Forgetting

A/N - another chance to meet Alec and Mr Shaw

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Shaw rubbed a hand slowly over his face then carefully opened his eyes to find that the view had not changed.  The small face of the kid – Alec, have to remember his name – was still puckered in the all-too-familiar frown of confusion.

“What’s the problem, now, kid?” he asked, dreading the answer.

“I just don’t get it, Mr Shaw.”

“Don’t get what?  What is there to get?!  You know your script, right?  One thing we don’t have a problem with is your lines, thank God.  All you have to do is say your lines.”

“But they don’t make any sense, Mr Shaw.  Why am I talking about fairies when the real problem is the aliens?”

“Because your character doesn’t know about the aliens.”

The kid gave him The Look, the one he used whenever adult words triggered his BS alarm.  “Of course he knows about them.  He found them, Mr Shaw!”

Not for the first time, Shaw wondered how he had been talked into hiring the kid.  Well, actually, he knew the answer.  He had been the big hit from Seafoam Meets the Oil Slick, despite being on screen for exactly ten seconds.  For some reason, cinemagoers around the world had fallen in love with him, so when he was casting for the sequel, Seafoam and the Creatures from Outer Space, the execs had demanded he hire Alec as the lead.  He had known it was a bad idea from the start, the memory of what had happened to his favourite pair of shoes still fresh.

“Yes, I know he found them, but he thinks they’re fairies.  He hasn’t learned to communicate with them yet, so he doesn’t know where they came from.”

The frown changed from confusion to consideration, then cleared completely.  One of Alec’s rare smiles spread across his face, like the sun coming from behind a cloud.

“Thanks, Mr Shaw.  I get it, now.”

Shaw patted him awkwardly on the shoulder.  “Glad to hear it, kid.  Now can we get back to the business in hand?  We’re supposed to be making a movie!”

“I’m sorry, Mr Shaw.  I keep forgetting.”

A voice at the back of Shaw’s head screamed at him not to say the words that were wanting to come out of his mouth, but it was not quick enough.

“What do you mean ‘forgetting’?  You do know what we’re doing here, right?”

“Oh, yes, Mr Shaw – when I think about it.  But sometimes I get so carried away – ‘caught up in the moment’ my mum calls it.  Part of me knows that I’m just looking at a pool of water and none of the creatures in it can really talk to me.  But there’s another part that can see the little, tiny aliens in the water and can hear their voices.”

Shaw stared at them.  “What do they look like?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Oh, they’re like little splinters of light.  Anyone else would just think it was the sun shining on the surface of the water, but I know – I mean Callum knows – they’re real creatures.  It’s great, isn’t it Mr Shaw?”

“What is?”

“That there are people who see stuff, like really see it.  I think Callum’s a really amazing boy.  I wish I was like him.”

A cough from a member of the crew brought Shaw’s attention back to the set.  He gave himself a small shake and made a mental note to be more careful about what he said to the kid.  For a few moments, he had almost forgotten about the movie himself, caught up in the meanderings of a very unusual mind.

“Er, yeah – it's great.  I'll have a word with the CGI guys.  Now, let’s get back to shooting this movie before we all die of old age, OK?”

He turned away before Alec could make a remark about the difference in their ages and stalked back to his seat.  When he sat down, he was glad to see the boy was in position, kneeling by one of the rock pools, gazing into it with rapt attention.  For a second, he wondered if Alec was ‘seeing’ the aliens, again but then told himself sternly to forget it.

“Action!” he yelled.