Everything Leads to You

Charlotte texts that she’ll join me on the grocery search after she gets out of a producer’s meeting with Rebecca, so I drive down to the Silver Lake café and wander outside, under telephone wires, past grand houses with bars on the windows, waiting for her to be finished.

“Emi,” Rebecca says, appearing behind me on the sidewalk with Charlotte at her side. “I’m so glad I caught you. Please tell me that you don’t have five a.m. plans for Sunday yet.”

“Um, does sleeping count as a plan?”

“I’m getting us VIP access to the Rose Bowl flea. Can I bribe you with cappuccinos?”

“VIP access to the Rose Bowl is enough of a bribe in itself. Should I meet you at your place?”

“Perfect. I’ll see you then.”

On the drive to the first grocery store on the list Theo gave me, I fill Charlotte in on what Ava told me about Lisa and running away, about our trip to Leona Valley. She is less shocked than I thought she’d be.

“Aren’t you at least a little bit impressed?” I ask. “Ava threw a flower pot through the window. We trashed the house and stole things.”

“Tracey deserves it,” Charlotte says. She seems distracted so I ask her what she’s thinking.

“I just feel like we’re missing something important. Maybe Ava will get some answers reading through Tracey’s stuff.”

“Probably. She took a lot.”

“But I wish there was someone we could talk to who knew them all.”

“Yeah. Me, too.”

“Was there a dad listed on the birth certificate?”

“It said ‘Unknown.’”

“That doesn’t give us much to work with.”

“I know,” I say. “And we still don’t know who Lenny is.”

It takes us five grocery stores to find one that I would consider using. We don’t want it to look like a chain or a liquor store, and because Charlie, the DP, shoots using almost all natural light, we need a relatively small space with a lot of windows. The Great Foods Market is exactly what we’re looking for. Rows of bright produce take up most of the store, with just a few racks of dry goods. It’s light and airy, but small enough to read immediately as independently owned.

Charlotte and I approach the cash register together, and I think of the way Toby can hand business owners his card, flash the name of the studio, and be immediately legitimate. We have more explaining to do about who we are, what this film will be. At least we have the stars to name. A girl around our age slips into the back to get the owner, and soon emerges a sixty-ish, pudgy white guy with slicked-over hair. At first he looks unsure, but when I name Benjamin James and Lindsey Miller, his entire demeanor changes.

“Yeah,” he says. “I might be able to do this.”

I beam at him.

“Your store will shoot so well. It’s a really nice space. I’m so glad we discovered it.”

“I’m glad you like it, honey. My guess is you’d like to have a few full days to shoot. I mean with no customers, besides what you’ll be shooting at night.”

“That would be amazing,” I say. “Would that work?”

“Yeah, it’s possible, it’s possible.” He beckons us over to the dry goods and we follow. “You’d probably want to move some things around, right? See, all the shelves here, they look like they’re attached to the floor but they can be pushed. It’s not impossible.”

I shake my head in happy disbelief. This is going so much better than I thought it would. I glance at Charlotte but she doesn’t share my enthusiasm. She’s staring at the owner with skepticism.

“How much do you want for this?” she asks.

He pauses, stands a little straighter.

“Ten grand a day,” he says.

Charlotte laughs.

I feel like I’ve been punched. How could I not have realized that this guy was only after our money? I’m sure there are legends out there about how much shop owners have been paid to have their stores turned into movie sets.

Sadly, I tell him, “This isn’t that kind of movie.”

“I could accept five,” he says.

Charlotte shakes her head. She pulls the list from my pocket where a corner is peeking out and unfolds the paper. She reaches across the counter and helps herself to a pen, then scratches out the name and address of the Great Foods Market.

“Next stop Figueroa Street,” she says.

~

We return with nothing.

“It’s quite all right, Emi,” Theo says. “We’ll keep on the search.”

Charlotte disappears to another room with Rebecca so I go outside and sit on the front stairs of the house. Soon she will be finished and we will head home.

For now, though, I call Ava. I can’t help myself.

“I found it,” she says when she answers, her voice rushed and urgent. “The Restlessness.”

“We need to watch it,” I say, glad for the distraction.

“I know.”

“Want to come over?”

“Yes.”

“We’re in Echo Park, but we can be back soon. Give us an hour?”

“Can I bring Jamal with me?”

“Yeah, of course,” I say.

Charlotte meets me outside and I drive us out of Echo Park, past the Silver Lake bars and cafés and boutiques, into downtown with its towering buildings, and onto the freeway.

“This must mean something, right?” I ask, after filling her in.