Alex & Emma Page #2

- Yeah.

Will you have another fit

if I ask you how it ends?

I don't know how it ends.

How can you write a story

if you don't know how it ends?

Because I know the characters,

and they tell me where the story goes.

Interesting.

- You're going to do it?

- Yes.

Great!

Read me back what we've got so far.

The summer of Adam Shipley's

sabbatical from Andover.

Maybe if you add a year, you know.

The summer of Adam Shipley's sabbatical

from Andover was in...

And then any four-digit number

gets you a complete sentence.

Yeah, but not a particularly good one.

How about...

The summer of Adam Shipley's sabbatical

from Andover was really hot?

What's that noise?

- What noise?

- That high-pitched ringing sound.

Kind of like...

I think I may be getting a brain tumor

because that's one of the early signs.

Okay. How about you shorten it?

Adam Shipley took a sabbatical. Period.

No, see, look. You want the first sentence

to set the tone...

to grab the reader

and take him into the story.

"Call me Ishmael." Right?

"It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times."

"In the beginning

God created the heaven and the earth."

Do you see why I can't begin?

The giants that have gone before me.

Does it seem foggy in here?

There's this haze that...

I think the tumor could be spreading

in my occipital lobe.

- I have to go.

- It's only 7:
00.

I know. These last five hours

have just flown by.

- Will you be back tomorrow morning?

- I can't see why.

What do you mean?

Here's what I've been figuring.

You've got exactly...

eight words so far?

Since a typed page is 350 words,

that's roughly six weeks per page.

With one week off for Christmas,

two weeks summer vacation...

three hundred pages would take

approximately 37 years...

which, quite frankly, is a little more

than I'm willing to allocate to this project.

Miss Dinsmore, I think

you're underestimating the process.

This isn't a comic book, it's a novel.

There's character development.

Symbolism. Subtext.

Which do you prefer,

the pepper spray or the stun gun?

Adam Shipley had given up on love.

Art was to be his mistress.

And so it was

that in the summer of 1924...

We're rolling. We just got started.

Adam Shipley had given up on love.

Art was to be his mistress.

And so it was

that in the summer of 1924...

he took a sabbatical from Andover to

write, if not the great American novel...

then certainly one that would make

the world sit up and take notice.

To support himself while he worked...

he accepted a position

as an English tutor...

for a French family

vacationing on the island of...

Saint Charles.

Never heard of an island called

Saint Charles.

It's off the coast of Maine,

northeast of Nantucket. Beautiful.

- Still never heard of it.

- I made it up.

- You got a second paragraph?

- A what?

If it's going to be 300 pages

you'll need more than one paragraph.

- That ringing sound.

- I have to go.

Adam boarded a train in Boston,

headed for the ferry at Saint Charles.

And then?

Saint Charles was an exclusive island,

known for palatial mansions...

manicured lawns,

and an exquisite gambling casino.

There was also an especially large

French contingent...

who had claimed the island

after it was discovered by...

Jacques Cartier in the 16th century.

- Wait a minute.

- I'm going too fast?

I thought you said you made up the island.

I did.

But you just said it was discovered

by Jacques Cartier in the 16th century.

Yeah?

Jacques Cartier was a real guy.

You can't have a real guy

discover a fake place.

I can't?

No. It's a perversion of history.

If you have a fake place,

you have to have a fake explorer.

- Now, if you have a real place, then you...

- Miss Dinsmore.

I mean, I'm laughing, but I'm not laughing.

If you could type and I could write,

that would be really terrific.

I thought that's what we were doing.

Adam found himself seated

next to a man named John Shaw.

A man who had the uncanny ability to

make a two-hour train ride seem like 10.

I've been summering in Saint Charles

since I was a boy.

It would be my second home

if I didn't own three others.

Shaw was a short, round man in his 50s.

The word "second"

was said with a whistle...

as his breath escaped between the space

separating his two front teeth.

I hate it when they do that.

- Who? What?

- You. Authors.

You use a name like John Shaw,

and I picture in my mind thin...

with a stylish mustache.

When you finally describe him, he's this

fat old fart with a hole in his teeth.

You remember the part

about you type and I write?

We really have to adhere to that,

Miss Dinsmore.

You're the author. You're God.

You can create

whatever comes into your head.

Characters we like

or characters who make us...

want to shut the book

and never open it again.

Shaw was a slight man

with a thick blond...

- Thin black.

- Thin, black moustache.

Who's this family you're to tutor?

Saint Charles is a small island.

I'm sure I know them.

They're from Paris.

A divorcee and her two children...

an 8-year-old boy, Andre,

and a 6-year-old girl, Michele.

- The mother's name is...

- Polina Delacroix?

Why, yes.

Would you care to join me for some tea

in the dining car?

All right.

Madame Delacroix seemed very charming

in her correspondence.

She is. And quite the little trooper, too...

putting on such a brave face

under the circumstances.

The circumstances?

The family is in desperate financial straits.

If it weren't for a wealthy grandmother

in Paris...

who's dying, they'd have no hope at all.

Are you certain? Because from

their correspondence they seemed like...

It's a facade. It's all a facade.

But don't worry,

she has enough to pay you.

How can you be so sure?

Because I am returning just now with

a bank draft from my personal account...

which will provide her with enough to

cover her expenses through the summer.

She asked you for a loan?

We're calling it a loan,

but it really doesn't matter.

I intend to ask her to marry me

by summer's end.

Why did you do that?

- What? Why did I do what?

- Don't you think it's kind of coincidental...

that Adam just happens to plop down

next to his employer's fiance?

If it makes you feel any better...

I didn't know Shaw was the fiance

when Adam plopped.

What do you mean you didn't know?

How could you not know?

I wanted Adam to learn from Shaw...

that the Delacroix family

was almost broke...

and desperately waiting

for the grandmother to die.

Then I realized,

as soon as Adam heard this...

he'd be worried about his wages.

This was a problem

I hadn't anticipated till I got there.

Then I had the idea.

What if Shaw agreed to loan Polina

the money to cover her expenses?

But why would he do that?

Perhaps he's in love with her.

Shall we continue?

You started having absolutely no idea

what was going to happen...

and then, by pure luck, it just worked out?

I like to think it's more than luck...

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