three days. It was as though someone had pulled a plug, or the dam had broken, and the floodgates were open wide.
When they landed, Melissa took a cab to the Beverly Hills Hotel, and called Michaela after she settled into her room. She was going to their house for dinner that night, and had ordered flowers for them that they could use on the table for Thanksgiving lunch the next day. Michaela said that dinner that night was going to be informal. David was going to barbecue on their patio. Marla would be joining them the next day. She was back from location, but still working on the film, and she didn’t like going out when she was shooting. It made her tired the next day. Melissa was planning to be in town until Sunday. She was really looking forward to it. She hadn’t even celebrated the holidays for the past four years, and had no one to spend them with. She preferred to read or watch old movies and forget it. But not this year. She had a great deal to celebrate and be thankful for. She was sorry that Hattie wasn’t there too, since she had made all their joy possible.
Melissa took a cab to Michaela’s address at six o’clock, and the children were running around and excited to see her.
“Grandma Mel!” they squealed as though they had known her all their lives. She had brought Thanksgiving coloring books and a box of crayons for each, a pilgrim doll for Alex, and an Indian headdress for Andy, and a cowboys and Indians board game.
“You don’t have to spoil them, Mom,” Michaela said, sounding natural as she said it, and Melissa smiled. She loved hearing the word. No one had called her “Mom” in six years.
“I have a lot of years to make up for, especially since I didn’t get to spoil you at all,” Melissa said gently. “And a couple of coloring books won’t spoil them. We’ll discuss it when it’s time for Andy’s first car. That’s ten years away, so we have time.” Michaela laughed, and Melissa went out to see her son-in-law at the barbecue. He was flipping burgers for the kids, and making ribs and chicken for them, wearing jeans and a dark blue sweatshirt. They had a big backyard, and an attractive single-level house, with a big living room, a dining room, and a playroom, four bedrooms, and a three-car garage. It was in a high-end area of Beverly Hills, and David said they had bought it when Andrew was born. David did very well as an agent.
The meal was delicious, and when they finished eating, the children went to the playroom and took their coloring books with them. They both had iPads to play games on, which Melissa noticed. Robbie had loved his too. It had kept him occupied at the hospital for hours when he had chemo treatments. She still had his tucked away in a drawer with his favorite games on it.
When the children had left the room, Melissa thanked David for a delicious dinner, and asked them both what they thought of the sexual harassment scandal that had everyone riveted. The first story had broken two days before, and the avalanche of claims was gathering momentum.
“I don’t think it’s news to anyone in the industry, but no one has ever spoken up before, and now everybody is,” Michaela answered. “Every day there are new names on the list. A lot of TV shows are being canceled, even some really big ones, and movies are being pulled from the theaters. Marla said they had to replace two people in the cast of the one she’s working on, and the director is really pissed. They have to reshoot all of the scenes they’re in with new actors. Everyone is taking it very seriously. No one is denying that it’s real. Maybe it was time that it happened.”
“Two of my clients have been accused,” David added. “We referred them to criminal lawyers. We don’t handle those cases. And I’ll bet there are going to be a lot more.”
“It sounds like it,” Melissa commented. “It happens in a lot of industries. But maybe not as blatantly as it does in Hollywood.” Some of the stories they were hearing were seriously offensive, and tragic in some cases when children and adolescents and very young actors were involved. It had ruined some lives, and was going to destroy a lot of careers. A number