Chase The Rabbit: Gretch Bayonne Action Adventure Series Book #1 (10 page)

              “What I am going to do, Mr. Bay,” he replied, “is shove a firecracker up Hitler’s ass and light it up with all the stars in Hollywood.”

              “Yes, sir,” was all I could muster up.

              “You don’t tell anyone about this, Bay!” he said.

              “No, of course not,” I said.

              Bela and I stood up to leave.

              “And Bay,” the old man said, “Marion already told me about your situation. You can stay in Bela’s room.”

              “Thank you, sir,” I said.

              As we exited the room, the feeling came over me that I had just been involved in something great. I was filled with adrenalin. And when we walked back into the adjoining cabin area, there were Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and on and on. After meeting William Randolph Hearst and delivering the letter, they seemed like ordinary people to me. And after all, they really are just that. Stars are a dime a dozen. It is power that matters, and how one uses it that counts in the end.

              “Did you just talk to William?” Marion asked.

              “Yes, thank you for giving him the heads up,” I said.

              “How did it go?” Jean Harlow asked.

              “How did what go?” I said.

              “With William!” she replied. “Did he like you?”

              “I guess so,” I replied, “but I wasn’t auditioning.”

              The room was crowded with stars all asking me questions about my little private meeting with Hearst. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. The cameraman was even asking me questions. Bela was trying to get me to go back down the hallway to his tiny, little room, but I was essentially being mobbed by the famous. 

              “We need Lugosi, Cagney, Tracy and Cooper in ten minutes for a shoot,” the camerman said. 

              “That’s my cue,” Bela whispered to me. “Just go back to my room and wait there.”

              As I went down the hallway towards Lugosi’s quarters, Jean Harlow, Marion Davies and Marlene Dietrich followed me, each one babbling away. I was trying to ignore them, but they followed me anyway.

              “What did William say about me?” Harlow asked.

              “Oh, you know he loves you!” Marion said.

              “Did he mention me at all?” Marlene asked.

              “Stop it!” I shouted.

              “He didn’t mention anyone!” I said. “I was there to give him something! I wasn’t there to discuss anything!”

              “Hey,” Marion said, “you are the one who dropped down from the ceiling begging us to get you an audience with William. Naturally, we just want to know the outcome.”

              “You are right,” I said. “I just wanted to get out of topside. But that was before…”

              “So you need up?” Jean said. “Now that you got what you wanted, you are done with us? Is that it?”

              “No! Look, I appreciate what you did for me, but something happened between now and the time we met,” I explained. “Yes, I just wanted to get out of being up there.  I just wanted to get a message to my friend Bela. But it turned into something else.”

              “It always turns into something else,” Marlene said.  “Did you get a job out of it?”

              “No!” I said. “It is not about a job. I just had to give him something that I can’t tell you about.”

              “I am so disappointed in you,” Jean said. “We believed your story. About you only being here to get to California to find that man. And now, you meet with Mr. Hearst and you won’t tell us why or what happened. That doesn’t make any sense.”

              I was stuck between a rock and a dead end alley. It was time to appease the ladies that had helped me to begin with. It just so happened that these ladies were famous movie stars.

              “Okay,” I said. “Go get everyone who is not doing a shoot for the documentary and bring them back here.”

              “To this tiny room?” Jean asked.

              “No,” I replied. “To the hallway. I am going to take them all up topside to the observation point.”

              “Oh my God!” Jean screamed. “You can do that?”

              “Of course I can,” I said. “I am Gretch Bay, the famous writer. I can do anything I want to do. And I don’t work for William Randolph Hearst.”  

Chapter Eight

S
omeone could get killed pulling a stunt like this
, I thought.

              It was a risk I was willing to take. I knew that if all went well, and no one plunged off the side of the beast, it would be an experience they would remember for the rest of their lives. And an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

              Jean came down the hallway followed by a gaggle of curious people. Douglas Fairbanks was beside her.

              “What is this observation point?” he asked.

              “It’s the back of the beast,” I said. “The very top of the ship. And wait until you get a load of the view from up there!”

              They were all smiling. I had them form a single line. 

It was Jean Harlow, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplain, Greta Garbo, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Groucho Marx. 

              “Okay,” I said, “single file and follow me!”

              I led the group of curiosity seekers through the cargo area and up the ladder into the belly of the beast. They were gasping in amazement as they followed me down the steel spine. 

              “This is just creepy!” one of them said.

              “My sentiments exactly,” I responded. “And I had to spend the night up here by myself!”

              “What are these red things?” Groucho asked, pointing to the huge hydrogen gas cells.

              “That’s what makes her float,” I said. “They’re filled with highly flammable gas. Feel free to smoke.”

              “I’m not so sure about this,” Crawford said.

              “Just keep walking,” I insisted. “You won’t be sorry.”

              We passed a couple of the riggers. Their mouths dropped like a hundred pounds of melons off a cart. 

              “I’m not sure you should be up here,” one of them said.

              “I’m not sure you should either,” I replied. 

              “Hearst doesn’t know about this, does he?” Fairbanks asked.

              “What do you think?” I replied.

              He smiled broadly. “Okay, Mr. Bay,” he replied. “It’s your charter now.”

              Just as we reached the ladder leading up to the observation point, Captain Clipboard turned the corner and caught us red-handed.

              “You cannot go up there,” he demanded. “It is far too dangerous and you do not have authorization.”

              “Listen, Klaus,” I said. “You know who these people with me here are, right?”

              “Of course I do,” he said. “But I am in charge topside, and I forbid you to go any further.”

              I turned away from him and instructed the others to start climbing the ladder to freedom.

              “When you get to the top, don’t walk around too much,” I said. Stay in the middle, where it is level.”

              “Come on!” Jean said. “I will go first and you all follow me. I’ve done this before!”

              Klaus picked up the phone set and called down to the bridge. I could tell he didn’t want to do it. But it was his job and his ass on the line. 

              “Give me ten minutes,” I said, “okay pal?”

              He hung up the phone before they could answer.

              “Ten minutes, Bay,” he said, “and that’s it.”

              “Thank you my friend,” I said. “I owe you one.”

              I went up the ladder, wondering how this little episode was going to pan out. 

                                                                      ***

              The stars were in awe of their newfound environment.  Screams of joy shot through the wind as they danced and spun in circles. It was the most amazing sight! Being on the beast’s back apparently liberated them all as much as it had me. I couldn’t hear what they were all shouting that well because of the wind and adrenaline that was shooting through me. But they were all expressing the same thing.  Utter ecstasy.   

              Jean hugged me and said, “They love it, Bay! I knew they would! Thank you so much!”

              Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin were moving further down the back than the rest of the group. It suddenly made me feel uncomfortable. 

              “We’re flying! We’re flying!” they were chanting.

              “You need to keep the others close to the hole, Star Child!” I said to Jean.

              “Star Child?” she asked.

              “Yeah,” I replied. “That’s my nickname for you. I thought of it the first moment I laid eyes on you, Baby. I just never said it out loud until now.”

              “Oh my!” she said. “I…I love it!”

                “Just round up the others,” I said. “I am going to go get Fairbanks and Chaplain!”

              The two men were a good 300 feet down the back of the Graf. They had gone much further than I felt comfortable with. When I finally reached them, they were laughing hysterically and pretending to be airplanes.

              “We have to go back now!” I said. “You’ve gone too far!”

              “This is incredible!” Chaplain said. “We should get Hartman and Hearst up here! It would be much more interesting than what we are shooting down there!”

              “Who?” I shouted.

              “Robert Hartmann,” Chaplain yelled. “The camera man!” 

              “Yes!” Fairbanks said. “We have to get them up here!  This is the story! This is where we should be!”

              “You don’t understand,” I said. “It is far too dangerous!  Hearst would never agree to that!”

              “Yes, he would, if he could see this!” Fairbanks replied.

              “We’ve got to go back now before they find out we’re up here!” I said.

              “I have a better idea,” Chaplin said. “Let them come and get us!”

The wind was picking up and it was hard to hear what he was saying. Suddenly, it dawned on me. By bucking Mr. Hearst like this, I could be blacklisted from having anything published in any of his newspapers ever again. 

              “I don’t want anyone coming after me!” I said. “Let alone Hearst! Now come on! We have got to go back down!”

              “Nothing doing, Mister!” Fairbanks said. “Charlie is right! Let them come get us!”

              “Suit yourselves,” I said. “But I am getting the rest of them back down now!”

              As I walked back towards the hole, I took in the amazing sight all around me. The sky, the ground below, and the stars dancing in front of me. I’d let them out of the giant box they were trapped in and out into the open. I realized then what I’d always known. That they were just people like you and me. And we are all still children deep inside. Sure, you can keep them in schools or on a movie set. But once they get a taste of real freedom, you’ve lost all control. 

              “Okay,” I told the group, “we have to go back down now!”

              “We don’t want to go!” Greta Garbo said.

              The others chimed in agreeing.

              “I don’t have another shoot until tomorrow morning when we land at the Olympics,” Groucho said.

              “Yes!” said Joan Crawford. “We can stay here for a little while, right?”

“No!” I shouted. “I brought you up here for the sole purpose of giving you this experience! But if the Captain learns we are up here, we are all going to be in very big trouble!”