King of Her Desire

14

The kids stood on those old splintery steps to Mima's doublewide waving until they couldn't see us anymore, probably. I could tell they really didn't want us to leave.

There were a lot of kids there that day. Grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Random children. So it'd be bedlam in there.

She has a hard life, Mima. She's everybody's emergency babysitter. And sometimes the people who drop off those kids don't come back for a few days. Months, even.

She's not just head of her household, she's head of the family. And the whole neighborhood, kind of. Because she's managed to maintain a household in one place longer than most.

It's a pretty transient sort of area. Most of the trailers are rented. By people who can't afford anything more substantial. Can't afford the trailers, either, to be honest.

So, they run off suddenly in the night when they can't make the rent. The sibs talk about that a lot. How they can't keep friends for long there because people just leave.

Of course, we never stayed anywhere all that long, either until Mima took us. It wasn't an ideal situation, but they were settled. I could sleep better knowing that.

Elliott had fallen in love with those kids, too. Turned all the way around in her seat to wave out of the back window until we made a turn and there was no way to see them anymore.

"They like you," I told her.

"They're beautiful. You all have these perfect faces—your mother, you said, right?"

"Yeah, she's the dream girl, Grace. Blue-eyed blonde—named for that one in the movies. That one that married some prince or something."

"Is she?"

"Yup. They name their kids after country singers, movie stars..."

"Lots of people do."

"Yeah, I guess. It's just kinda sad to me for some reason. They're about as far away from all that as it's possible to be."

"Well, that's about to change, isn't it?" she said. With this big old smile on her face.

And I said, "Maybe. If I have the right...rapport..."

She laughed and said, "They will love you. And you know, they have teachers on set. I'm sure we could make some sort of arrangement for the children, too."

I laughed and said, "Could we just take it one step at a time, please?"

And she just flat out told me, "Well, I don't want them there. There's no reason for them to be there. Even if the show only lasts one season you'll have quite a nice little nest egg. And we've told you about Ben. He's amazing with money."

"What kinda money are we talkin' here?"

"The SAG rate for a regular is something like 4 grand a week—you're not in SAG yet, but you will be. And it could be considerably more, depending on how things go."

I almost lost control of the car. And she gave my knee a pat and said, "You're a friend of the family. Of course, it isn't entirely up to Aaron, but..."

"Don't push them, okay? Whatever that SAG thing is, that'll do."

"That's precisely why you need a lawyer," she said. "You have to come in with your dukes up. Negotiating isn't just about money. It sends a message."