing Mr. James you could.”
“Hey,” Jan snapped. “I didn’t do him, ok.”
After much debate, Jan sent the box back empty and five days later got the box back in the mail with a contract she was to sign and bring with her to the site of the shoot.
She stood at the kitchen counter, shaking the contract out of the mailer when Crystal walked over. They’d decided that the final decision would have to be based on the contract. After watching both of the tapes Mr. Hubble had given her, the women were aware that this was an “anything goes” production.
Crystal followed Jan like a puppy, across the room to the futon. “Well what does it say?”
Jan didn’t answer; she was reading intently, Crystal at her side attempting to read over her shoulder. Suddenly Jan threw the contract into the air exhaled a great sigh and slid from the futon to the floor.
“What, what? C’mon, what did it say?”
“None, no sex, period. It says in no uncertain terms that I will only be in three nude scenes. Nude in a swimming pool, on the lawn next to the pool, and partly nude under the covers in bed, alone.” The two girls looked at each other with silly grins. “That’s it, I’m off for Oregon day after tomorrow!”
The two girls squealed with excitement and did a little jig, high stepping in a circle and shaking their breasts at each other, then falling to the floor with laughter born of nerves over the thought of being filmed nude.
Crystal suddenly stopped, gasped, and clutched her throat.
“What’s wrong?”
No reply, she began to claw at her throat.
“Can you breathe?”
Lips growing pale, eyes watering, Crystal shook her head to the negative.
Jan quickly stepped around behind her, lifting under her armpits. “Stand up!”
Clasping her hands and placing her thumbs against Crystal’s diaphragm, she pulled in, hard. Then relaxed and squeezed again, this time with success. A wad of gum shot from Crystal’s mouth landing across the room. The two collapsed to the floor.
“God, you and that fucking gum. One of these days it’s going to be the death of you.”
Crystal sat in silence still breathing heavily. “Thanks, Jan.”
Without warning she leaned over and gave Jan a hug.
“Come on you would have done the same thing for me,” Jan said, and gently pried Crystal’s arms from around her neck.
Big alligator tears ran down Crystal’s cheeks.
“What’s come over you?” Jan said.
“I just couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know, going to Oregon and everything. I know it all sounds pretty straightforward, and Lewd and Lascivious may be OK, but what kind of people will you be working with? I want a plan.”
“A plan? What am I going to do, get kidnapped?”
Suddenly Crystal was serious, popping a stick of gum in her mouth. “A plan, goddamn it.”
She popped her gum as her color changed in a combination of anger and frustration. “You could be raped, or forced to take drugs, or refuse to have sex and run out of money.”
Jan held her hands up in supplication. “You’re right, now that I think about it some kind of plan might not be a bad idea. What did you have in mind?
“You’re going to have to help me out here, it’s not like I’ve been thinking about this a lot,” Crystal said.
Jan suddenly snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it, why don’t I call you every night. The cell phone is paid up and still has three months on the contract.”
Crystal spit her gum into an old gum wrapper, replacing it with two new sticks.
“That’s good, but if something did happen, and you couldn’t call, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Jan was tired of the topic, but could see by the way that Crystal was hammering her gum that she was still agitated.
“OK, got it. Let’s put together a packet of three-by-five cards with my description, and the make and model of the car. I’ll call at,” Jan paused for effect, scratching her head, “eleven o’clock every night. If I miss a night and you can’t reach me, you take the packet to the police the next morning.”
Crystal stopped chewing her gum long enough to smile. “Sounds like a plan to me.” Then started chewing again as she went to the kitchen to search for three-by-five cards.
The water turned cold bringing Crystal out of her reverie. She leaned forward shutting off the shower, stepped from the stall and toweled off, put on a clean robe. Walking to the foldout table that came out of one side of the tiny kitchen, she poured herself a cup of coffee.
Setting the mug on the table, she reached over, opened the small cabinet above the bookshelf, took out an accordion filing system and set it on the table next to the mug. She rooted around among papers and receipts until she found her original contract with Lewd and Lascivious Inc., laying it on the table. She wrapped her hands around the warm mug and began reading.
When she found the passage that stated she’d be paid for each full shoot, she made up her mind to finish out the day, no matter what. After all, she’d need all the money she could get in order to get back home.
She sipped her coffee and wondered what Jan’s reaction would be that night when she told her she was quitting.
She picked up the contract, so angry over letting herself end up like this that her hands shook, but as her thoughts turned to her friend, her anger changed to concern, then speculation. What if Jan was in trouble and couldn’t call? What if she had quit and was driving down to pick her up? Crystal took a deep breath to calm her imagination. After all it hadn’t been that long, what could happen in a few days? A pounding on the door rocked the tiny trailer. “Report to the director.” Cinching her robe, she placed the contract back in the cardboard file box, returned it to the cabinet, and walked down the narrow hall.