KRISTY The shit also happens to the stars

Being me !

The interviews are linked, sitting on the terrace of a hotel room on the ground floor on Sunset Beach, facing the sea, sunglasses on my nose, I answer with dexterity and relaxation to the questions of film journalists . Communication is second nature to me.
The sun is beating down, Darren keeps changing position on his chair to try to protect his eyes from the sun's rays, in vain!
Often, from one journalist to another, the same questions come up, you have to know how to turn an answer in several possible directions so as not to give the same formula while expressing an identical speech. Above all remained natural, it is the secret of an accomplished interview!
The interview is coming to an end, I think it must be the fifth of the morning. Once the journalist is gone, I take the opportunity to stretch myself, it makes me yawn. Darren finished his glass of soda.

- You want us to swap places?
- What would that change?
- Let my body block the sun since you forgot your sunglasses.
- Oh yes, cool, thank you!

We swap our chairs.

- It's better !
- It's not perfect but it will be fine!

A new journalist takes his place in the chair in front of us, it is off again for a good half hour.

- How are you Miss Watters? If you believe what the media are saying, you have had an eventful year.
- Well, thank you, do not believe everything that is said in the media. Most of the time, it's all storytelling. You are in a good position to know that.

He shows me the portrait that was taken on leaving the hospital.

- I think we can't make this up, right?
- And I don't think that's the topic of the day. Thank you for caring about my health, today everything is fine. Other professional questions?

The interview resumes its legitimate course. The polemicist has understood that I will not play his game.
The journalists parade one after the other until the end of the afternoon. They come from all over the world to be the first to publish the interview with the most unlikely filmic couple. He is a regular in action and superhero movies. She is used to thrillers and fantastic dramas. Without Paul the director we would never have met. And yet, here we are for a dramatic comedy featuring the tragedies of a couple. Darren drinks his umpteenth soda, but how does he keep his athletic body by drinking so much junk.

- I'm washed, and you?
- No, too happy to finally be able to get back to work.
- Do you want to go to dinner or do you have something else planned?
- I'm already taken this evening but we will not have the opportunity to have dinner together during the promotion, if you hold back on the bottle!
- Ah, you haven't forgotten!
- How can we forget this historic moment?

We laugh at the thought of this embarrassing moment.

- Ok, I have to go, I'm already late, see you all!

I meet Thelma as soon as possible on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. But that's without counting the legendary traffic jams of Los Angeles, here a few kilometers can be covered in several hours.
When I finally arrive, very fresh, thank you for the air conditioning! A huge crowd blocks most of the street. To reach Thelma in this crowd, I must first find the stand where she performs, in order to make her profession, often victim of prejudice, known to festival-goers.
After what seems to me to be a laborious journey, I see the advertising posters announcing the Bartenders competition. I sneak through the crowd to Thelma's exhibit booth. She does the show as if her life depended on it, a way for her to exist.
I must have been watching her with the other strollers for about ten minutes when she finally realizes that I am there. She beckons me to approach. I lift the swing table to pass to the other side of the exhibition counters. She takes me by the neck and voluntarily slips, wanting to kiss me. I spontaneously step back and question her with a look, she has no reaction. She continues her show ignoring me completely. What's wrong with him, a fly stung him?
On the counters, several piles of leaflets were made available. The competition is open to the public.
Strollers like Thelma's show, more and more of them flocking around the counter. The more there are, the more she seems to me to have entered a sort of trance. Too creepy, that must be part of the show! She decides to turn to me and asks me to pass her a basin full of disposable and recyclable cardboard cups. I ask him where to put it? She answers me on the counter to her left. That's when she thinks she's a bastard and ridicules me in public by spanking me. I remain speechless, I discover his true face. I don't even know how to react, especially since I can see a journalist coming to cover the event. She did it on purpose, that's for sure!
Enough is enough ! I don't need his chauvinistic ways or his humiliations. She's going to screw up my career, presumably that's what she's trying to do. She's dreaming !
I do not disassemble and overturn the entire content of one of his shakers on his head, in front of an audience who seems more than delighted with the show. With that, I turn on my heels without looking back.

I'm not going home for the night, I don't want to see her when it's her turn to come home. I need to breathe! What's more, on my way to my parents, I'm sure to run into Christopher. Looking for my car keys in my wallet, I have a hunch! I open the interior zipper to retrieve the little piece of paper Thelma gave me after writing her phone number on it. This one has disappeared, just coincidence? I am however convinced to have silently stored it in this place.

I roll the windows open, at this hour, it's nicer than the air conditioning. It's inexplicable, but I feel different! I have the feeling of being myself again, of reliving as though disenchanting with a flow of negative energy. I feel light and serene, my being is relieved of a weight that I was not aware of before. My mind is reborn and can again think and act. Everything in me is stronger, everything except the gaping hole left in me by the loss of my son. I put my hand on my chest at the place of my pain but also the indelible mark of my love for him.

I have already arrived, to think I did not see the journey parade.
I am about to open the front door when I hear a noise coming from the garden which is familiar to me. I let go of the handle and retrace my steps. I walk around the family house lined with blue borage, orange-yellow poppies and pink poppy to reach the private courtyard. I go through the Push door, unsurprisingly I can see Christopher sitting on one of the swings.

- Hi bro!

He jumped, he hadn't heard me coming, too busy staring at his cell phone. I sit next to him on the second swing.

- Hi sister, what are you doing here?
- I return the question, you seemed elsewhere.
- I'm preparing a new challenge for in a few months. It takes a lot of preparation and training.
- Another one of your extreme sports?
- Yes, I'm new to Slacklime and it's so awesome!
- Wait, isn't it this sport where you have to walk on a wire balanced in the void?
- If that's too cool, right?
- It's cool if you take away the dangerousness of the thing.
- And you then, you're not with your other half. Didn't she have a performance to do tonight?
- Oh yeah ! I can assure you that Madame did the show tonight.
- Explain yourself !

I tell him about my funny adventure because the least we can say is when this moment, I collect them and it frankly starts to irritate me. The more I talk, the more Christopher laughs. At least that has the merit of entertaining him.

- What are you going to do ?
- Have a frank and honest conversation with her but only after promoting my film because I have to focus on my career first. I have already missed an opportunity, I cannot afford to fail a second time.
- Well, there you are, I recognize you sister!