Chapter 23
23
Vi froze. ‘You’re – what?’ she stammered.
‘I’m quitting the movie,’ Jack said. ‘I’m not going to be in it. I’ll still be producing, but not acting and I won’t be on the set much at all.’
‘Why?’ she asked, her throat tight with shock.
‘It’s a little complicated.’
‘Is it because of your involvement with Liz?’ Vi asked, her stomach churning as she remembered the photo she had seen.
‘Liz? No, why would it be?’ he asked, sounding puzzled. ‘Look, I’m sorry. I can’t talk about it over the phone. I…’ Jack sighed. ‘There’s a lot of stuff going on, involving the people who have invested in the movie. Nothing to do with you at all, of course. Everything else is going ahead as planned, except with another actor.’
‘But…’ Vi stammered, ‘who is going to play Don now?’
‘A very good actor called Peter Black. He’s actually from Texas, so a much better choice than me. Not a huge name, but I still think it’ll work. Could make his career, actually.’
‘I think I know him,’ Vi said. ‘I’ve worked with him before. He’s a good actor but not like you,’ Vi said, wistfully. She was getting worried; her big break was disappearing before her eyes. She’d been working so hard. Was it all for nothing?
‘Nobody is,’ Jack said, laughing. ‘Nor is he as modest.’
Vi had to smile despite her misery. ‘I bet.’ She tried not to burst into tears as it all seemed to come together in her mind. Jack and Liz were in a relationship and she had probably told Jack to drop out. The movie would suffer as a result and Vi would end up where she started: having to audition for small parts and then being forced to give up altogether.
‘So that’s it,’ Jack said. ‘Now you know.’
‘Yes. I can see everything very clearly. But you could have told me earlier,’ Vi replied, dismayed.
‘What do you mean?’ Jack asked, sounding puzzled. ‘This happened only yesterday. And now, here I am at five in the morning New York time, calling you so you’d find out as soon as possible.’
‘Yes, but you could have told me about you and Liz,’ Vi said, her voice barely audible.
‘What? Me and…?’ Jack muttered. Then he seemed suddenly angry. ‘What the hell do you mean?’
‘You must know. I saw the photo in the newspaper and it said more than a thousand words.’
‘What photo?’ Jack asked.
‘I’m sure you know. It’s out there now, so you don’t have to hide it any more. You don’t care about me or the movie or anything. It’s all very clear to me, so don’t bother denying it.’ Vi hung up without waiting for an answer. She turned her face to the window while tears rolled down her cheeks all through the journey, until the bus reached Dingle. Then she blew her nose, gathered up her things and got off.
She had completely forgotten that Sylvia was picking her up at the bus stop and walked past the car and up the road in a daze, giving a start as she heard a sudden loud beep. She turned around and saw her grandmother getting out of the car, waving frantically.
‘Violet,’ Sylvia called. ‘What’s wrong with you? Did you forget I was meeting you at the bus stop?’
‘Oh,’ Vi said. ‘How stupid of me. I was just a little absentminded. Late night and a long trip on bumpy roads.’ She walked slowly to the car and got into the passenger seat. ‘Hi, Granny. Sorry about that.’
Sylvia looked at Vi for a moment. ‘You’ve been crying.’
‘No, I think I have a cold or something,’ Vi said, turning her face away from her grandmother’s gaze.
Sylvia caught Vi’s chin and turned her face. ‘That’s not a cold. Those red eyes are the result of a lot of tears. Is it because of that photo in The Irish Times ?’
Vi nodded. ‘Yes,’ she whispered.
‘And you immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion. You silly girl.’ Sylvia started the car. ‘Let’s get home and we’ll have a cup of tea and then we’ll talk.’
‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Vi protested. All she wanted was to go home and figure out what to do next. With another actor in Jack’s place, the film was no longer a guaranteed success. What was she going to do next with her life? She couldn’t continue to pretend she was going to make it. She needed to be realistic now. ‘Please drive me home.’
‘I will not,’ Sylvia snapped. ‘You’re going to come home with me and listen to what I have to say. You have a lot to learn, my girl.’
‘About what?’ Vi asked defiantly. ‘Men?’
‘Yes. And life. And what goes on out there in cyberspace. And how not to jump to conclusions and a lot of other things.’
Bewildered, Vi stayed silent until they reached the manor and Sylvia parked the car in the courtyard. Then she got out and followed her grandmother inside and sat down at the kitchen table while Sylvia busied herself making tea and heating up a slice of apple pie. While she waited, she remembered those incidents when Sylvia had tried to make Vi break up with boyfriends she thought ‘unsuitable’. Vi had rebelled against it and kept seeing whoever it was, even though she secretly agreed with her grandmother. Vi had had a habit of falling for good-looking young men who weren’t either kind or loyal. But that was when she was very young and once she had embarked on her career, she had become a lot less gullible. But this time she had been taken in by Jack’s charm and empathy – and his obvious love of Kerry. She realised she had been wrong yet again and now her grandmother would give her another lecture.
When Sylvia had handed Vi a steaming mug and a plate with warm pie topped with cream, she broke her silence. ‘So,’ she said, sitting down opposite Vi with her own mug. ‘Drink your tea and have some pie while I talk.’
Vi nodded and sipped some tea which, with the addition of the smell from the apple pie, made her feel a little better. ‘Go on, then. What have I done wrong this time?’
‘Nothing, apart from overreacting,’ Sylvia said. ‘Before we go on, could you look up that photo again?’
‘The one with…’ Vi started, picking up her phone.
‘Liz and Jack, yes.’
‘Why?’ Vi mumbled as she got to the page she was looking for. ‘It’ll only make me feel worse.’ The photo appeared on her screen and she flinched as she saw it. ‘Okay. I have it.’
‘What do you see?’ Sylvia asked, taking a careful sip of her tea.
‘Liz and Jack in a clinch,’ Vi mumbled as she peered at the screen. ‘Sitting in a car.’
‘Take a closer look at Liz. Her hair in particular,’ Sylvia instructed.
‘Yeah, okay. It’s… short.’ Vi looked at Sylvia. ‘Did she have it cut?’
‘No. But that photo is two years old. Taken just before they broke up. Liz let her hair grow out and now it’s all the way down her back, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, that’s right. It was the last time I saw her.’ Vi looked at the photo again and saw what her grandmother meant. Liz’s hair was cut in a pixie style and Jack also looked different. His hair was very short. ‘He must have had that style done for the thriller he was in at that time,’ Vi said.
‘Exactly.’
‘Oh.’ Vi took another sip of tea to steady her nerves, then dug into her pie. ‘How do you know all this?’ she asked when she had swallowed her first bite.
Sylvia put her mug in the table. ‘Jack called me just after he had spoken to you. He said you had hung up before he had a chance to ask why you were so curt with him and then you didn’t answer when he tried to call you back.’
‘He called you ?’ Vi stared at her grandmother incredulously, her spoon with pie frozen in mid-air. ‘Are you serious?’
Sylvia looked slightly awkward, brushing fluff off her cardigan. ‘Yes, we’ve had a few chats over the phone from time to time in the past weeks.’
‘Chats? About what?’ Vi couldn’t believe her ears.
Sylvia waved her hand. ‘Oh, you know, life, love, men, women, relationships, family…’ She sighed and shook her head. ‘He hasn’t had a very happy childhood or youth. He left and went to drama school to get away from it all. And then he found he was good at it and began to love acting. He worked so hard in the early years. And then all that fame… It didn’t sit well with the folks back home.’
‘He told me some of that,’ Vi said. ‘But you… I can’t believe that you’ve been talking to Jack all this time and never told me.’
Sylvia took Vi’s empty plate and got up to get another piece. ‘Well, I think he didn’t want anyone to know. But then, I thought it would be best to tell you. And to make you understand what was going on, after what happened with that old photo and his past history with Liz. You needed to know the truth. And to learn an important lesson.’
‘What lesson?’ Vi asked angrily.
Sylvia cut a piece of pie and put it in front of Vi. ‘Not to believe what you see on social media. Isn’t that what you’ve said to your sisters?’
‘Yes. Oh, okay, I know what you’re saying. And now I feel stupid.’ She picked up her spoon.
Sylvia patted Vi’s hand. ‘You overreacted because you’re in love.’
‘I’m not sure about that,’ Vi protested. ‘We have only met a few times. It’s not possible to fall in love that fast.’
‘Of course it is. I met Liam, your grandfather, on a train,’ Sylvia said. ‘We chatted for hours and by the time I got off at my station, I knew I loved him. We were married two months after that.’
‘Yes, but that’s unusual,’ Vi argued as she absentmindedly started eating. She’d heard the story many times. ‘I mean, people normally have to know each other a long time before they know how they feel.’
‘How do you know?’ Sylvia asked, sitting down again opposite Vi. ‘I don’t think you’ve ever been really in love, have you?’
‘No,’ Vi confessed. ‘Well, I’ve had boyfriends but I was never serious about any of them.’
‘You’ve been too busy building your career,’ Sylvia said.
‘I didn’t want anything to distract me from my work,’ Vi tried to explain. ‘And I was right. Look what’s happened now that I’m… attracted to someone. He’s decided to quit the film. Everything is ruined. The movie will bomb and I’ll be back to square one.’
‘I’m not so sure.’ Sylvia looked thoughtful. ‘He told me something…’ She paused. ‘Well, maybe I shouldn’t say anything and let you work it out yourselves.’
‘Please tell me,’ Vi urged. ‘I need to know what else he said.’
‘He said he had very strong feelings for you.’
Vi felt her heart flip. It was exactly what she had been wanting to hear all winter, but now everything had changed. What did it mean? ‘Did he tell you why he’s dropped out of the movie, then?’ she asked, digging into the apple pie, feeling she needed some comfort food to settle her stomach.
‘Not in so many words. I’m guessing it’s about a lot of things. I know he has another project he thought wouldn’t happen but now it has. He wants to produce rather than act in future as well. But I’ll leave it up to him to tell you.’ Sylvia drew breath and drank her tea. ‘So there you are. You know everything now.’
Vi nodded, scraping her plate for the last bits of the apple pie. ‘Yes. I’m sure he’ll never want to talk to me after the way I behaved. I bet no woman ever hung up on him like that.’
‘I’d say not,’ Sylvia agreed, looking amused.
‘What am I going to do?’ Vi asked. ‘Call him and say sorry?’
Sylvia shook her head. ‘No. I’d leave him alone for now. Let it settle. Work on your lines, prepare for the movie.’
‘What did you say to Jack? About me, I mean?’ Vi asked, unable to leave the subject alone.
‘Just that I love you dearly and that you’re a lovely, kind, sweet girl with a bit of a temper. And that I’d explain everything to you about him and Liz.’
‘Oh.’ Vi nodded. ‘I see.’ She thought for a moment. ‘But you know what? I think there is still something between him and Liz. I could tell that they’re very close during that interview I did with the whole production team.’
‘He said they’d had a bit of a fling a few years ago, but it’s been over for a long time. You have to trust him, Violetta. Concentrate on the movie and working with that other actor. Jack will get in touch. If he has truly broken off with Liz, he’ll want to see you and talk to you.’
‘And if not?’ Vi asked.
‘Then you still have to move on and try to get over it,’ Sylvia said. ‘You’re a strong girl behind it all. You wouldn’t be where you are if you were weak.’
‘I suppose,’ Vi said miserably, wondering how she was ever going to get over Jack. But she had to try and not feel sorry for herself. ‘Maybe I should stick to my original plan and keep avoiding men,’ she suggested.
‘You can’t do that forever, Vi. It would be such a shame. To share your life with someone is a wonderful thing.’ Sylvia patted Vi on the cheek. ‘Feeling better?’
Vi finished her tea. ‘Yes, much better, Granny. Tea and pie, that’s the best remedy.’ She stood up and stretched. ‘And now I’m going to go home to take a little nap and then I’ll go for a bit of a walk and then back to bed. Tomorrow, as you always say, is another day.’
‘It certainly is,’ Sylvia said.
Vi stopped on her way to the door. ‘Granny, can I ask you something?’
Sylvia nodded. ‘Of course. What do you want to ask me?’
‘How come you and Jack became so close?’
‘Oh.’ Sylvia paused for a moment on her way to the sink with the tea things. ‘Well, you see, it’s funny, but he reminds me so much of Fred.’
‘My father?’ Vi asked, startled by this news.
‘Yes,’ Sylvia said, her eyes glistening with tears. ‘He does. In so many ways.’ She paused for a moment and blinked away the tears. ‘It’s so strange, but he has the same kind of aura and energy. The same way of looking at you and listening to people.’ She shook her head. ‘Lots of other things, too, that I can’t really explain.’
‘I see,’ Vi said. ‘That makes him special to me too. Even if we can never be more than friends.’
‘That’s a good start,’ Sylvia agreed.