Little Known Facts A Novel - By Christine Sneed Page 0,72
reason, things start to shift—Isis says that for some people, myself included, the summer months are known for creating full-moon conditions for weeks on end. The full moon seems to stir up the crazy elements that ricochet through a person’s life. Even the police blotters attest to this—full moon fever is real. It’s a little unfortunate that I live with it for almost half the year—things don’t start to calm down until November or early December for me. Last year, that was also the case, and there was no little whimper either. Things ended with a big bang—the debacle with Billy in New Orleans. Not long before I asked him to work for me on the Bourbon set, Isis told me that some rogue element was coming right at me, but I didn’t suspect that it would be my own son.
D. PROBLEM CHILDREN
It took Elise and me about a week or so to come down from Cannes, during which time she was sometimes weepy and very tired. Her moroseness made me a little sullen too, or maybe it was just the jet lag. We argued more than we ever had before, more than we did during the month over the holidays that I did my kamikaze editing job on Bourbon with Fred Banes, who edited Javier’s Sons. I knew he’d be the right guy if he had time in his schedule to work with me for about five intense weeks. He didn’t, not really, mostly because his wife wanted him at home over Christmas and New Year’s, but he’s not divorced yet, so I think it worked out.
After we got back from France, Elise’s sister Belle started calling a few times a day and wanted to talk to her for an hour or more each time, and Elise absolutely did not have the space in her schedule for this, especially with our prerelease obligations for Bourbon—the several TV and radio interviews (only a couple of which we did together, though by now our relationship was common knowledge), the magazine photo shoots, the extra features for the DVD version that I had insisted on starting early, which included interviews with principal cast members and voice-over commentary from Elise, Marek, and myself. She was also reading scripts for the project that would follow the next two she had already committed to.
If it wasn’t clear to Elise, I could certainly tell that Belle was dealing with some serious emotional problems following her attempted suicide, which I did feel bad about, but there wasn’t a lot that Elise could do to make her better, not being a doctor (something she didn’t appreciate me reminding her of). Despite how depressed Belle was, I did not like that she was calling all the time and draining Elise’s energy, which made it nearly impossible for her to enjoy her talent and good fortune, and the heartening trajectory of her career, which was suddenly soaring. These were crucial months in Elise’s professional life, and if she couldn’t give the majority of her attention to her work and the people involved most closely with it, her preoccupation was likely to have serious repercussions on her future prospects.
“She’s my sister,” Elise said during one of our arguments, tired and angry. “What am I supposed to do? Hang up on her after five minutes?”
“You could stop answering your phone every time she calls,” I said.
“I don’t answer it every time.”
“No, but you answer it most of the time. She’s taking advantage of you. She knows you feel guilty about everything you’ve already been able to achieve while she sits at home in Dallas with your parents and mopes.”
“You don’t know my sister. She’s not like that.”
You’re either dreaming or lying, I wanted to say, but I didn’t.
I have my own problems, probably not as unpleasant as hers, but there are things that keep me up at night, even after they’ve been written down in J2 or J1. One of them is Bourbon’s release date. If I waited until October or November, I’d have a better shot at positioning it as an Oscar contender. Fall is Oscar season, when the bullshit that populates the theaters over the summer has mostly faded away and people are ready, with the end of their vacations and the return to school, to see some intelligent films. But a fall release also means that there’s more competition for serious moviegoers’ time and money.
On top of this, there is my inability to trust anyone with the oversight of