Melissa broke into a smile again and looked right at Midnight. “Mother thinks I’m evil,” she said.
“I know you are! You are evil! If I had my way, I would...”
“You’d what?”
The older woman shook her head. Then she backed away as Melissa took a step toward her.
“You shouldn’t talk to me that way, Mother,” Melissa said in a strange voice.
With a sudden hiss, the cat raked its paw across Melissa’s face. Melissa screamed and tried to push the cat away. But the animal hung on, scratching and biting like a black whirlwind—
“Stop the action! Cut! Cut!” the director yelled as he jumped out of his seat. “Somebody help her! What’s wrong with that cat?”
Groups of stagehands started rushing onto the movie set. But Neal reached the woman ahead of everyone else. He grabbed the cat and pulled it away. But then the animal turned on him, spitting and scratching at the back of his hand. Neal threw the cat into the air. It turned over, landed on its feet, and ran away across the sound stage.
Neal turned to the young woman. Her eyes were wide, and she was breathing heavily. Blood dripped from her scratched cheek. Her arms and hands were bleeding too.
Neal wasn’t sure what to do. “Are you OK?” he asked. Then he thought, What a dumb thing to say!
“I’m...” The young woman shook her head. “Thank you.”
The director ran up and stepped in front of Neal. “Lynda? What happened?”
The young woman shook her head again.
“I’ll tell you what happened,” said the woman who had played Melissa’s mother. “That cat just suddenly went crazy.”
“I’ve never seen him that way,” said a dark-haired man named Bill. Neal knew he was the cat’s trainer. “Duncan’s always been so gentle.”
The director sighed. “Well, we’ll have to get another cat. And we won’t be able to shoot any more today. Come with me, Lynda. I’ll get you over to the first aid station.” He sighed again. “Why do these things always happen to me?”
Neal watched Lynda make her way across the floor. Then he turned and started to walk off the set.
“Wait!” It was Lynda’s voice.
Neal looked around.
“He’s hurt, too, Hal,” she told the director, pointing back at Neal.
“All right. Come along with us, young man. I’ll have the doctor...” Hal suddenly frowned. “Who are you?”
“Neal Portis,” Neal said. He tried to smile as he spoke.
“Is that name supposed to mean something to me? Who are you? What do you do here?”
Neal felt his face getting red. “I was just passing by.”
“Passing by? You’re not with the studio?” shouted the director.
“No, sir.”
“How did you get through the gate?”
“I think...well, the man there seems to think I work here.”
“He does, does he? Well I’ll put a stop to...”
“Stop it, Hal,” Lynda broke in. “Please. He didn’t hurt anything. And he did help. He got the cat off me. Can’t you just leave him alone?”
“I should have him kicked out.” Hal shook a finger at Neal. “You’ve no business being here, young man.”
“Hal!”
“OK, OK, Lynda. But I want you out of here, Mr. Portis.”
Neal could hear Lynda’s “Thanks again, Neal” as Hal pulled her through the door.
CHAPTER 2
A PHONE CALL
Neal was reading a book. The Genius of Alfred Hitchcock, when the telephone rang. A few seconds later, his mother called from the hallway. “Neal, it’s for you.”
He lifted the phone from the nearby lamp table. “Hello?”
“Hi. Is this the famous Neal Portis who sneaks onto movie lots and saves people from crazy cats?”
Neal’s heart started pounding hard. “This is him...he.”
“This is Lynda Connors. Too bad your father’s name is William. If it were Andrew, I would’ve gotten to you a lot sooner. Do you know there are about 15 Portis families in Los Angeles who’ve never heard of you?”
Neal laughed.
“Anyway, I wanted to thank you again for getting that cat off me,” Lynda went on.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m going to try out for Return of the Mummy while I still look right for the part.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I wish I’d been faster.”
“You were great,” said Lynda. “I’m just sorry Hal treated you that way. He can be such a creep. I can get you into the studio tomorrow, though. I made Hal give me a visitor’s pass for you.”
“Hey, terrific!”
“I could have it waiting for you at the front gate tomorrow, or would you rather come over and pick it up?”
“Where?”
“My house.”
“Now?” asked Neal, not believing what he was hearing.
“If you’re not doing anything.”
“Well...yeah. Sure.”
She told him where she lived.
Neal parked in front of Lynda’s home. It wasn’t a huge place, as he had thought it might be. Instead, it was a fairly old, two-story house. As he turned off his car engine, the front door opened.
Lynda came out. She wore jeans and a baggy sweatshirt and carried a purse. Her hair, caught by a breeze, blew away from the left side of her face. Neal saw that her whole cheek was covered with a large, white bandage.
“Hi,” she said as she came up to the car. “I’d ask you in, but my parents are getting ready for a party. They’re running around like chickens with their heads cut off.”
Neal opened the door and got out to stand next to Lynda. For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Lynda took a card from her purse. “Here’s the pass,” she said, handing it to Neal.
“Thanks.”
“Now you won’t have to sneak in anymore.” She smiled. “Why do you do that, anyway?”
“It’s like school,” he said.
“What?”
“I’m going to be a director,” Neal explained. “I study film at USC. It’s great, but it’s not like being at a real studio watching a real director at work. So I’ve been sneaking into studios. Fox, Paramount, MGM, all of them. I’ve been doing it since I was 16. Mostly during summer vacation.”
Lynda shook her head and grinned. “You get away with it?”
“Oh, I get kicked out sometimes. But I keep going back. The trick is to look as if you belong there.”
“I’m sure glad you were there today,“ Lynda said.
“Me, too.”
In the light from the streetlamp, Lynda noticed the bandage on the back of his hand. “With these bandages,” she said, “we’re like a matching set.”
“Yeah, but your face was hurt, too. I hope it will be all right.”
“The doctor said there shouldn’t be scars, but I guess I’ll be messed up for a while.”
“And they’re still going ahead with the film?” asked Neal.
“Sure. A delay would cost them too much. They’ll just keep the cat attack in the film to explain the scratches. Hal’s trying to get his hands on a stuffed cat for tomorrow.”
“They ought to stuff Duncan.”
Lynda laughed. “No, he’s a sweet old cat. At least, he has been. I don’t know what got into him. He’s been in lots of movies.”
“Do you want to go to a movie?” The question sprang from Neal’s mouth before he even knew he was asking it.
“You mean tonight?”
“Yes,” he said. His throat felt so tight that he almost didn’t get the word out.
“With you?”
Now Neal couldn’t speak at all. He forced his head to nod.
Lynda looked into his eyes.
Neal thought his face was on fire.
“Great!” she said. “Just hang on. I’d better let Mom and Dad know.” Neal let out a deep breath. He couldn’t believe that he had just asked Lynda Connors for a date.
And he couldn’t believe that she had answered, “Great!”