Pride

"Did I do something bad?"

"I can't say it's bad but I can say that it is confounding to us." Mark had to slump back to his chair after a few moments of being dumbfounded. He was barely calm with all of his son's recent peculiarities and this new addition to it might really result in heart complications.

He even had the audacity to think that the stress of this entire week was nothing compared to the stress that these few minutes of interaction gave him.

"Alexander, you should really turn the notch down when it comes to these things. We are barely coping with these surprises you are giving us." The grandfather mentored the grandson whilst having his curiosity for those papers piqued.

Mark was looking at the title page with scrutiny and immersed himself at the moment. His son rarely disappoints and the following contents would probably be insanely precious for someone like him.

He hadn't even had the faintest idea that Alexander was cooking this up but now that he has it in hand, the anticipation was at an all-time high.

So much so that he was practically dawdling and looking at the paper ream like a fool and was afraid to take a peek at what it had.

Old Sullivan took the chance to snipe those shocking papers and inspected their content. Even though he was not familiar with films, the coherence of the whole thing was enough for him to understand.

Dialogue, scenes, and minutely important details were listed out and sequentially formed into what should be a feature-length film.

He had no text-to-visual reading ability but he was still interested in what was inside it. Fortunately, the surprise did not stop there as he skipped to the lower pages and found boxes and drawings.

If anything it looked like an insanely long comic but due to his prior reading of the script, he was able to intuitively point out that this was almost all of the scenes fully drawn.

The visual aspect in his head was supported and the old man was convinced that this was a film like no other. With the new tools he was currently collecting and with Mark's experience, Sullivan could only hope that these inexplicable scenarios in the script would be perfectly conveyed in the film.

Although the filmmaking business is pretty much a disguised gambling den, this 'Kid Psychic' script has a certain edge over the rest of the competition, making the win basically guaranteed.

This thought process was based on Sullivan's business sense but he was not that complacent to think that it was right. He handed back the paper to the industry insider and asked for a piece of more professional advice. "Mark, what is your take on this?"

It was Mark's turn on the script and analyzed the pros and cons of every scene being described. Sullivan muddled through the descriptive readings but Mark breezed through it like fish in water.

His head processed everything at an eased pace and the further he went through the scenes, the more impressed he was.

When the final scene was read, he felt the loose resolution and the sense that the story was not yet resolved.

Mark had the conflicted feeling that the entire script was basic as any other Hollywood script but also that it wasn't. He wanted to voice out his opinion but he remembered that it had a storyboarded version.

The storyboard was practically the entire film itself but in still motion and animated. Mark was in tears with the fact that the muddling through mist process of filming would be minimized with this unparalleled visual aid.

Sure, the filming becomes constricted but it would undoubtedly save time and make the filming crew focus more on refinement.

He marveled at his son's skills and at the effort that went into making each square of drawings. It may be redundant now but his young son was anything but normal.

Sullivan was getting giddy again with his son being lost in thought, so he had to call him out of a trance. "Mark, how is it? Do you have what it takes to make it?"

"Dad, shouldn't you question the script? Why point your swords at me?"

"Don't take it to heart, son! It is just my little grandson is amazing while you are not."

Mark had nothing to reply to that as it was undeniably true. He was fired up and wanted the movie up and running, there was only one glaring problem. "I surely have what it takes but not at the moment! Err... I am too tired!"

"I know what you mean!" Although Sullivan liked to rib his son down, he had to give him a look of sympathy now. They accepted and lived in the mantle of a workaholic but they still had to take breaks. "We really need well-deserved vacations from all the backbreaking that we did."

The duo both shared a look and reflected in their eyes is the urge to sink into their soft, comfortable beds. They also tacitly agreed to not trigger the little devil whilst he is still in the room but just ease him into understanding their shared pain.

"I really hope that the big man gives us what he deserved and does not shock us with his avante-garde business outlook!"

"I hear you! That boss really needs to rest on his laurels as well. I am sure he is pooped with all the paperwork he just made."

Alexander knows that they were implicitly reprimanding him in their exchanges and could only shrug in silence. A group needs to have a good guy and bad guy dynamic, so he reluctantly had to accept that he was the bad guy in the current scenario.

The young boy could tell that his continued presence might result in much more of their less-than-comedic exchange, so he had to excuse himself. "Well, I will leave you to it, then!"

He really wanted to know more about what the movie budget would be and how the preparation process would be commenced. Unfortunately, he still had the sensible title to uphold and could only wait for his elders to recharge their batteries.

Alexander went out to who knows where in the house while the dignified adults finally exhaled a breath of relief.

"I love the kid but I really want to swat his butt with all the work he made us do." Old Sullivan had to break the silence by starting in-house gossip. "I never realized it at first but the brat was riling us up last week to do his bidding."

"I know! I even doubt myself since my own boy is now manipulating me." Mark sank to his chair in peace while replying and sipped his cold tea afterward.

The duo's talks largely focused on the topic of Alexander and talking smack behind his back but the pride and happiness on their faces were uncontainable.