The Natalie Incident Ch. 2

'You folks sleep well?' He enquired, once more running his thickly-lensed eyes over Natalie.

'The storm kept us both awake, but we got through it,' Nat said, glancing at me and giving me the kind of smile that made me wish we were back in the room again.

'Hellish weather,' he said. 'Comes by only once in a blue moon. You guys were unlucky.' He stood, brushing sugar from his shirt. 'Want some coffee?'

We both said that we did, and Hustler King wandered away into a back room, whistling as he went. I crossed over to the payphone that was on the reception counter and fed quarters into the slot, and dialled Keith's number. He answered on the second ring, and instead of being pissed with me, as I thought he would, he was actually filled with genuine concern for our well-being. I told him our location and he promised to arrange the breakdown services to come and collect us. I gave him my cellphone number and told him to call us if plans changed, then thanked him and hung up.

The King returned with the coffee, and although the cups were chipped and not entirely clean, the coffee was hot and good, laced with sugar and cream. Natalie took a couple of sips and then used the phone to call the Location Manager of her shoot. While she spoke to him I took one of the donuts offered by The King and let him explain to me the delicate details of Pro-Wrestling. He seemed to know more about the business than was healthy, but I guessed that stuck out here in the middle of the desert there wasn't a great deal else to do.

Natalie finished on the phone and we drained our cups, thanked the King and returned the keys. He waved at us as we walked hand-in-hand out of the dirty screen door, and when I looked back over my shoulder his attention was already back on the TV.

The sun was already hot, and the rain filled car-park had returned to the dust bowl of the previous day. We walked slowly toward the deserted highway, and when we reached the blacktop I turned and put my arms around Natalie, pulled her to me and held her tight.

'The crew are sending a car out for me, Rich,' she said into my chest. 'I have to get back to the set or I'm going to be in all sorts of trouble. Can you sort out the details with the breakdowns?'

I sighed. 'Of course, no trouble. I just wish you were coming back to the city with me.'

'So do I, but I've got to work. Anyway, so have you. Aren't you at the studio today?'

I nodded, but it was a glum kind of acknowledgement without any conviction. Natalie tickled me lightly under my chin.

'Hey, c'mon. Smile. Isn't that what you told me last night?'

I did smile. 'Sure. Need to take my own advice I guess.'

'You'd better. I don't want to kiss a sad face.'

We stayed like that for the next few minutes, arms around each other, caressing each other, kissing occasionally, until the sound of an engine roused both of us from the attentions of each other and made us look along the highway. A black Lincoln with dusty arches pulled to a stop on the edge of the road opposite us, and a large man with a shaven head and a polo shirt climbed out from behind the driver's door. The sunlight glinted from his expensive looking shades.

'Miss Portman, everything alright?'

Natalie nodded, still holding onto me. 'Everything's fine, Ed. Give me a minute will you?'

He nodded and got back into the car, closing the door quietly.

'Will you be Okay?' Nat said, taking my face in both her hands.

'You bet, I'll meet the tow-truck and get everything squared away. Just make sure you have a good day on set.'

'I'll try. I just wish I was spending it with you.'

'Don't say that sweetness, this is hard enough as it is.'

'I'll call you as soon as I'm back in the city, I promise,'

I lowered my head and kissed her once, my hands in her hair, and then pushed her gently away from me. 'Go on and go,' I said, 'before I pick you up and run back to L.A.'

Natalie turned away and trotted lightly across the road, a cool breeze picking up the tails of her shirt and whipping them around her. She opened the back door of the Lincoln, turned and blew me a kiss and climbed in. The door thudded behind her.

The car span around in a cloud of dust, and the driver called Ed tipped me a quick salute as he went past. Then I saw Natalie's face in the back window, those deeply beautiful eyes looking forlorn as she disappeared into the large expanse of the desert road. She waved at me as she left, and I stood on that road side until the car and her had gone from my vision. Everything immediately seemed to become deathly quiet.

I broke the silence with a huge breath of air that whistled out of my lungs. I gazed around me at the hot, scorched desert earth and suddenly felt totally alone. For a second I even contemplated returning to the motel reception and settling down for a day of porn and wrestling with The Hustler King, but I decided against it.

I started the walk to where the car was still hopefully abandoned, my head down and my hands thrust deeply into my pockets. It was only when I felt salt on the corner of my mouth that I realised my face was wet with tears.

So, I want to be able to tell you that Natalie and I met up back in Los Angeles and carried on where we left off at the Drop-Inn Motel. I want to tell you how we became a great couple, sharing everything and spending long days and nights in each other's company. In a book or film, that's what would happen, right?

Things rarely work out in real life like they do in fiction.

I got back to the city that afternoon, after spending a few hours sorting out the details of the sick vehicles, and I made it down to Universal Studios with minutes to spare, delivered my lines satisfactorily and returned gratefully home. Around Seven I met up with Keith and we shared a couple of beers while I related what had happened. I didn't tell him how close myself and Nat had become, obviously that was something I wanted to keep to myself. He left my place after Nine, and minutes later the telephone rang. I picked it up excitedly, hoping it was her, full of expectation to hear her voice once more.

It was Natalie, and we talked for over an hour, about the day and the previous night, but when I said goodnight and replaced the receiver, I sat on the couch for a long time, staring out of the window at the crescent moon that hung low over the city. I replayed the conversation over in my head, and I knew then that we would never be properly together. Something had changed between us, when we talked it was not as the lovers that we had been twenty-four hours earlier, but as the friends that we had been for the past few months. We'd shared something very special, something that I knew I would never forget, but it was that perfect moment that I mentioned earlier, and perfect moments can rarely be repeated. Mine and Natalie's moment would always be lying together in a storm battered motel room, and even if we tried that was something we could never capture again.

We did see each other upon her return, and we still went out together as friends. We kissed a few times but never slept with each other again, and Natalie returned to her old boyfriend, Chris. Just as I was sure jealousy on my part was going to drag our friendship down, she called and told me she was going away to Australia for three months to work on the second part of Star- Well, I'm sure you're all familiar with how her career is going. Into outer space, you might say.

And me? I kept on with my bit part acting career, but it never really seemed to be going anywhere, and eventually the frustration of the business and loneliness of the big city became to much for me. I got behind the wheel of my old Pinto about Five one Thursday morning and started the long drive back home to my folks in the country. I got myself a little apartment, and used my degree in Journalism to land a job reviewing movies and music for the local paper. I'm happier these days, life is much more simpler than it used to be, and I get paid to go to the cinema, which can't be a bad thing. I go out with friends at the weekend, play some basketball, even go on the odd date now and again when I can win some poor girl over with a dumb chat-up line.

But I still think of Natalie. Some nights I can be lying in my bed, cool drafts coming through the open window, and I stretch out my hand across the sheet and almost feel her hot skin under my touch. I close my eyes and see her slender body and delicate face, almost feel her lips against mine. And whenever a storm hits town, and the thunder shakes my house, my thoughts and dreams are always filled with her sound of her voice...

End