these are pictures of my son
flips back puffy vinyl photo album cover style real popular in the 1970s now cracked and brittle with age
the photos are shifting to red but you can still make out the stolid face of her son
he was going to be a movie star
(whaddya say to something like that? geeze, lady, your kid's too plain there's no spark of personality in his face he may have been the greatest kid in the world but he sure couldn't project it on camera) looks nice
there used to be a film maker living in our complex did local commercials, industrial training films, that sort of thing [porn] there were a lot of big sci-fi films being released then he had an idea for a parody of one film wanted to star my son in it said it woulda been a big hit if he'd ever finished it
why didn't he
my son got sick leukemia died
oh, i'm sorry
(a shrug) these things happen but the movie it was only halfway done the film maker put too much time too much effort in to start again but he didn't have enough footage to finish the story so he kept trying to come up with clever ideas to finish it using my son’s scenes
what happened
he died, too oh, not right away about fifteen years later he tried he shot a few extra scenes but he could never finish it
flip through more pages behind the scenes shots film maker is old, skinny, maybe wiry is more flattering
(he's a clever old bird spaceship made of plywood and old car parts cheap camera tricks, nothing hi-tech the camera? 16mm good enough for training films [porno] but a theatrical feature?) why show me this
one of the ladies from the church said you worked in movies
(once upon a time, yeah)
and know a lot about science fiction
(...and...?)
do you think someone could ...find the original footage ...complete the film ...get it released
(sure, anything's possible Jesus might be parasailing in at this very minute) who was the film maker
she gives a name
(no ping i'm far from an exhaustive compendium of show biz who's who, but... no ping) what was the name of the movie he was parodying
she gives a title
(there were three big sci-fi films of that era this ain't one of 'em a big over-hyped dud forgotten the week it was released) the film maker did he have a family a company an estate
no he was single
(and then it comes out he promised to make her son a star her husband thought she was showing him too much attention not that they ever did anything inappropriate not ever but the marriage got strained then the son got sick then the marriage disintegrated and the son died there were more husbands after that but no more children)
so this guy he's been dead how long no idea who his family was who might have the negatives
no
(well, hell probably long gone thrown out eons ago a forgotten film left unfinished by a failed film maker starring a non-pro nobody knows --
and the little light, she comes on this is not about her son this is about validation of her own life reduced now to a lonely existence in an assisted nursing facility where nobody knows nobody cares about her or anything related to her
and if somehow she could pluck this cold dead ember from her past blow some life back in it get a spark to flicker to life her own existence will be forever justified)
some dreams need to die not be put on life support
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(c) Buzz Dixon