“I don’t drink.”
“Great Neither do I.” They started off together, leaving Earnest standing there. Behind his beard, his face was redder than a Mounties jacket at sunset.
The studio cafeteria was murky with pot smoke, since smoking of all sorts was forbidden on the sets because of the fire hazard.
“Now let me get this straight,” Westerly was saying. “The original scripts were written by high school kids as part of a contest?”
They were sitting at a corner table, near the air conditioning blowers, sipping gingerales.
Gabriel nodded slowly. “I’ve been working since summer with Brenda and Bill Oxnard to make some sense out of them. I’ve also written two original scripts of my own.”
“And that’s all we’ve got to shoot with?”
“That’s right.”
“Krishna’s left eyebrow!”
“Huh?”
Westerly waved at the encroaching smoke. “Nothing. But it’s a helluva situation.”
“They didn’t tell you about the scripts?”
“Earnest said there were some problems with you... you’re supposed to be tough to get along with.”
“I am,” Gabriel admitted, “when I’m being shat on.”
“I don’t blame you.”
Gabriel hunched forward in his chair. “So what do we do?”
With a small shrug, Westerly said, “I’ll have to talk to Fad about it... it’s the Executive Producer’s job....”
Gabriel shook his head. “Sheldon split. Went back to L.A. as soon as his girl moved out of his apartment and turned over the E.P. title to Earnest.”
“Earnest?” Westerly felt his lip curling.
“The boll weevil of the north,” said Gabriel.
“Well,” with a deep sigh, “I guess I’ll have to mention it to Finger. I’m supposed to have a conference with him tonight...”
“I thought he was back in LA.”
“He is. We’re talking by phone. Private link... satellite relay, they tell me.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll just tell Finger we have to get better script material.”
“You can read the scripts, if you want to.”
“I already saw a couple. I thought they were rejects. I’d like to see yours. At least we’ll have a couple to start with.”
Gabriel looked pleased, but still uncertain.
“Is there anything else?” Westerly asked.
With a grimace, Gabriel said, “Well, I hate to bring it up.”
“Go on.”
For an instant, the writer hesitated. Then, like a man who’s decided to step off the high board no matter what, “You’ve got a reputation for being an acid freak. Did they bring you in here just for the name or are you gonna stay straight and do the kind of work you’re capable of doing?”
So there it is, right out in the open. Westerly almost felt relieved. “Both,” he said.
“Huh?”
“Finger and Earnest called me back from the Roof of the World because I have a big name with the public and I need money so bad that I’m willing to work cheap. They know I’ve blown my head off; I doubt that they care.”
Gabriel gritted his teeth but said nothing.
“But I care,” Westerly went on. “I finally got off the stuff in Nepal and I want to stay off it. I want to do a good job on this series. I want to get back to work again.”
“No shit?”
“No shit, buddy.”
