Chapter Text
On the set of 'The Young and the Restless'
It's a three camera shot of the interior of a Mexican hacienda. At a table, four dashing young people are sitting playing cards.
Why did you try to read my palm, and then start chanting in Romani my first day of school? The lovely and chaste Consuela asks El Breydon.
I saw something there.
What? She cuts the deck without looking. El Breydon takes another pull from his bottle of Corona, and looks at her seriously.
Are we going to play? Rosita asks. Bids to you, El Breydon.
He looks back at his cards, and passes. Rosita jumps the bid by two. Consuela jumps it by three. Tyler passes. Consuela ends up getting the bid for thirty-four, and makes clubs trump. El Breydon passes her two cards, which she looks at in disgust, and then passes them right back.
I've got a run for 15, Consuela announces.
And I've got double pinochle for 30, El Breydon replies.
You bastard, she yells. You held back on me and made me think that we were going to get set.
El Breydon smiles wolfishly and downs the rest of his beer.
Another, partner? He asks, holding up the empty. She gets him another beer, and one for herself.
Thanks...I saw something horrible that called forth an ancient chant, El Breydon finally answers the pregnant question.
Brother, she doesn't need to hear this, Tyler protests.
I am a good girl, and have done nothing to be ashamed of, Consuela counters with her chin up.
Oh, really... El Breydon responds. So...cross my palm with silver, and I'll tell you what I saw.
Is that what this is about? Consuela looks over at him in triumph. Alright, let me get my purse.
No, it has to be silver.
These earrings?
No. But your necklace...
Rosita glances over at Tyler who looks unhappy.
Don't do this. She's not ready. He counsels his brother, who brushes off his warning.
She's strong enough to handle it.
Consuela pulls back her luxurious hair in a gesture that makes the crewmembers on set sigh, and takes the necklace off, then makes a fist, and moves her hand across the table towards El Breydon. His hand shoots across the table, and bends her wrist back, making her yell OW.
Look, he says fiercely.
A door on the set bursts open, and Consuela's brothers and their friends burst into the scene. Enrique doesn't like what he sees and charges El Breydon.
Tyler pulls a knife from underneath his flamboyant vest, and yells: WAIT. She needs to see this.
Enrique stops, his nostrils flaring, barely in control of himself. His friends gather behind him, ready to charge at his command, and rescue his lovely sister from the strange gypsy brothers.
Do you see it?
See what? You're hurting me, let go.
He taps the middle of her hand - where an upside down triangle has suddenly appeared. He flings her hand back, but keeps her necklace.
You are about the devil's business. Look at your palm where the silver touched it.
She screams, and runs off the set, wailing.
Get the hell out of here, Enrique says, unnerved by what he just saw.
El Breydon gets up from his chair, and slowly walks up to him. One of the cameras pulls in for a closeup. They are standing face to face. El Breydon looks at him with eyes blazing, and twists his head suddenly in a gesture that says, get out of my way, or else.
Enrique flinches, and moves out of the way, and his friends part as El Breydon walks by, glaring about like a lion. They all lower their heads as he walks past them.
I'm sorry you had to see that, Rosita. But it was for her own good. A warning. Tyler explains to her in a soft voice, as he gently touches her hand. And then walks out after his brother.
And cut - that's a wrap, the director yells.
While the writing team runs over to Tyler, and asks him to help him sketch the next scene for next week, the other actors all gather around Brey and congratulate him.
That was incredible; you owned that scene, one pronounces.
Brey tells them that he couldn't have done it without them, then asks: Are you guys all coming to the game this evening?
The weekend soccer games are quite the draw, as Brey and Tyler have formed two soccer teams from the neighborhood kids, and act as goalies for their respective teams.
Enrique, you got the food and drinks?
Si, patron, his counterpart says grinning.
Tyler tells Brey that he's going to hang out with Rosita, that he'll see him at the soccer game. They man hug, and then Brey gets on his BMW dirtbike and heads over to his villa on the ocean.
A few of the neighborhood kids are drinking sodas on the porch; he's "hired" them to watch his place while he's filming. His door is unlocked.
El Breydon, they yell, and mob him. He grins.
You've got a letter. It's from a senorita. We can tell by the handwriting.
Give me a minute alone, guys.
The kids go away to the beach, and start kicking a soccer ball, warming up for the game tonight.
The return address reads: Alyssa Nelson. CPO Box 40. Wheaton College, Illinois. He opens it carefully with a penknife.
Dear Brey,
I'm not sure whether I should write this or not. But I think you deserve to know, instead of having to wonder, tormenting yourself. You see, I was there at Sara's when she got your letter Christmas Eve. We'd just come back from playing a pickup game of broomball, and she just dominated the rink, checking the older boys into the snowbank. If there was a ref, she'd have spent most of the game in the penalty box.
I'm going into my room to read this, she told her parents and me. We all smiled at her. When supper was ready, she still hadn't come out. So I went and found her. The light was off and she was curled up in her bed. Brey broke up with me, she said softly. I asked her how she wanted me to handle her parents. She abruptly got up, and went out and told them that you wouldn't be coming for dinner. That you had broken up with her. And we all cried and hugged her. No one knew what to say. Her mother finally asked why. And she said that it was complicated. Then: I love him so much, and broke down weeping.
Later that night, it was only after I offered to call you, that she told me to read it, and give her my thoughts. After I had read it, I told her that if Jim ever leaves me, I've got dibs on you. I thought she was going to kill me for a second there. Then I told her that you were totally sincere, and wouldn't be coming back into her life. That you are an amazing guy. And then I started to cry when I realized how much this had cost you, and she ended up comforting me.
Brey, what you did and how you did it was so incredible; I have such respect for you. You were always there for me, ENTONCES...Please don't write me out of your life. I know you're going through hell right now. If there is anything I can do, write or call anytime.
Love,
Allie.
PS. Sara's lost her joy. But she's tough, and she'll bounce back eventually. You did the right thing.
The soccer kids come inside later to get Brey for the game, and find him laying down, looking at the ceiling, listening to Mana play on his stereo.
El Breydon, you will be a great guitarist. I know this to be true, one says gravely.
Brey gets up quickly, and wipes the tears from his eyes, and they all walk together to the soccer field - the group getting bigger as they get closer.