Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) Read online

  “What do you mean, Damen? Listen to yourself, would ya? You’re not making any sense. We already have five grand saved up for the trip. And we have all these years of experience. We’re already twenty-one years old, I think it’s time,” stated Jose. Maria tried calming him down by jumping on the boulder and kissing him on the cheek, but his vision was stronger, and fighting for it was the number one thing.

  “Calm down, sweetie,” Maria said in a low tone. Damen looked at her kissing Jose and became jealous; his crush for her had remained with him since childhood. He wished in his mind that she was kissing him instead, feeling her soft lips touching his timid soul; Damen was now ticked off. This possessed Damen to argue with Jose more, but for the wrong reason; jealousy was on his mind.

  “If we do go on this trip ... when will we leave?” Darell asked. He got up from the grassy ground and brushed the dirt off from his pants, but Damen still showed no movement.

  “We’re not going anywhere, case closed,” Damen shouted in a controlling voice. The jealousy from Maria kissing Jose filled his head even more.

  Jose ignored him altogether and snapped, “We leave tomorrow.”

  “Fine, you guys can go alone,” Damen said, picking up the script that had floated to the edge of the pond; the one that Jose dropped in the water. He slowly began drying it with his pants, pretending that this conversation wasn’t occurring.

  “No, if we leave, we’re leaving together. We can even leave next month,” Darell stated, looking at Jose, hoping that he’d talk to Damen maturely.

  Jose jumped off the boulder and said, “No, I’m leaving tomorrow.”

  “Why do you want to leave so soon?” asked Damen. He sat down on the dark green grass of the Valley, and tried changing Jose’s mind, his plan of action.

  “Listen ... each day we come here, it seems more and more like a hobby, and less like an ambition,” yelled Jose.

  “No, you listen to me, Jose. Do you think this trip is going to be one big adventure? Do you realize, five thousand dollars isn’t going to be enough, isn’t going to cut it to survive out there? Besides, I got to help my father with the cornfield tomorrow,” explained Damen. His voice grew even stronger and louder; his mind was still mixed with jealousy and the decision to leave.

  “That’s what you said when we had four grand. Pretty soon it’s going to be ten, eleven, even twelve grand, and you’re still going to say the same thing... Also, you’re always working on that damn farm. Face it, Damen, you’re scared to leave Ridge Crest,” Jose announced. That’s when Damen lingered his head toward Maria, with embarrassment written all over his face.

  “I am not scared,” said Damen. Realizing his tone was a bit shaky, he turned away from Maria’s eyes. He didn’t want her to see the fear within him. He knew it was fear, terror; he knew that’s what was keeping him from leaving the Valley. But, jealousy was another factor in his decision still.

  Maria then jumped on top of the boulder again, where she could be heard over all the arguing, and began speaking. “Guys, listen ... why don’t you stop arguing and try to figure out how you’re gonna get there? I’m sorry for going against you, Damen, but Jose’s right. We have to leave soon. If we don’t, we’ll never go... You all have a tremendous gift, you all have many tremendous gifts. If we leave together, you will have a better chance at beating the odds.”

  “What are you talking about, why would we have a better chance?” Jose asked in a tone of confusion.

  She answered, with calm and sincerity, “Because, in Hollywood, there will be three of you. That way if one makes it big, he could help the other two make it big as well. I have watched you entertain me almost my whole life, and I am still begging you guys for your autographs. Face it, you kick ass.”

  Damen’s mind, his inner self, was beginning to change and agree with Jose. That’s when he asked, “You really think we could make it?” His question had a deeper meaning, a deeper sense of the sentence that, if answered correctly, would bring a sense of hope to his mind, hope that he wasn’t used to hearing.

  Maria saw hope, or else a positive symbol, in Damen’s eyes, and that caused her to jump off the boulder and reply, “Yes, I really, really, truly do. We’re a team, and California can’t, and will not, destroy that.”

  Suddenly, Damen’s hope went back into hiding, and his fear, his sense of self-consciousness, came back to him. Damen gawked at Maria and said, “Yeah, but everyone, in the big cities, wants to be actors. I mean, a handful get chosen to be called ‘movie actors,’ let alone be called ‘movie stars.’ How can you be sure that we’ll make it?”

  Damen stared at all of them. They knew he was speaking the truth. The truth hurts, it’s a thorn in hope.

  Maria walked up to Damen, and said, “Well, by knowing one thing.” She then looked at Darell. “Darell O’Conner, do you want to be an actor?”

  “Yeah.”

  Maria then turned to Jose and asked, “Jose Rodrigo, do you want to be an actor?”

  “You better believe it.”

  She then gazed at Damen’s eyes, seeing so much pain and fear within them. Grabbing Damen’s hand and holding it firmly, she questioned, “Damen Schultz, ever since I could remember, you always had a passion, a special craving for acting. Damen Schultz, do you want to be an actor?”

  He stared at her and closed his eyes. He was afraid to answer, but his mind began to be overwhelmed with tears as he replied in a faltering motion, “Yes ... yes, I do.”

  “Well, then that’s enough of an answer to at least try for it,” Maria spoke, still holding his hand.

  Jose saw her hand in his grasp and then placed his own hand on the script that Darell dropped. Jose shouted, “I’m in.”

  “I’m in too,” said Darell, putting his hand on top of Jose’s.

  Damen just watched, he fixed and stared at their hands on the script; he stared and thought that maybe this was the way it had to happen. He slowly walked over to Jose and Darell, like he was ready to harm them and punch the idea right from their heads. Damen lifted up his palm, like he was ready to punch Jose in the face, and slapped it down on top of his hand. He made the decision that changed his destiny, his life forever. “OK, okay, I’m in three...” Smiling with hope, Damen added, “We leave tomorrow morning. I guess my father’s going to have to work on the cornfield alone.”

  Jose screamed, “Yes! You’re the man, you are the man.” He then scratched a scar on his neck with his right hand, and pretended to punch Damen with his other. He had received the scar from his father throwing a cigarette butt at him when he was a little kid. Maria took his hand away from it and started to kiss it.

  Damen then explained, “First things first, we have to all write our parents a letter.” He saw Maria kissing Jose’s neck, but instead of jealousy striking at his heart, Damen swallowed it whole and started thinking of how to get out of Ridge Crest.

  “What should the letter say?” Darell asked, shaky and confused in speech, he was a full-fledged nerve. Nervousness was growing in all of them at this point.

  “Just say that we’re going on vacation to ... to ... um, I know, just say we’re going on vacation to New York City. Yeah, say we’re going on vacation for a while, that way they won’t come looking for us, because we’ll be in California,” declared Damen with a permanent smile engraved over his face. His mind was finally released from fear, and the old hope was revived once again.

  Jose eagerly voiced, “My father won’t come looking for me anyway, he’ll probably be happy to see that I’ve left his house.”

  “Well, write it anyway, because my father will come looking for me. And if you say you’re going to California, my father will know I’m with you. Just say the New York idea,” Damen repeated.

  Darell suddenly picked up an old box. “Yeah, I like the New York one better.”

  Jose looked at Darell and the box he was holding in a puzzled way, saying, “Okay, fine, New York it shall be. Um, what are you doing, Darell?”

  “I think we sho
uld all get some memorabilia together and put it in this box. We could make a time capsule or something... I know, after we all become famous, we come back to this very spot and look at the time capsule. My first contribution to the capsule is a script from the play Our Town,” Darell replied. He placed the script inside of the old box and then waited for someone else to contribute to his corny but unique idea.

  “Why are you putting that script in the capsule?” Damen questioned.

  “Because this is the first script that we didn’t finish.”

  Jose opened up his wallet and grabbed a photo from it. Even though Jose gave a face of unimportance to Darell’s idea, he still wanted to make Darell feel good, and so he went along with it. “My contribution is a photo of all of us together.” Jose placed the photo in the box, the capsule, and looked at Damen.

  “What’s your contribution going to be, Damen?” Maria asked, grabbing the box from Darell and bringing it over to him.

  “Well, even though this is a very, very corny and stupid idea, it’s still a good one... So, my contribution will be my journal; the journal about, well, about Sugar Valley I guess.” Damen pulled out a rolled-up journal from his back pocket and dropped it into the capsule. “This is so stupid.”

  “No it’s not, it’s fun,” argued Darell. Maria grabbed the box away from Damen and watched it with a smile.

  “My contribution will be the fishing pole that you guys always generously let and made me use.” Maria looked up at the blue sky and then back at the box. It was as if she was looking for God to witness and show his presence at this moment.

  “Okay, we’ll seal it up and put it ... put it,” said Darell. He looked at the box, while confusion about putting it somewhere safe came over his face.

  “That’s right, where are we gonna hide this? It always rains in the Valley. Therefore, the box will decompose and look like one of Damen’s horse’s manure piles. This thing won’t last a week down here,” warned Jose. He looked around the Valley to see if he could find somewhere safe to place the capsule, but his sight couldn’t find a home, a place for its importance to be kept safe and unharmed.

  Darell then suggested, “I got it, why don’t we place it in the cave across the pond?” Without a reply, Darell took the box from Maria and began walking over to the cave. The excitement was so great and grand that Darell didn’t have time to reason with them.

  “Are you nuts? That’s an old abandoned mine. That thing could collapse any day now... Besides, I heard that there’s still dynamite in it,” Damen stated. Darell stopped in his tracks after Damen’s warning.

  “Oh well, do you have any better ideas?” asked Darell. He then continued on toward the cave. “Are you guys coming?” he asked, while Jose and Damen both looked at each other as they thought of the initials T.N.T.

  Following Darell over to the cave in a thoughtful manner, Damen and Jose seemed like they were afraid of it, blowing up from the dynamite, exploding into oblivion. Darell went from walking on green grass to walking on whitish stone as he came to the entrance of the cave; still, there was no explosion. He then placed the capsule deep in its darkness, laying the fishing pole on top of it, and walked back outside of it to where Damen and Jose stood; he was still alive, and allowed them to feel that the dynamite was either too old to explode, or else it didn’t exist there anymore. The three of them ambled to where Maria was and began discussing the best way for transportation to California.

  Discussing how they’d be able to get the train tickets, and then the airfare tickets once the train reached the nearest airport, became harder than they thought, and they still hadn’t even left the Valley yet.

  All of them said they were going to meet at 5:00 in the morning, to begin their journey to a life of fame, a life that they thought they were ready for. Everything was too perfect, too fictional to be real, and like with everything, reality finds a way to show itself and ruin the moment. As they walked up the hill of the Valley, reality did show itself when Darell looked at Maria and said, “Wait a second, guys, Maria can’t come with us.”

  “Like hell she can’t,” said Damen. Jose suddenly let go of her hand and looked at her with a puzzled face.

  “That’s right, there is no way we’re going to have enough money to pay for her. We’re already going to have it hard enough out there, with cash,” Jose spoke.

  Damen reached the top of the Valley and stared at Jose with confusion, with disappointment. That was his girlfriend, and he couldn’t believe that Jose was ready to let her go so easily, so calmly. Damen’s thoughts raced through his head, before choosing the right words to use in this conversation.

  How can he do that? I would never do that to her, leave her like that if she was my girlfriend. But how can she come with, Darell’s right, I’m so stupid for not thinking that. But still, Jose can’t leave her, and shouldn’t leave her like that. I shouldn’t even leave her either. Man, he’s a jerk...

  Damen then questioned with an angry voice, “What do you mean, Jose? She’s your own girlfriend, and you’re just going to leave her here like this?” Maria and Jose finally reached the top, rim, the border of Sugar’s wall, and stared at Damen.

  Jose pushed him, with anger in his thrust, and answered, “When we decided to do this, she wasn’t involved ... it was just us. I’m not abandoning her.”

  “Listen you guys, I understand. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine,” Maria said. Darell reached the top of the Valley also, and fixed his eyes on Maria’s mouth.

  “Are you sure?” asked Damen. He walked over to her and watched her eyes to see if any tears showed, were revealed.

  “Yeah ... I’ll be okay. Now I want you and Jose to shake hands and apologize to each other. You have a long journey ahead of you tomorrow, and fighting is the last thing you guys want to do,” she said. Maria then grabbed Jose and Damen’s hands and put them together.

  Damen realized she was right. So he slowly looked at Jose and swallowed his pride. “Alright, I’m sorry, man.”

  “I’m sorry too,” said Jose. Maria’s eyes watered, not from dust but from sadness. She was really upset about not being able to take the journey with them. But she kept her feelings inside, very, very deep inside...

  Jose, Damen and Maria walked Darell home first. As soon as they reached his house, Damen reminded him, “Alright, remember everything we talked about, and make sure you write that letter for tomorrow.”

  “I will ... goodnight,” said Darell, walking into his house, then closing the door.

  As they walked Maria to her house, Jose and Damen both thought simultaneously, “Maria should come with us too.” They both tried to come up with a plan for her getting money to come on the trip, but nothing came to their heads.

  “Isn’t there any way you could come up with at least the airfare? Or even money for the train tickets?” asked Damen. Suddenly, Jose kissed her on the lips.

  “Come on, you’re a part of this group too, Maria; you have to come with us,” said Jose. They reached Maria’s house and still tried to figure a way that she could escape this town with them and travel to another state of life.

  She then replied, with a bit of shakiness, “I can’t go... It’s your dreams, not mine. Besides, who will make sure the time capsule stays safe?” Jose sat on her front porch that was covered with green vines and gazed out at the night, realizing that she couldn’t come with.

  “Who cares about that? You have to come with us. Can’t you get the money from your mom or something?” asked Damen. The porch light went on.

  “Alright, Mom,” Maria shouted. She knew her mother was behind the door, listening. “I’m telling you, I’m twenty years old, and my mother still turns on that damn light to let me know it’s time to call it a night,” she explained out of nowhere. Maria got up and walked toward the door when Damen suddenly stopped her movement by grabbing her hand ever so delicately.

  “It won’t be the same without you,” said Damen. He gave Maria a huge hug while wishing she would give him a
kiss.

  She then opened the screen door and said, “Don’t worry, you won’t miss me that much.” As she let go of Damen’s hand, he knew her touch wouldn’t be felt by him for a long time. He cast a sad look toward her, a look of depression.

  Jose walked in front of Damen, causing him to lose sight of her, and said, “No ... that’s just it, we will miss you.” He gave her a tight hug. “I’ll return for you soon, Maria, I promise you, baby,” Jose whispered into her ear as Damen looked away from them and tried to distinguish his pain, and jealousy. He looked at Maria only for a second and imagined him kissing her again.

  She looked at both of them and said, “Listen, I want you to do one thing for me, while you’re out there.”

  “What’s that?” Damen asked, seeing the porch light come on again at the same time.

  “Alright, Mom,” yelled Maria. She opened her front door and began to enter through it.

  “Wait, what is it that you want us to do?” asked Jose. Maria stopped halfway in the entrance, and turned around.

  “Oh, don’t change. I want you to promise me that you won’t change out there... I heard that California can do a lot to a guy, especially a friendship.” Jose and Damen smiled toward her, like they couldn’t believe she’d said that. Finding it funny and cute of her, yet she still had a point.

  Jose looked at Damen and said, “Don’t worry, we won’t change at all. We promise you.”

  “Alright, goodnight, and goodbye for now.” She looked at them staring at her, and wanted to end this moment, this painful reality, that soon would be a memory, fast and simply. She wanted to end it so she wouldn’t feel the pain anymore and, most of all, would win her fight to keep her tears in and hidden from them. “I guess, keep in touch,” Maria whispered. She went through the entrance, all the way, and closed the door behind her.