The Silent Appeal #8
Isn’t this where you tell me to rise above it and just email her? Or give me an affirmation from the AI app that is neither helpful nor relevant?
12:22 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Everything ok?
12:23 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
Yes, just Nicky-Rose won’t reply to my texts and I can’t ask Mum how she is because we’re not speaking.
12:24 p.m. Kevin wrote:
You’re not even texting her?
12:25 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
I’m frantically trying to find a babysitter for rehearsals and play week.
12:25 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Nicky-Rose?
12:25 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
No.
12:26 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Why not?
12:27 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
She’s had no experience looking after children and our darling daughter requires an advanced skill set.
12:27 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Really?
12:28 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
Plus, Sammy doesn’t know her.
12:29 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Leave it with me.
Message exchange between Kevin and Harley MacDonald on January 10, 2025:
12:30 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Hey, dude! How’s things hanging?
12:44 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Cool. Got a proposal for you.
12:46 p.m. Kevin wrote:
How about babysitting while Mum and I rehearse? Just Monday nights. No biggie.
1:26 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Great oppo for you to study. Those A levels won’t pass themselves, eh!
1:31 p.m. Kevin wrote:
￡20 per night.
1:40 p.m. Kevin wrote:
￡30.
1:48 p.m. Kevin wrote:
￡50 and that’s my final, final offer.
2:49 p.m. Kevin wrote:
￡50 a night and then, in the summer, after the play and your exams are over, I’ll pay for an intensive driving course, so you can be mobile before uni in the autumn.
2:50 p.m. Harley wrote:
Car?
2:51 p.m. Kevin wrote:
You can borrow Mum’s once you’ve passed.
2:59 p.m. Harley wrote:
Not every Monday. Gaming league and band. Can’t do play week.
3:00 p.m. Kevin wrote:
That’s a deal! Thanks, H, love you.
Message exchange between Kevin and Sarah-Jane MacDonald on January 10, 2025:
3:02 p.m. Kevin wrote:
All sorted. Our firstborn will babysit while we’re at rehearsals.
3:02 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
He’s a seventeen-year-old boy.
3:05 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Who knows and loves his little sister and vice versa.
3:11 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
I hope Nicky-Rose will come to rehearsals when she’s feeling up to it. Need to bide my time though.
3:12 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Yes! Get her down. We’ll need someone to prompt.
3:14 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
Kevin, my sister was a professional dancer for nine years. Since then, she has devised and produced entertainment for huge cruise companies and run a business for over a decade.
3:15 p.m. Kevin wrote:
So? We need a prompt.
3:15 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
Ask Joyce or Myra.
3:16 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Joyce is in charge of intermission refreshments, and Myra will be six months pregnant. You can ASK Nicky-Rose, at least.
3:20 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
If I tread carefully and she agrees to be involved then we should use her professional experience. But that’s only when I’m certain she’s ready. Don’t say anything, but I’d LOVE her to be assistant director.
3:21 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Hello? I barely know her.
3:22 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
She’s seven years younger and an inch taller than me. She does her own thing and listens to no one.
3:22 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Is that supposed to be a recommendation?
3:28 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
She was captain of the netball team, got a silver Duke of Edinburgh Award, and was big in the Girl Guides, but dance was her thing.
Something about how she moved captivated everyone in the room.
She won an international scholarship to the most prestigious stage school in America and followed her dreams.
3:30 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Anything you can say about her after the age of eighteen?
3:37 p.m. Kevin wrote:
You barely know her either, SJ.
Message exchange between Kevin MacDonald and Carol Dearing on January 10, 2025:
3:40 p.m. Kevin wrote:
What’s Nicky-Rose up to?
3:43 p.m. Carol wrote:
Gone into London wearing a new suit. More than that, I do not know.
3:45 p.m. Carol wrote:
I might add that I don’t care either, although that’s not true. I care a lot. But 2025 is the year I focus on ME. Nicky-Rose has taken care of herself on the other side of the world for twenty years. Sarah-Jane has you, Harley, and Sammy, and is a perfectly capable woman.
3:47 p.m. Carol wrote:
I’m sick and tired of dropping everything to help others just because they ask me.
3:51 p.m. Carol wrote:
I’ll tell you why: because they ask again and again, then you’re taken for granted. When someone is dependent on you, they get manipulative, especially when they’re worried you might withdraw your services.
3:52 p.m. Carol wrote:
Does this sound familiar, Kevin?
3:52 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Thought you loved looking after Sammy.
3:59 p.m. Carol wrote:
I do. But I also love having my own life.
Who knows how much longer I’ve got? I knew you wouldn’t cast me in The Hollow.
Saw Mendham’s audition ad on Facebook and popped along to see if I still have what it takes to land a part in a group who neither know me nor need me to skivvy for free. Turns out, I do.
4:01 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Congratulations.
4:01 p.m. Carol wrote:
Thank you.
4:02 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Just wonder if Nicky-Rose would be involved in the play. OUR play I mean, not Mendham’s.
4:02 p.m. Carol wrote:
Ask her yourself.
4:03 p.m. Kevin wrote:
What’s her number?
4:03 p.m. Carol wrote:
ASK YOUR WIFE!
Message exchange between Kevin and Sarah-Jane MacDonald on January 10, 2025:
4:05 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Your mum’s pissed off big-time and Nicky-Rose had a job interview today.
4:05 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
What job? What company?
4:06 p.m. Kevin wrote:
She went into London wearing a suit. Carol’s words.
4:07 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
Ok. Well, she knows where I am if she needs me.
4:07 p.m. Kevin wrote:
What’s her number? I’ll ask about the play.
4:08 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
I’ll text her.
4:08 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Quicker for me to?
4:10 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
What time are you home tonight? Harley wants a delivery from the Korean restaurant, I thought we could all try it.
4:13 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Just one more email, then I’ll lock the office up. First Friday of the year over and done with.
To: Celia Halliday
From: Kevin MacDonald
Date: January 10, 2025
Subject: The Hollow
Dear Celia,
Just want to confirm your parts in The Hollow. Joel is the patriarch of the family—Sir Henry Angkatell—and you are playing the beautiful, glamorous, and all-round ravishing character of Veronica Craye, Hollywood star and femme fatale.
You are both consummate actors and I know you’ll deliver those parts with energy, focus, and aplomb.
Now, all I need from you is confirmation that you accept those roles.
Most people can’t wait to reply to the casting email, to express their excitement, heap thanks on the director for recognizing their talents, and confirm that they’re willing and able to commit.
If you’d be so kind as to reply to this email and CONFIRM, do feel free. Kevin
To: Kevin MacDonald
From: Celia Halliday
Date: January 10, 2025
Subject: Re: The Hollow
Three total newbies in leading roles? I thought you wanted to compete for the NADAs? I know they all read well, but that can be deceptive. Get someone on a stage and without experience they die.
I know Beth would be a wonderful Henrietta, but she seems content with Midge.
We accept the parts of Veronica Craye and Sir Henry. Needless to say, we’ll do our best. Celia
To: Nicky-Rose Dearing
From: Sol Mellon
Date: January 10, 2025
Subject: Twin Star Entertainment
Dear Ms. Dearing,
Many thanks for meeting me today and explaining the history between you and Katrina Neale, CEO of Twin Star Entertainment (Barbados) Ltd.
As we discussed, I can serve a statutory demand on the company to request payment of their debt.
However, if that does not result in a settlement, your next step would be to engage the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
After that, the final stage would be the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Inevitably, this process is extremely lengthy, extremely costly, and more than likely will not lead to recovery of the company’s debt to you.
Given your financial situation, I advise that you would be unable to pursue this case beyond the initial stage; therefore Constance & Avery LLC would not represent you in that instance.
The additional issue of signatures that were, you allege, forged on power of attorney and loan documents in your name, is a criminal matter and should be reported to the local police force.
However, I feel bound to warn you that if the forgeries are good and there are no witnesses, it will be a very difficult case for you to prove.
Please let me know if you are happy for us to proceed with the statutory demand.
Yours sincerely,
Sol Mellon
Legal Director, Constance & Avery LLC
To: Stuart Kinsella
From: Nicky-Rose Dearing
Date: January 10, 2025
Subject: Hi
If you were wondering what happened in the end, I lost the house, the car, everything. You know I didn’t take out those loans. If it comes to it, would you testify?
Promise that’s not the only reason I’m writing. Want to move on and for that I need at least one Bridgetown relationship to end in closure, not carnage. Just need to know if you’d back me up. If only I’d gone with you to Jakarta, none of this would’ve happened.
Back in Lockwood with Mum, where my high-achieving sister and her perfect family remind me every day of the road not traveled. Nix x
Message exchange between Kevin and Sarah-Jane MacDonald on January 10, 2025:
5:01 p.m. Kevin wrote:
RIP Kevin MacDonald. Survived fifty long years, then cruelly felled by a crate of “Bliss Bubbles” left EXACTLY where he would trip over them.
5:02 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
For rehearsal on Monday. Left where you could load them straight in the car.
5:03 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Energy drinks at rehearsals? Good idea.
5:04 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
KEVIN! Bliss Bubbles is NOT an energy drink. It is a minimally carbonated well-being WATER packaged in go-size flaskets.