:
California. 17/06/2012. 07:15
"Nathaniel, try to be natural and you will be alright, okay? You have the copy of the question that I'm gonna ask you and if you have a problem we can cut it in montage, this is not live so don't worry." Reassure Ellen while patting his shoulder.
"I'm good Ellen. A little stress and a little excited but good nonetheless." He smiled.
With the experience of Marc engraved in his brain, he would need a lot more to stress or panic. When you compared life and death experience in a combat zone with a talk show with about a hundred people in the audience, there was really not a single reason to panic. Moreover, he hoped in the future to go on tour and perform in front of thousands of people. If he was scared by a mere hundred, he needed to reconsider his entire future. That was not going to happen. He was too stubborn to do that.
Not long after that, the show began. He was waiting patiently backstage with Maggie, talking to each other about the show. That was not long before he was ushered in by a staff member.
"Hello Nathaniel, first of all thanks to be here."
"Thanks for having me, Ellen."
"I heard it is your first show and first interview, is that right?"
"Yes Ellen, you are my first. So be gentle alright?" He said almost timidly, which made her and the entire audience laugh at that double entendre.
"That led me directly to my first question. Are you Taylor's boyfriend?" She asks with mirth, making him and the audience laugh.
"I don't have a girlfriend and Taylor is just my friend. Moreover with our age difference, that is not possible."
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
Looking through the reaction of the audience, Ellen nodded her head.
"I know what you are thinking, I didn't believe it either until he showed me his ID." Said Ellen while on the big screen behind them appeared a picture of his ID which showed that he was in fact sixteen.
*****
Maggie was backstage and was looking through the return screen. She was currently looking critically at Nathaniel while he was engaging in front of the camera and she could not help to shake her head. 'That fu**ing brat is a natural at this." She thought. They were talking for ten minutes with each other but the conversation was already flowing with jokes and humor. That little smile of his had already charmed half of the women in the audience while the other had a very good opinion about him.
Maggie was the agent in the past of huge movie stars like Tom Hanks and Bradley Cooper but none of them was this good, especially not in their first try. He was an enigma to her. Sometimes he was as playful as a teenager and at others, he was talking like he was a mature, experienced old man. That was that dichotomy that left every woman he met drooling.
Feeling her phone vibrating, she stopped her line of thought and left the backstage area to not disturb anyone. Looking at the caller ID, she could not help but frown.
"Hello Jillian." Said Maggie in her business voice.
"Hello Maggie. How is the music industry treating you?"
"Good enough. Why are you calling?" She asked sternly.
Her and Jillian worked quite often with each other when she was an agent of a movie star. They were not enemies but not friends either.
"Direct as always. I know that you are in California, I would like to invite you and your new client to lunch."
"What do you want?" She asked in a guarded tone.
"This is professional and personal. I know that you have no reason to come but I will owe you one if you do." She sighed on the phone.
Things were getting weider. Jillian was renowned in the industry for her capacity to find talent and to keep her word true. A favor from her was extremely rare to have and Maggie knew that. She could not find out why she was requesting a meeting and that 'personal' thing was even more puzzling.
"Okay I will talk to him about it after the interview is over and text you his answer. Where would you like to meet?" Maggie agreed.
"Home. I will text you the address."
"Home?" repeated Maggie with disbelief.
Jillian and her had some similarity and one of them was they separate their personal and professional life. They had worked in the same circle for more than ten years and she never heard of anyone who had come to her house.
"Like I said, personal. Thank you Maggie, I'll wait for your answer. Bye."
After hanging up, Maggie was still looking at her phone, frowning. The personal part of the call left her lost but the profession part got her bewilder. Jillian was the best casting director of Hollywood and worked only on future blockbuster movies. Nathaniel has no experience whatsoever as an actor. Maybe she wanted to have him sing in the movie? No, that was not her job to find people like that. The personal side doesn��t make any sense either, her client never been to LA, he had told her that himself and had no reason to lie.
'I need to make phone calls, something is not right here.' She thought.
*****
"I heard something interesting, stop me if I'm wrong but you have two mothers, is that right?"
"Yes. My mom's been together for nineteen years and happily married since that 's allowed in NY." Nathaniel said with a brilliant smile, the audience applauding.
"I'm so pleased to hear it. This is a little personal but were you adopted?"
"No, no. My two mom had college friends, he was a financial analyst. They did not want to go to a sperm bank so they asked him to make a baby with them and he agreed. I was conceived thanks to friendship. Alas, he died three month after that in a car accident." He said with sadness.
"Sorry to hear that Nathaniel. Are you sad?"
"Yes. I'm sad that I never had the chance to meet him. But if your question is 'Am I unhappy in my life?' I would tell you no. Loving mothers are the best thing in the world and I have the chance to have two of them. Besides, do I look unhappy to you?" He said with a huge smile on his face.
"No, you do not." She answered, laughing. "Now, we would talk about something much more serious. Do you want to talk about what happened almost five years ago?"
"Of course. I just turned twelve at the time and we were walking with my mom when I was hit by a drunk driver. I was badly injured and despite the heroic work of the doctor I fell into a deep coma."
"How long does the coma last?" She asked.
"Four years." Nathaniel answered.
At that moment, on the big screen a picture of Nathaniel was displayed. He was on a hospital bed, he was emaciated and sickly looking. At that moment, everyone in the audience could not help to feel empathy for him, Ellen was no exception.
"What did you feel when you woke up?" She asked emotionally.
"Pain and guilt with a bit of joy." He responded honestly.
"How so?" Asked Ellen really puzzled.
"Pain because when I woke up, all my muscles were in an advanced state of atrophy. Everything was painful, even talking was. Guilt when I realised that I caused a lot of heartache to my family. You could tell me that it was not my fault and I was a victim in that case but in that moment that did not help. And finally joy because I was with my loved ones." Nathaniel says.
"That's amazing what you have experienced and how you cope with it. I'm really impressed."
"Thanks Ellen. Despite all of it, that coma brought something very nice to me."
"What's that?" She asked in a perplexed tone.
"I had an amazing excuse to dodge the entirety of middle school." He responded, making the entire audience and Ellen laugh.
"'I'm starting to fear what you will do to dodge high school." She joked right back.
"About that, i have an amazing plan for that purpose."
"Oh? What will that be?" She questioned, curiously.
"Can't say for now, it's a surprise." She said teasingly.
"Okay okay, thing that we would need to look after, I like it. Back to the topic now. What did you do after waking up?"
"Lots of tests first of all. I think they had me take every test that existed. From what they told me, waking up from a long time coma was exceedingly rare. But talking right after waking up was unheard of so they wanted to understand it. Sadly they found nothing that could explain why I could but others couldn't. After that, I went to physical rehab and learned much more about pain. I think I learn much more about myself doing it without pain medication than I would have if I would have taken them." Nathaniel added, the audience clapping.
"You know, at that moment habitually we would show pictures of you shirtless to show off your workout but we didn't manage to find some. That's not kind for us you know." Said Ellen to lighten up the mood.
"Any? What about those that I sent you by text last night?" He said with a raised eyebrow while the audience started to make cat whistles.
"Those I kept for myself, they were sent to me after all." She answered mischievously.
The interview continues after that where they talk about his music and the single who had come out. How they had met with Taylor, he did tell everything like it happened with no regards for the camera. After a commercial break, the show resumed with him singing while playing piano. Finishing the music he had an idea that Ellen followed without complaint, she was far too experienced to stop an artist from improvising on her show.
Nathaniel selected three people in the audience, two womens and one man. He asked them to pick any song which he played while singing with them and Ellen who had joined. They had a lot of fun and if not for the director of the show telling them to stop, they would have continued. The interview and the show finished, he could finally wipe off the makeup that they put on his face. Meeting Ellen in the lodge where they had put him.
"You were great! That was one of my favorite shows! How was it for you?" she asked joyfully.
"I love it too but I hate makeup" He said which made her laugh louder.
They talked a little more before she had to leave. Before leaving she had given him her phone number and to come back anytime which he agreed wholeheartedly. It was at that moment that Maggie finally appeared. Seeing the expression on her face, Nathaniel knew exactly that something had happened.
"Ok Maggie, tell me. What is going on with your face? I mess up the interview?"