“Oh yeah . . .” My recall clicked at his reminder and an image of my mother came to me, so very young to be having a brood of boys wrecking everything in her fine, old house. She and my grandmother tried their best to civilize us, with deportment lessons and mandatory reading lists, not to mention dancing around the house to French records.
“It’s a love song.”
“Is it?” I asked, pulling onto the primitive dirt road.
“Yes. So why are you whistling it so much?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know.” But that wasn’t true. I guess I did know. I was thinking about Sarah and her chestnut eyes and full lips. It was the song that came to mind whenever I thought of her. It just seemed to fit.
“Yeah, you know.” Cletus sounded irritated. “You’re just not going to tell me.”
I studied my brother for a beat, debating whether or not to share the truth. In the end, I decided to tell him, even though it could be used as ammunition. Drew, who had become a good friend, had counseled me on more than one occasion that I needed to show trust in my brothers in order to gain trust.
So tucking my contrary instincts away, I cleared my throat and admitted, “I met someone.”
The cab was quiet for maybe a half minute before Cletus echoed, “You met someone?” I felt his shrewd eyes inspecting me before he asked, “You mean, you met a woman?”
I nodded quickly, checking my rearview mirror for no reason. We were going five miles an hour through the deserted prairie. The chances of encountering another vehicle were zero.
“So this woman has you whistling a love song?”
“I guess,” I started to say, being evasive, but then corrected myself, “I mean, yes. This woman has me whistling a love song.”
Glancing at Cletus, I was surprised to see a rare smile curving his lips.
“Well, that’s great.” He nodded, reiterating quietly, “That’s really great.”
This was effusive encouragement for Cletus. It left me disoriented. Hence, when he launched into his bombardment of questions, I answered plainly.
“So what’s her name?”
“Sarah.”
“And where’d you meet her?”
“She was lost last week coming up the mountain going to Hank Weller’s place. I drove her the rest of the way.”
“This is the car Duane filled with gas and moved during your surprise party?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And she’s staying with Hank?”
I shook my head. “No. She’s not staying with Hank at his place, she’s staying at his cabin on Bandit Lake.”
“Ah. Well, what does she do? Who is she?”
“She’s a writer. She wrote the script for this movie.”
Cletus grew still and quiet. When I glanced at him again he was staring out the windshield, his expression showing he was confused.
“What? What’s wrong?” I asked.
“She said her name was Sarah?”
“Yep.”
“Are you sure? Sarah?”
“Yes.”
“Any last name?”
“No. But I haven’t asked for it yet.”
“And you saw her just the once?”
Something about Cletus’s new line of questions had me sitting a little straighter. “No. She was lost again this morning, so I dropped her off to the movie set and made plans to pick her up after, so she doesn’t have to worry about finding her way back. Why?”
“What does she look like?”
I settled my frown on him. “Why?”
His eyes widened to innocent circles. “You know I follow the film business, I was just trying to figure out if I knew of her, any of her previous works and the like, since you don’t know her last name.”
“Fine. She’s tall, five eight or more. Curvy. Dark hair, dark eyes, dimples.”
When I said dimples, Cletus huffed a peevish sigh.
Ignoring him, I continued, “She writes comedies, won a contest when she was in college.”
He hesitated, then stated rather than asked, “A stand-up contest.”
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
He shrugged, no longer meeting my eyes. “Just a guess. And you said she told you she wrote this film?”
“Yes,” I bit out, growing irritated. “What are you not saying, Cletus? Do you know of her or not?”
He shrugged. “I think I’ve heard of her. She wrote a film called Taco Tuesday a few years back; it made a huge impression and about a billion dollars worldwide. Launched the lead actress’s career. Diaz is her name. Um, Diaz just won an Oscar for best actress this year. She’s probably at the top of the A-list celebrity pile right now, has been for the last two years or so. A real big deal.”