Lights, Cameras, Outsiders!

Chapter 74

LCO 74

"Hey, Essie, I'd like you to meet someone," Francis said behind me as I peeled parts of latex off of Ralph's shoulder.

"Yeah? Who is it?" I said, sticking a small scraping tool in between my teeth and studied the layers of latex on Ralph's shoulder.

"My nephew, Nic Cage," Francis said.

"Oh yeah? Hi!" I said, taking the tool from in between my teeth and lifting a little pieces and peeling it off of Ralph's skin.

"Hi," a low, enthusiastic voice said.

"Tell me, Ralph. Is he cool?" I whispered. Ralph laughed.

"Yeah...he could get along," Ralph said. I turned Ralph's chair around and peeked over his shoulder.

"Hi, I'm Essie," I said to the boy standing at the door of the trailer. He was tall and thin with a large forehead and small eye and brown hair combed over the top of his head.

"Hi, Nic Cage," he extended his hand. I shook it and went back to concentrating to flaking the latex off again.

"This hurting you?" I said.

"I'll leave you to get to know each other," Francis said.

"Hey! Francis! I need Matt in here!" I said.

"I'll get him!" Francis said as he left.

"So, uh, you do makeup?" Nic asked.

"No. I just help out around here. Jack's out for coffee so I'm helping with Ralph's makeup here," I said.

"My uncle says you're a pretty amazing person to be working on this set."

"Your uncle is right. She's pretty fuckin amazing," Matt walked through the door. Nic's eyes widened.

"Hey, babe," Matt walked over and kissed me.

"Hi."

"Who's this? Hey, look, it's Johnny in the flesh. What is this shit?" Matt rubbed his thumb against Ralph's shoulder.

"Latex. And this is Nic, Francis's nephew," I said.

"Latex? What the hell is latex?"

"It's a material for special effects. For the burns," I said.

"Get in the chair," I said.

"Why?"

"Your makeup."

"Aight," he got into the chair and sat back.

"So you're the infamous Nic Cage I hear so much about?" Matt said.

"You hear about me?" Nic sad.

"Yeah. Apparently you got a part in Rumblefish," Matt said.

"Yeah. Smokey."

"Then who's playing Steve, honey?"

"Oh, uh, they told me this....Spano.

Spano from Over the Edge."

"Spano his last name?"

"Vincent Spano," Nic said.

"Yeah, Vincent," Matt said.

"What about Motocycle Boy?" I said.

"Oh, fuck! You didn't hear about that?!" Matt exclaimed.

"No, I didn't. Ok, Ralph, Jack'll finish you up," I said, standing up and opening the kit.