"We're going to Europe!" Mom says, excitedly,
"What?" Mud drops from my fingers, "What are we gonna do there?"
My mom looks at Kelly's Mom, Aunt Julia, and says, "Well, we planned to make it only a family trip, but there's this opportunity that we can't surely miss…"
"What is it?" I ask,
"It's something that will truly be unforgettable for you." Aunt Julia says,
"What is it?" I ask again,
"It's going to benefit you both. Alan, Kelly." Mom places a hand over our shoulders,
My eyes twitch, and with a grumble I say, "What. Is. It?"
Mom's eye darted away from me and into the eyes of Aunt Julia. She gave him a simple nod, and smiled. Mom turned back at me, and opened her mouth to speak.
"You both are going to be extras at the filming for Harry Potter!" Mom squeals over joy, her shout was heard all the way to our next door neighbors.
How could this even be happening? Kelly just visited me to play with me today, and we did. Playing on the grass, and jumping on muddy puddles like a dog. It's mud season (If you don't know what it is, it's a season of transition between Winter and Spring) so a lot of puddles and mud are forming in our backyard. Our backyard is mostly grass, cutted perfectly to benefit visitors and us too, with a small shed where we store items that we never even needed. Beside it was our garden, where mom and aunt Julia planted all kinds of things. Right now, standing on a creaky wooden deck that needs some screws to be fixed, we're not only shocked by the news of spending our week in Europe, but also the news of becoming an extra to a movie. Although I don't even know what Harry Potter is, if it's a movie, it must be good.
"So, when will we leave?" I ask, looking at mom for answers,
She looks at aunt Julia, then looks back at me, "Tomorrow."
I stand still for a sec, "Wha—Tomorrow?!" I raise a brow,
Mom looks at me and says, "We—I mean, I've already packed your bags while you were out playing with Kelly all day. And I've already set up our visas so… we're very much prepared at this point."
I look at mom. Everything is happening so fast! "Does dad know?" I say,
"Umm…" Mom pauses to think, "He's the one who actually proposed the idea… Not exactly proposed… I think…?" She hesitates, then aunt Julia steps in to explain,
"So, earlier this weekend, your mom actually got a call from her agency. Her agency told her that…" She looks around, then leans closer to my ears to whisper, "The project she handled was a total success, and that she's received a family vacation that grants almost 10 people. And it's in Europe."
My eyes widened, "Wait, so what does that have to do with my dad proposing the idea?" I ask, tilting my head,
Aunt Julia looks at mom, then she says "Your dad… as you might've guessed already, is a bookworm. And when the Harry Potter book was published, he would sneak out of the house and go into hiding, just to read this book."
"Why would he do that?" I ask, while in the back, Kelly finds a chair to sit on, but my mom catches him finding a seat with a muddy short and stops him from ever sitting in the chair,
"Because basically in your house, he's the house keeper." She says,
I nod in agreement,
"Anyways. When he heard that your mom got tickets to Europe, he went ballistic! He heard from gossip and tell, and by the newspaper itself that the book was getting adapted into a movie, and he went wild over it. It got to the point where he begged your mom to bring him to the set just to see how they're going to do this magical stuff."
I nod again, but pauses briefly, "Wait… magic stuff?"
She nods, "Yeah. The story is about witches and wizards who wield a powerful wand. And this guy, Harry Potter, is the main character. Obviously, he's literally on the title of the book."
"So we're going to be magical extras?"
"Your mom has connections. Both of you are now gonna be actors!" She says, exclaiming with joy.
I take this in for a moment. You're gonna be actors. Never thought that phrase would even get to me, I'm shocked to an extent that I can't comprehend what's going on around me. Anyways, that means mom drove like a maniac again when I was studying in school. Mom was always a reckless driver, I know that for a fact, and whenever I say I'm late for school, she'd grab me by my bag, drag me inside the car, and drive like a maniac on the road. Basically driving like someone was pregnant and needed to be delivered to the hospital soon. I guess that's why I'm just used to her leaving so fast. There was one time when I was 7, when both me and Kelly were fighting over a toy I broke. Mom drove off like there was an emergency. Turns out, there was just a file she forgot to submit. It was just because she got a call from the supervisor that she immediately drove off like a lunatic on the road. If a rich person ever gives her a Lamborghini Diablo GT that could go an absolute 210 miles per hour, she would ride it like a horse during a bounty hunting season. (Alan knew about that because of his dad.)
Since the sun is already setting. I walk inside the house, shower, and lie down on my bed. Oh, and Kelly is beside me too, he's staying over so that he's not going to be late at the airport. It was just explained to him earlier about how we're going to Europe and how we're going to be extras to this movie that's been adapted from a book my dad really loves. I turn to Kelly who's already sleeping, and nudge him awake.
"What?" He grunts,
"How many days are we gonna miss school?" I say. Turns out that our trip was exactly the time where we're in the middle of our classes. I think it's going to be difficult to catch up when we return here to America. And extras to a movie at that too,
"I don't know? Go to sleep, Alan." He says, turning back to his side again,
"What are you even saying? It's literally 8:00 pm, why are you sleeping so early?" I ask, genuinely concerned, because he always sleeps late,
"You don't realize? We're going to have a flight tomorrow and you're still awake."
"You're moody again, Kelly."
"Shut up."
I laugh. He turns back to his side then sleeps. I stare at the ceiling, thinking about what we would do once we got there in Europe. Suddenly, Kelly turns to me, eyes fully wide awake,
"I can't sleep, I can't do this." He says. He sits up straight, and looks at me, "To be honest, I don't really know why they chose us to be actors."
I nod, "True. We're just 10 years old and we're already acting?"
"How much salary are we even going to get?" He asks,
"Ooh! How much food are we gonna eat?" I say,
"There you go again, thinking about food." He says with a smirk on his face,
"What?! It's true!"
We continue our conversation until the night ends and enters a new day. When we finally got sleepy, I turned off the lamp beside my side of the bed, coddled my blanket, and went to sleep… But, while I was sleeping, I felt some rumbling on my chest, and vibrations that I couldn't even understand where it's coming from. It's like I was moving in some sort of public transport, but I think I was lying on the floor, I know it. I could feel the dust brushing against my chest, cheeks and hand. And I could feel on my hand a warm sensation, almost like another person is lying beside me. That could just be Kelly, who knows? Suddenly, everything went silent, and I was now dreaming of something weird.
"Coming Mom!" I say, but that wasn't me.
I look back at Kelly. He was back to his child form, but this time, more older and defined. He was also as confused as me. I looked around to see that the train's interior was melting into oblivion. My mind started to ring uncontrollably and I closed my eyes and covered my ears in pain. When I opened them, the train was gone. No trace. And when I looked around, I was in our backyard, in our old house, with my Mom and Aunt Julia looking straight at us from the wooden deck.
"Mom?" I whisper at a slight breath of relief and chills,
Suddenly, I got up from kneeling on the muddy grass, with the dirty mud on my shorts and shirt dropping every time I took a step, and my body started to move towards the wooden deck. I can't control myself. Kelly was experiencing the same thing too, I know it, like we're in our body, but it isn't us who's controlling them but… our younger selves.
Eventually, when we reached the deck, it was creaking loudly. I remember it hasn't been fixed even after graduation. I wonder if it's fixed now that I'm working. I haven't even visited my dad after graduation when I applied for a job at Kairon Corp.. I miss him. I miss my home. I'm so glad I'm back… and most of all, I missed mom.
"What do you want to tell us?" I say. I wish I could say more to her. Suddenly, my vision started to blur and turn blank ever so slightly, and I could no longer feel my presence in this body. It's like I'm reliving this moment again, like I'm becoming one with this young me. Suddenly, I remembered something. This was the moment where mom said…
"We're going to Europe!" She says. And my mind went completely blank.
I pushed myself up, breathing heavily, sweating, but couldn't remember a single thing about my dream. The same goes for Kelly too. He's drenched like he was having a nightmare, but couldn't even remember what the dream was about. When we look at the time, it was just the exact time where we needed to prepare our stuff for our flight.
"Did you dream some kind of nightmare?" I ask him,
"I don't know? Did you?" He asks me back,
"I don't know either." I look in front of me blankly.
After a minute, I push myself up off my bed, and the same goes for Kelly. We brush our teeths, shower, eat, then prepare our things. We never brought that topic up again. Although I do want to ask and talk about it more, I couldn't even remember what that dream was about. And asking Kelly about the same thing is just like asking a person if they knew that their brain is eating itself just to stay healthy. See what I mean? Once we were ready, Kelly grabbed his backpack, and I grabbed mine. Mom and Aunt Julia must already be waiting outside our car, with our luggage. I rushed down the stairs, Kelly almost tripped. When we push the front door open, I see dad smiling the whole time while helping to put the bags inside the trunk with Uncle Alex (Kelly's Father).
"Careful Terrence, you're too distracted about this Harry Potter thing." Aunt Julia says,
"I can't believe my son—and so is yours—are gonna be actors in this film!" Dad squeals like a girl, "I'm so excited!"
"Dibs on driving!" Mom says,
"No!" The 3 adults immediately says, looking at mom fiercely,
"What? We're gonna be there faster when I drive!" Mom says,
"Look, Grace, you drive like a maniac, okay? Not even kidding." Aunt Julia says,
"I one hundred percent agree." Uncle Alex nods, while inserting the large luggage in the trunk,
"I second that motion." Dad says,
Mom looks at dad, "Wha—you too, Honey?"
"Even though I'm your husband, I can't always agree with you." He says,
"Then don't!" Mom grumbles, "Anyways, where's Alan and Kelly?" Mom looks around, then spots us at the front porch, standing, holding the straps of our backpacks, "There you are!"
Mom invites us to go inside the car. I look at Kelly, and he looks at me. Mom shouted that there's no more food in the house and it's all in the car. When I heard this, I dash towards the car, leaving Kelly behind.
"Hey, wait up!" Kelly says, following me.
I got inside the car. It's enough to carry all the six of us. Though there's about 10 tickets, we only needed 6. I sat behind the car with Kelly beside me, it was pretty spacious, unlike the seats of the adults. I look outside the window, looking at our house, thinking when we will be back again here. When the adults finished talking, they went inside the car. Uncle Alex was going to drive the car… for safety measures. Aunt Julia turns on the radio. It plays "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman. The vibes inside the car turned like we're inside a movie. My parents and Kelly's parents are talking, while both me and Kelly are looking outside the windows.
"Speed so fast, it felt like I was drunk~" Music in the background,
"So, is this a new car?" Mom asks,
"It's not exactly a new car." Uncle Alex turns his head, then turns back to the road, "It's the 1st-Gen Honda Odyssey."
"How much?" Mom asks,
"I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone~" The music hums,
"Around twenty-six grand." Uncle Alex says,
"What a steal, especially for something this comfortable." Mom says, leaning on her seat,
"I know, right?" Uncle laughs,
We continue driving. Honestly, I don't get the talk about cars, especially about their brands. All I know is that I'm sitting in the back of the car with Kelly, in a moving red car, with the music playing on the radio. When the song ended, it played the next song, "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls. It's a pretty good song, released 2 years ago? I think? I don't know, but it became pretty popular after it got released. Though I was 8 years old, I heard it quite enough. Then, after the song ended, it played an unfamiliar song. It has a kind of eerie vibe to it, but also calm at the same time. The lyrics were about Ophelia, whoever she is, she was a lot of things. The lyrics say, "Ophelia was a bride of God" and "Ophelia was a rebel girl" or "Ophelia was a demi-goddess." When the song ended, we were already at the airport.
We get our stuff from the trunk, then walk inside the glass door. Once we showed our tickets and visas, we were good to go. We walked on the platform towards the airplane. Large windows surround us. I look to my side and see many planes taking off and landing, and other passengers entering the train on the same exact platform as us. I wonder where they're gonna be going.
Once we entered the plane, we were greeted by the staff. Apparently, mom got all 10 tickets as business class tickets. So we sat on a seat that's very comfortable. I got the window seat because I like to view the world from the inside. It was morning so I saw the full glory of the city being displayed fully when we departed from the ground.
I turn to see mom, "Mom, how many scenes in the movie are we gonna do?" I ask,
She turns to me, then says, "Oh, don't worry. Both you and Kelly will only do only one scene. We don't tend to stay there for too long… we only came there so that Terrence gets what he wants. And also as a fun and interesting way to spend our vacation, don't you agree?"
I think, then nod. I'm actually kind of nervous. To be on the big screen? I don't even know what I'm going to do. My heart started pounding from the nervousness I'm feeling. I'm not even there yet, but I'm already this nervous? Eventually, I think my mom notices because she leans towards me to check up if I'm okay.
"Is everything alright?" She says, putting her hands onto my hands that were shivering,
"Nothing." I say,
Mom looks at my eyes for a second, then lets go of my hand, looking back at dad. I look at her, then look back outside the window. We're so high above the clouds, I couldn't even see the ground anymore. When I tried to look, all I could see was blue. Maybe we're already in the ocean? Suddenly, my mom grabs my hand and wraps it with her warm scarf.
"You're freezing." She says while she continues to wrap the scarf on my hand,
I look at her doing this, "Thank you." I say, but I wish I could appreciate her more.
When she finished, she turned back to dad. Both of them were talking about what places are we going to visit, what foods are we going to eat, how many days we're staying, what hotel we're gonna go, and when we'll go back home. I stood up on my seat and looked behind, Kelly was there looking through the window. I call him, silently, but he doesn't respond. I called him again, but still, no response.
When mom saw me do this, she forced me to sit down. I grumble, and turn to my window. There's a small gap between my seat and the back, so I could see part of Kelly's face in between it. I call him, yet he doesn't dare to look, just staring at the window blankly.
Mom nudged me, and I turned towards her. I look up to see Aunt Julia standing up.
"Are you trying to call Kelly?" She says,
"Yeah?" I say,
"Don't even bother, he's sleeping." She says,
My brows furrowed, "What do you mean sleeping? He's clearly wide awake." I say,
"Oh, he's just like that. He often sleeps with his eyes open." She says casually,
"How does that even work?" I say,
"You tell me, we already went to the doctor to get it checked up. The doctor said it was normal so we just let it go." She explains,
I look at Kelly, then look at mom, "Mom, do we have a camera?"
Mom looks at me, "We do, but we're going to use it for our trip." She says,
I pause to think. Wasting valuable memory for a photo of this boy sleeping while his eyes are wide open seems to be an option for the stupid. But still, it can be a memorable trophy of honor at least. Getting a photo of your best friend in his vulnerable moments are things we truly do not want to miss. I look at mom with my desperate puppy eyes, "Pleaseeee???" I say in a high toned voice.
Mom looks at me, then sighs "Fine, you can use it. It's here." She looks at her purse and hands me the camera, there is only one film, but I surely can't miss it. I hope the plane doesn't have an immediate turbulence, that would very much suck.
I stood at my seat, angled the camera at the perfect position, and captured it. I look at the film as it's printing, then I let it dry. The flash seems to have woken Kelly up because he jolted when he heard the camera snap with the immediate flash of light.
"Did you just take a photo of me sleeping?" He asks all groggy,
"I was…'nt." I say hesitantly,
"Give me the camera," he stood up on his seat, trying to grab the camera from my hands,
"No! No way—I just took a rad photo of that… that…" I look behind Kelly, finding an interesting subject that I could make an example on, "that dog! Yes! That dog over there!"
"Don't try to reason it out, Alan! You literally pointed the camera at me." He says, still trying to take the camera from my hand,
"I wasn't! I swear—" Suddenly, a bright flash of light burst beside us. Both of us paused, then looked at both of our parents.
"Did… you just take a photo of us?" Kelly says, in the back of both our moms were our dads chuckling,
"Well… we couldn't miss this opportunity." Aunt Julia shrugs,
"I thought there was only one camera?" I say,
"And who the hell said that?" Aunt Julia says,
"Mom?" I say,
"No I didn't." Mom says,
I think we're being too disturbing to the other passengers, because as we were talking, someone coughed forcefully, like full on force. We looked at the man who just coughed, then sat back down at our seat.
"I think we were being too rude." I say to mom,
"I know." She says,
I pause to think, then look at the photo I just captured of Kelly. Once it finally settled, the colors were a little dark, but that can't stop me from seeing Kelly's mouth hanging wide open, with his eyes looking outside the window. His chin rests on the back of his palm, with his green polo shirt that's barely even ironed because of how rushed we were to prepare for our flight.
**********
A few hours of enduring a painful butt later, we landed. It took almost 9 hours to get here, but here we are. It's night time right now, and my knees are super cold. I don't know where we are, but the vibe feels pretty British to be honest. I've only seen the United Kingdom on TV, but never in real life.
"Teesside International Airport… so this is what it looks like." Uncle Alex says,
We're walking at the same platform we used when we were entering the airplane. I didn't expect it to be the same as it was in America. The only difference is that it's night time right now. But still doesn't stop the airplanes from landing here.
Mom looked at dad while we were walking, "Stop giggling Terrence. The filming will be set for 10:00 am tomorrow."
"10:00 am? But I can't wait that long." Dad grumbles,
"He sure does act like a child." Aunt Julia says,
"Tell me about it." Mom mutters,
Kelly looks at his mom, "Mom, why's Uncle Terrence acting like that?"
She looks at him, "Well, imagine there's a bag of candy—wait, not a bag of candy, but something you really want. But! You can only get it at a specific time tomorrow, and you can only get it once. What will you feel?"
"Impatient?"
"Exactly."
I've never seen dad this excited before. He's over-childing our childness over his excitement. I don't even know what we're going to do there, but I hope it's going to be easy. Wait, now that I'm realizing it, I can actually meet famous actors, if there are any? I don't know.
We walk towards the customer service, get our luggages, and leave the airport. We got ourselves a cab, and drove towards the hotel the adults rented. While driving, I looked at dad who was smiling the entire time. Suddenly, a thought came rushing through my head. Which I later regretted…
"Dad, what's the story all about?" I ask…
Dad looks at me. His head tilts and twitches, and his smile grows into a scary grin. Mom overheard my question, and lowered her head, covering her face with the scarf she used earlier. Aunt Julia and Uncle Alex reacted the same way too, while Kelly was sleeping.
"You shouldn't have asked—" Aunt Julia starts, but was interrupted by Dad's childlike squeal,
"You want to know about Harry Potter?!" Dad asks.
Oh no… I shouldn't have asked.
**********
"Dad! Please—stop, I'm already regretting what I said earlier. I want to sleep!!!" I shout quietly. After I asked that god-forsaken question, dad told the story in its entire detail like I'm reading the book itself. Even when we were inside the hotel lobby, waiting for mom to register us, he's just babbling on and on about this story. Even when we're ready to sleep, he's still talking about it. My eyes are now red, and my soul is tired. I want to sleep, but dad continues on talking and talking.
"Terrence, stop already!" Mom shouts,
"But, our baby wants to know the story." Dad says, in a weird baby tone,
"Just let him sleep, there's still a film for him to act tomorrow. And it turns out to be the one you're waiting for the most. Let him have his beauty sleep." Mom says, turning back to the other side of the bed.
Dad must've understood because he was quiet for a second, then burst out like a happy and excited, "Good night." He giggles, until it's completely silent.
I finally got my sweet sweet silence. We arrived at the hotel at 10:22 pm, and I'm so drained from the flight. I didn't even get a wink of sleep, but Kelly got to sleep three times? It's so unfair.
I close my eyes, then sleep. While sleeping, I feel the winds on my face, and grass around my body. Where am I?
I opened my eyes, and I was lying on a field filled with Ophelia roses and purple irises. I helped myself up, turned around, and saw a large hill. On top of it was a large tree. I blinked once, and I was now on that hill.
I could see almost the city's entirety from up here. This hill is somehow making me feel comfortable and relaxed, I don't know why. I look at my hands, I'm back to my older self, my original older form.
"Alan."
Someone calls behind. I turned around to see, but no one was there. I call for its name, but I can't. My mouth can't mutter what I'm even trying to say.
"My Iris."
A distorted, but warm voice says. That voice made me feel like I'm being hugged, with the warmth I perfectly needed. Suddenly, I started to float above the ground.
"Promise me you'll stay, my Ophelia." I say,
"I promise I'll never leave, Alan. My Iris." The voice says,
Suddenly, I hear the train's chuff. It grew persistent. And then, when I can't reach out to the ground anymore.
I wake up, breathing heavily, drenched in sweat. I can't remember my dream again. This is becoming weird, I don't know what's happening. The first time this happened was when we're at home, but honestly, I thought that was just a nightmare that I forgot the second I woke up. But it doesn't explain why Kelly experienced the same thing too.
"Is something wrong, Alan?" Mom asks, as she sat beside me on the bed the three of us slept,
"Nothing." I say,
"Are you sure? You can always tell me what's wrong." She says, looking sincerely at me, with those eyes that glimmer with love and care,
I sigh, "I don't know, I just keep waking up drenched in sweat. I said nothing because nothing literally even happened." I say to her, she hands me a towel to wipe my face with,
"Oh boy—you must be experiencing those night terrors." She says, grabbing the towel from my hands and wiping them on my face,
"Night terrors?" I ask, while she wipes my face and chest with the towel,
"You know—waking up drenched in sweat, and you forget about the dream you were dreaming about… want to get it checked up?" She says, as she places the towel on her lap,
"Oh, not thank you. Please, I'm okay." I say,
"Whatever you say," She stands up, "Though you do really need to tell me what's wrong, okay?" She asks, going to the bathroom,
"Yes mom." I say.
Mom enters the bathroom. I look at my hands, then look around the room. I haven't examined our hotel room so much yet. After we arrived here, we went straight to sleep… not really, dad bothered me for about an hour. It was a moderately sized room, only consisting of one bed, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a TV. It was like your typical hotel or apartment. The bed was placed in the middle of the room, each side having a drawer. In front of the bed was a mirror, beside it was the TV with a dvd player on it. The room was covered in stripes of gold and white wallpaper, somehow the gold reflected some kind of shimmer to it. The floor was plain and too typical to describe.
Dad wakes up, and the moment he rises from our bed, he asks what time it was. I check the clock placed on one of the drawers. It was exactly 7:23 am. I tell this to dad. Suddenly, he jumps out of bed, stretches his arms, and leaves the room. I think he's going to the other room where Kelly's family rests. However, I think it's too early for dad to even disturb them. Especially seeing him super excited about the filming.
Mom gets out of the bathroom, "Alan, it's your turn." She says. I stand up from standing, while dad comes back smiling and cheerfully dancing. "Excited aren't you?" Mom says,
"Beyond." Dad says, eyes wide open.
I chuckled at this, then went inside the bathroom to shower and brush my teeth. Good thing that there were heaters in the showers, the outside just felt a little too cold. I brushed my teeth, then went outside the bathroom after I finished. Then, dad zoomed past me, rushing towards the bathroom like he was late to go to work.
"Don't mind him, he's just super excited… the most I've ever even seen. My sweet yes from his proposal to me didn't even turn out like this." Mom says,
"Haha, I know." I say. I found my clothes in the luggages, and tried to put my clothes on. But before I could put them on, mom stopped me.
"Woah, hold it right there. You're not going to wear those today." She points at the clothes I'm holding,
"What? Why, though?" I ask,
"Because you're going to be filmed, and you're not really going to be filmed wearing civilian clothes in a movie about fantasy and stuff, right?" She says,
"So what am I gonna wear?" I ask, looking at the clothes I'm wearing. She puts them down on the bed, and points at one of the unfamiliar luggages we carried,
"Inside there is what you're going to wear." She says,
I look at her, then look at the luggage. I walk towards the brown luggage. I open it, and find a plastic covered attire. I tear the plastic open to see a brown checkered shirt, with dark brown pants to go with it. I look at mom, then look back at the attire I'm holding. I checked for more, and there was a khaki sweater to go with it. I think it's a little excessive at this point, I mean, we're just extras on a film, no need to become too extravagant, right?
While dad was humming his favorite song in the bathroom, mom helped me put on the outfit. The sweater was loose, but not too loose to hang in my shoulder, and the pants were perfect for my size too.
"I think your dad's going to love this." Mom says randomly,
"Dad doesn't know about this?" I ask, looking at her while she helps straightens my sweater,
"He doesn't know about anything." She says, "Looks like you're ready!" She turns me around to have a clear look at me. She covered her smile, and almost started to tear up, "Look at my baby Alan, all grown up to be an actor." She says, laying her hands on my cheeks,
"You forced me mom." I say, smirking a bit,
"Doesn't matter," she fixes my sweater again, "as long as you have a fun time, I'll be happy. And your dad too, you'll make him very proud." She says, chuckling,
Dad gets out of the bathroom, while still humming his favorite song. Steam behind him follows, then he pauses as he takes in what he's looking. I guess he's having too much to think about that seeing his son wear an outfit as the book suggests brought him to an overloaded system. Dad just stood there, looking blankly at me. Then after a while, when his brain started working again, he smiled, then pointed at me. Looking back and forth to mom and my attire with his jaw open. It's obvious he's smiling. My mom just nods, and then he looks at me, then he jumps in excitement.
I chuckle with mom. Seeing him so happy makes us happy. When he puts on his clothes, he hugs me with all his might, almost crying.
"Oh my son, you'll always be my favorite." Dad says,
"I'm an only child…" I say, looking at him hugging me tight,
"Doesn't matter." He says, "Now, what time is it?" He asks mom,
"You took so much time in the shower, it's already 8:44 am." Mom says,
"Shi…zzz, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Dad immediately got out of the room, while both me and mom just stared at each other, mesmerized by how super excited and happy dad was about this.
I push open the wooden door to see Kelly having the same outfit as me, the only thing that's different is that he has a scarf while I don't.
"Looks like both of them are ready." Aunt Julia says, ruffling both me and Kelly's hair,
"Mom~" Kelly grumbles, fixing his hair again,
"Such a perfectionist, who did you get that attitude from?" Aunt Julia asks,
"From you, I think?" Kelly says,
"Good job." Aunt Julia ruffles Kelly's hair again, "Anyways, shall we go now?" She asks,
"Terrence is already in the lobby. We shouldn't let the one who's really enjoying this be down." She says, giggling a bit,
"Let's go." Aunt Julia says,
The six of us got a cab to Goth Land if I heard that right… Oh Goathland, I remember. It's just an hour away from us so we shouldn't even be late.
**********
I didn't expect that the filming would be set in a train station. I thought there would be green screens everywhere because of magic stuff. But the only thing I've found was the cramming personnel's, with huge cameras in all angles you could think of. Mom is talking to the connection Aunt Julia was talking about, and I think they're getting along pretty well.
Once the conversation between them ended, the person my mom was just talking to nodded, then looked in our direction. Kelly and I are just sitting on a bench, not near the set. And my dad… let's just say my dad is busy looking at stuff he wants to look at. The person looked at mom again, then suddenly, both of them headed in our direction. Of course I need to look modest, so I adjusted my sitting position, straightened my back, and gave a slight smile to make a good image about me. You don't know, maybe they'll give me a chance to be an actor.
"What are you doing?" Kelly looks at me, hunched back with both of his arms on his legs,
"Can't you see that person over there coming over here?" I say, keeping my smile steady,
"You look like an idiot." He says, rude,
"I don't care, just follow my lead." I say,
Actually, even though I'm acting like this, I'm actually pretty nervous that I feel like my heart is about to break free into the outside world. My steady hands were becoming so numb that it actually feels so cold to the touch. Also, intense sweating too.
The person walks over and greets us both, "Hiya there. You must be Alan, right?" He looks at me, I nod, keeping my composure, "And you must be Kelly?" Kelly looks at him, then nods.
"Boys, this is Patrick. He's one of the personnel who was able to make you one of the extras in this film." Mom says,
"That's right." Patrick smiles, "When I heard that Grace got tickets to spend the entire week here in Europe, I was ecstatic. We were close friends from High-school—"
"Best friends." Mom reinforces,
"Of course! But not until my family moved here in the UK that we got separated. We were practically inseparable back in High-School." He says,
I just nod blankly, still forcing a smile, only thinking about when the filming will begin.
"Anyways, to continue the story. I heard that Terrence likes to read Harry Potter, and just by surprise, Grace called me if I could help out to surprise your dad." He pauses to breathe, "Good thing I was a part of this project, or else I wouldn't be of any help to Grace."
"That's true, you're useless if you weren't a part of this project." Mom says,
"Haha, very funny." Patrick says,
"It's satire." Mom shrugs,
I look at mom, still holding my still smile and straight back, it hurts! I scream internally. Mom seems to notice because she nudges Patrick.
"Oh—right! So to explain to you what you'll do. You'll just enter the train, with those racks filled with light-empty luggages. That's it. You can do whatever you want, but there's one thing I need to tell you, just as a tip, you continue to act not until the director says cut. Do you understand?" Patrick seems to be serious because his tone changes from being a joyful person to an employee who works 9-9 at a restaurant filled with people every day.
I look at Kelly, he seems to have understood the job, while I was too distracted by dad's eagerness to find the director of the film.
"Did you get that?" Patrick asks,
"Yup—I mean, yes." I say,
"That means he didn't—" Kelly says, but I stop him before he could finish his sentence,
"Didn't want to be impolite to you~" I say, still smiling.
"Sure…" Patrick gave me the look, then looked at mom, I can see him mutter something to her, like he said, "Definitely shot gist altitude grunt you." (He didn't, he said "Definitely got his attitude from you.") Patrick smiles, and says "Good luck!" as he was leaving.
Mom looks at me and Kelly, then looks at dad just scavenging the whole set. "I need to get Terrence to settle down before the filming even begins. You two just wait until it's your queue, okay?" Mom leaves, leaving both of us behind.
"So… what now?" I ask,
"I don't know?" He says,
Both of us sat idly on the bench, looking at the personnel walking by every time, and saw other extras walking around the set too. Suddenly, there was a static coming from a megaphone, "Okay, everyone, on your positions!"
I look at Kelly, "This must be the signal, right?" I ask him,
"What else could it be?" He says,
Both of us stood up. I saw Patrick and rushed over him, while Kelly followed me from behind. Patrick gave us one of the racks, it was unexpectedly lighter than it looks. Then, Patrick guided us to where we'll actually stand. Once we're set, he gives us a thumbs up and then leaves.
I look at Kelly, and he looks at me. My heart is pounding, and so many lights are everywhere. Cameras are also all over the place, with the crew specially stressing in the background. I look for mom and Aunt Julia when there's still some time left. There I spot them in a corner, with dad clasping his hands tightly, grinning so severely.
I signal to mom a nervous smile. In response, she smiled back and gave me a thumbs up.
Then, I heard "Action!".
Everyone started to move towards the train. Some extras that were kids were kissing their parents on their cheeks. I look around, and Kelly is stretching his arms, inviting me to come in the train. Of course I did so, and we entered the train. Inside was just compact. After the extras have done their job, they're just retouching their make-ups and preparing for another scene.
"Cut!" The director spoke,
I got out of the train, I never even got to see its inside, but I guess that's just it for this time. As I turned to leave, Patrick stopped me.
"Where are you going?" He asks,
"I'm… leaving?" I say, "Didn't we already do our part?"
Kelly backs me on this, "Yeah, I thought it was just one scene."
Patrick looks at both of us, then chuckles slightly, "Oh—what did your parents say to you? Yes, you're only going to do one scene… but it doesn't immediately mean that that scene is done. This is the 1st take of this scene. Once the director is satisfied with the result of this scene, you're good to go and explore this set." He says,
So… we're not done yet. I pause to think, but the moment I snap back to reality, I'm in my same position as earlier, next to a pillar. Above was a sign with a weird number, 9 3⁄4. I pause to think, what's that supposed to mean—
"Action!" The director says,
I pull my racks towards the train, Kelly looks at me and hits me up with a random conversation. Of course I comply, but not too long. Once we entered the train, I didn't just stay in the hallway, I found a small cabin that we could shelter for now as many other extras entered the train and crowded this place. Inside the cabin were 2 seats facing each other with no table in the middle. A large window to view beside. And a space for us to put our racks in. I inspected it a little longer, the seats were blue and soft, it's also comfortable to sit in.
"Cut!" The director says over the megaphone,
We leave the train. Are we done now? I gained the courage to ask one of the actors on set. They said that once the director says "That's a wrap—" it means that the filming is done.
I ponder this for a bit, then look at Kelly again. "How many times do you think we'll have to do this?" I ask,
"I don't know?" He says, shrugging it off,
**********
It took longer than expected. It took us almost 10 takes just to get that sweet "That's a wrap, people." by the director. It took so long that I actually got to see who the main character is. His name is Danielle Radcliffe from what I've heard? The same age as mine too, I think? When I see him acting, he looks like an actual natural, I'd give him that. Also, now that I've seen what a real movie set looks like, I think I'll just stick to being a normal human being, I don't think I can handle being an actor for all I know.
The filming ended exactly at 12:36 am. And now they're setting up the place for another scene to film. When our scene ended, both me and Kelly explored the set. It was just a normal train station, not just built for this exact film. As we continue to wander around, Mom calls us for snacks at one of the tables. Kelly and I walk there and eat something. Dad actually met the director earlier, and dad being a fan, wanted a spoiler from the director himself. Of course he didn't say it, but at least they had a fun conversation.
"Did Uncle Terrence have fun?" Kelly asks to mom, eating blueberry cupcakes,
"He's still having fun, I guess. But I think once I tell him that we have to leave in just an hour, he might cry." Mom says,
"Why do I think that too?" Kelly asks himself,
"We'll just have to guess, I guess." Mom takes a cracker from the table and eats it,
Suddenly, Patrick came over to us holding 6 long but thin boxes. "This is an appreciation gift, from the department, for coming here… just kidding, I got these all for you." He pauses, then searches for something in his pocket, "And also, this is a special gift just for Terrence, I'm sure he'll love it. Okay, that's all. Thanks and ba-bye!" Patrick leaves, leaving behind 6 boxes and a mysterious small square box.
"Hey! Wait up!" Mom shouts, leaving her unfinished crackers on a plate to catch Patrick.
Dad walks over to this table and gets some snacks to eat. "Not even an update to the new book? That Director knows how to keep a secret." Dad sighs,
"We're leaving in an hour." Kelly says. Way to ruin dad's moment,
"What?!" Dad shouts. People and personnel looked at him. He lowers his head and whispers, "What? In an hour?"
"Yeah. Ask Alan, he'll know." He points at me while holding his blueberry cupcake,
"Me?" I point at myself, he nods, "Uhh, yeah mom said so earlier." I say,
"But I haven't even explored this place yet!" Dad says,
"Dad, you literally explored this place more than we even did. Andwe're the actors." I say,
"But—" Before he continues, he spots mom walking back towards us. Dad immediately left to ask mom why we're already leaving in an hour.
After a bit of conversation, dad seems to have given up, because his shoulders were down, and his expressions changed from being happy to being down all of the sudden. Suddenly, I remember the boxes that Patrick gave us. It's still placed neatly on the table. When both dad and mom returned to the table, I handed him one of the long boxes and the square box, which was quite heavy.
"What is this?" He asks, holding on to the boxes,
"Patrick gave this to us as an appreciation gift." I say,
Dad opens the long box to see a wooden stick. He immediately froze, looking blankly at the stick he was holding. "Are you f#$@ing kidding me?" He mumbles, I couldn't even hear it. He looks at me, looks at the stick, looks at mom, and looks back at the stick. He was frozen, then he walked over to the table and put it down gently. I don't even know why he's reacting like that. He opens the next box, the quite heavy one. It was just a golden ring with a black pyramid-like structure as its stone. Dad seems to have no idea what implications the item has to Harry Potter, but he still keeps it. (Truth be told, he's holding a major spoiler in the Harry Potter series)
Mom looks at me and Kelly, "Julia and Alex are waiting outside the set. Let's go?" She says,
Dad turns to her, "Wait, didn't you say that we're going to leave in an hour?" Dad puts down the items he received,
Mom clears her throat, "I'm sorry, what I meant to say was we're going to be back in Middlesbrough in an hour."
"That's such a large gap from what you've said earlier." Dad grumbles, I could almost see the tears forming from his eyes,
"Well, we're leaving because we're going to France next." Mom says,
"Will there be Harry Potter in there?" He asks,
"No."
Dad cried out. The loudest I've heard. People looked, but didn't even care in the end. He kneeled in front of mom, begging for more time, but I guess we've already spent enough time and did our part inside this set. Dad, in the end, gave up trying to beg for mom and now his emotions were scarred for life.
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." I say to him,
He looks at me, holding the boxes in his hand. Tears fell from his eyes, and snot was falling from his nose. We walked around the set for the final time, taking pictures around using the same camera I used to take a picture of Kelly. We shot a picture of the train, then shot a picture with only dad in it. He's still holding the boxes like a child with his toy, and the redness around his eyes were still very much visible. Then we asked Kelly if he could take pictures of us as a family. He did, and we smiled as the camera shot a beam of light at us.
"You should join too, Kelly. Both you and Alan." Mom says, "Terrence, go over outside and call Julia and Alex, they need to be in this photoshoot."
Dad eventually gives in and leaves. The remaining boxes for us were also carried by him. I think he's going to leave it now inside the car the adults rented. While I look at dad leaving, mom takes the camera from Kelly and pushes Kelly beside me.
"Ready?" She says,
"We haven't even posed yet! Wait!" Kelly says frantically,
"I'm basically ready, take a picture of us now mom!" I grin,
"Wait!" Kelly fixes his sweater and pants,
"Three…" Mom counts down,
"Not done!" Kelly says,
"Mom!" I shout, holding my pose as he still fixes his outfit,
"Two…"
"Okay, I'm ready now." He says, posing like a model,
"One!" Mom presses the shoot button. It flashes us with a bright light. As the film prints, Aunt Julia and Uncle Alex arrive.
"Oh, you're here now. Terrence, go grab someone to take a picture of us as a whole group." Mom looks at dad, while dad still looks down, "Alan, step aside please? It's Kelly's family's turn to take a picture." She says,
I step aside,
"Oh, so that's what it was all about." Aunt Julia says,
"What did Terrence say to you?" Mom says,
"Nothing. Literally nothing. He just pointed directly inside the set and said no other words." Uncle Alex says,
"What even happened? I thought he was—Ohh…" Aunt Julia realizes, "That destroyed him?" They walk towards their position,
Mom readies the camera, "Yeah… Ready? One, two, three." A bright flash of light flashes them. They unfreeze their pose and smile, "I don't know how I'll get him back."
"Just give him some time. Sometimes we just need to let go of the things we love." While Aunt Julia was talking, a woman who seems to be part of the actors came in and asked if we were the one requesting assistance,
"Yes, we are. Where's the person who—" Mom spotted dad, "Come now honey!" She invites him,
Both families were now in one picture. The woman asked us if we were to compress in which we comply. Then she counts down and takes a picture of us.
"Thank you! And now we leave." Mom says
"Wait, mom! Let me get that camera. You go on without me." I say, "Follow me, Kelly."
Kelly followed me towards the main actors. We got the opportunity to take a picture with the main cast as well. I'll save this memory forever. We walk towards the outside of the set. I think I'm gonna miss this place, even though we were just there for about 3-4 hours.
We entered a car, dad was huddled in the corner. Silently crying, while I was all tired and wasted. Beside me was Kelly and mom. Kelly was also super tired after a tiring filming. I turned to mom, who clearly had fun the entire day, "So, where are we gonna go next? I heard we're going to France?"
I feel like I'm about to pass out from my tiredness. Kelly was beside me and he looked nauseous as well. I just want to sleep it off. I thought to myself.
"We're gonna go to…" Mom says continuing to explain where we'll go next, but somehow I can't hear her, the words were starting to blur,
"What?" I ask,
Suddenly, a rumble. Like we just passed a big bump. Then, vibrations that feel like it's getting rougher each time. Kelly must've felt it too because he looked at me like I was experiencing the same thing as him. Then, everything started to ring violently, I closed my eyes out of pain.
*********
I push myself up, letting myself breathe. I looked beside me, and Kelly was lying on the floor, out cold too. I check myself for any bruises or physical changes, but everything seems to be normal.
I push myself to stand, stumbling a bit. I looked around, then I froze. Kelly wakes up, breathing heavily too. "I felt like I was drowning!" Kelly looks at me already standing, "Hey, can you help me?" He says, but I remain frozen.
He stands up, ready to confront me. But when he stands up, that's when he notices something different.
"Alan, I heard you were acting in a movie in another country, is that true?" Kids' voices fill my head, but I shake it off, looking at everything inside the train.
"The train… changed." I mutter silently.