Marilyn's Ghost Read online

  “What type of test?” Pam asked innocently.

  “Let’s not beat around the bush, I’m not the type of person that messes around. I want to sleep with you, Pam.”

  Pam’s jaw dropped, and she paled like the wall. Her smile disappeared and her hands, including the one underneath the uncomfortable cast, started to shake.

  “No one is sleeping with anyone here,” a masculine voice up said firmly.

  Pam looked up, Richard was stood looking severely at Matt, who dropped his fork on his plate and cursed his luck under his breath.

  “Hi Richard, how are you?” he asked, seeming completely normal.

  “When I saw you I decided to come say hi. What a coincidence, no? Let’s go, Pam,” Richard ordered.

  Pam stood up, still confused by the situation, not believing what Matt had proposed and Richard’s sudden apparition.

  “Matt, forget about Pam for your film.”

  “That doesn’t matter. There are hundreds of actresses that will take advantage of the opportunity,” Matt answered, looking superior. This made the agent furious.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure, Matt. I wouldn’t be so sure. Tomorrow everyone will know your intentions. This is not the first time you try to sleep with an innocent actress looking for her first opportunity, but it will be the last,” Richard warned him confidently.

  Richard took Pam’s arm, and headed towards the table he was sharing with a beautiful blonde he was with for professional reasons and said goodbye to her. The blonde looked angry and annoyed.

  “Richard, you don’t have to come with me. I’m just going home alone,” Pam said.

  “It’s no trouble. I’m taking you home. I’m sorry you had to go through that but from now on, when a director calls you, tell me. As you can see, there are a lot of crooks at large. This is Hollywood, dear.”

  “But the film…”

  “Forget about that film. I’m going to get Matt fired from the direction of that film so they can hire someone serious and professional. What a guy!”

  “You can do that?”

  Richard looked at her smiling, and tried to make Pam calm and feel comfortable with him. The valet brought Richard his precious and old red 1955 Chevrolet Belair that impressed Pam.

  “I’m really sorry Richard,” Pam apologized, glancing at him.

  Richard shook just head as if it did not matter, something that attracted the young woman who was starting to see him as more than her agent. Being highly attractive, Richard displayed self-confidence they could not go unnoticed. Pam remembered Brad, just a boy next to this man that was driving the Chevrolet he was so proud of at speed though the streets of Los Angeles. She did not yet know that like Marilyn’s ghost, this man would change her life forever.

  “Pam, you will get the role. You will work with Marion Cotillard,” he told her outside the front door of the humble building Pam lived in. “I will turn you into a star and for that, I’m going to go straight to my office to pull some strings. Even if I have to be there all night, I won’t stop until I manage to get what you deserve. And then, in a few months you won’t live here any more,” he continued, gesturing at the decrepit and ancient grey building.

  “I don’t know what to say, Richard.”

  “Say good night, actress.”

  He winked again. Pam got out of the car and entered the building under the attentive and protective gaze of her attractive agent.

  “Yes, yes, yes, and you were right,” Pam said as soon as she got through the door, thinking that Marilyn would be there still waiting for her, sat on the sofa. But her ghost was not there. Nor was she to be seen anywhere in the apartment.

  Worried and desperate, Pam called out to her, but Marilyn did not appear that night. She took some of the pills the doctor prescribed for her broken arm even though it was not the right time, to see if Marilyn came back. She waited for her on the sofa. She looked through the window. She watched some funny videos on YouTube and checked how the sales of her photos were going. 200 more dollars had accumulated on her account. Good, very good. At two in the morning she was falling asleep. She decided to lay down on her bed. Hi ghost appeared on her dreams but not in her apartment, at least not until the following morning.

  “Where were you?” Pam asked, worried.

  “Girl, it’s been so long since I went to the Romanov.”

  “You followed me?” Pam asked. Marilyn shrugged her shoulders, smiling. “You were right Marilyn. Matt went with a whole other set of intentions.”

  “It happened to me a couple of times, Pam. But I didn’t have a guardian angel like Richard. My God! What a man!”

  “He brought me home…”

  “Really? Was he angry?”

  “No, he said he would spent the rest of the night pulling strings to get me the part of Marion Cotillard’s cousin, and to get Matt kicked out of the movie.”

  “Who is Marion Cotillard?” Marilyn asked again.

  “An amazing French actress, extremely beautiful,” Pam answered rolling her eyes.

  “So you don’t have anything to worry about, having a man like Richard,” Marilyn sighed. “I wish I had had him too.”

  “Did you ever sleep with men to get a part, Marilyn?”

  “Yes, with some… but not to get the part although that was one of my motives. I think, honey, that it’s time I told you my real story. The one no one knows that however was the one that marked me my whole life,” Marilyn said mysteriously.

  Pam opened her eyes widely. She made some coffee to finish waking up and sat next to Marilyn on the sofa. This time it was not to watch a classic movie and to learn from the stars of Hollywood’s golden age, but to listen to the true, untold story of the one and only Marilyn Monroe.

  CHAPTER 10

  LOVE DOESN’T NEED TO BE PERFECT,

  IT JUST NEEDS TO BE TRUE

  (Marilyn Monroe)

  Marilyn prepared herself to tell Pam the full truth. The truth about her heart. Many had speculated about Marilyn and her relationships but there is only one truth and only the diva knew it. True love, the kind she almost abandoned all her dreams of becoming a well-known artist for, had only appeared once in her life. And she had let it escape. She never got over it, her heart broke and she knew that she would never again see that man of dark hair and peaceful blue eyes like the sea. She could never get the way he looked at her out of her mind. It was different to the way the rest of men had during the rest of her life when she finally became the star she had always wanted to be. And now, as a spirit and determined to fulfill her mission to help Pam be the star she had also wanted to be for many, many years. She needed to tell her story, so that she wouldn’t fall for the same tricks, nor make the same mistakes.

  Marilyn looked at Pam. The blue eyes of the young woman, like those of the love she had let pass by, looked at her with curiosity. They wanted to listen, yearning to know. She would surely disappoint her, she had been just one more common mortal and she did not consider herself to be an example to follow. But still, despite having been dead for so many years, she knew that many women continued to want to be like her. They wanted to be like the unforgettable Marilyn Monroe that many thought they knew but in reality, absolutely nobody knew anything about.

  “People think they know me,” she began. “But what is true is that in this world, there was only one man that did. Only one of the many that there were,” Marilyn sighed. If only there had not been so many. If only they had not broken her heart so many times. “As you know, I married four times. They were unhappy and lonely marriages with ulterior motives. Slimy lovers to try to fight the loneliness. I hated being alone, Pam. I simply didn’t know how to be alone. No, I couldn’t do it. I needed a man at my side, a man in my bed,” she said with certain embarrassment and regret. Pam listened to her carefully. “However, I never forgot my first love. He was called Jim and we met in Los Angeles in the year 1940, when I was only 14 and he was 16. He was the most handsome young man I had ever seen. I wasn’t famous back them,
I dreamt of being a star, just like you dream now, and I almost, just almost, forgot everything and gave my life to Jim. Because he wanted me more than anyone and he showed it to me every day for the year we were together. Because he didn’t know who Marilyn Monroe was, but he did know Norma Baker, and he loved her, he loved her crazily despite all her misfortunes. Because my life, Pam, was very unfortunate. My mother was ill and the people that looked after me, well, I prefer to forget it,” the spirit’s face was sad, extremely sad, not resplendent like in the films or books she had read so much. “Jim worked in a gas station and I met him by accident at a party that I wasn’t going to go to at first. That’s destiny for you. I noticed him straight away and I was lucky enough for him to see me too. We danced all afternoon… and it was the best year of my life, Pam, until he proposed and told me that we would go live in his village together. I thought about it for weeks but I thought my dreams would never come true in that village. I was overwhelmed. Surely within a few years I would have been the mother of a few children and my dreams of being a great artist that seemed impossible at that moment, would be cut short. There are trains that only come once in life. And so it was. He passed, I let the train go that brought us together and I never saw him again. Two years later, I married James, a mechanic I met in an airplane construction plant where I also worked. Four years later, we got divorced. Marrying James had been a huge mistake. I still hadn’t forgotten about Jim, who had probably already rebuilt his life. The same year I separated from my first husband, in 1946, came the opportunity to become a model thanks to a photographer that discovered me, to put it that way. My agent Emmeline suggested I change my hair color, originally brown, to the platinum blonde everyone knows and the advertising campaigns for swimsuits came and from there… everything came from there. And Jim became history, but not here. He never disappeared from here,” she concluded, pointing to her heart.

  “How sad, Marilyn. About Jim, I mean, and that no one knows his story.”

  “It’s better, much better that no one knows about him. I like that this episode of my life is only mine, it’s more special that way. In part, I wanted to be a star so that he could never forget me. I looked for his face in many men and for his gaze in the eyes of my husbands and lovers. But none ever looked at me like he did. Never…. Jim Harris, I wonder what he became?”

  “Did you say Jim Harris? Pam asked, standing up from the sofa quickly to pour herself some more coffee. Marilyn nodded, smiling, spellbound by the memory of her first love. “Marilyn! I told you about my village, Gettysburg! You told me its name didn’t sound nice. My grandfather moved there in 1941, looking for peace he couldn’t find in Los Angeles.”

  “What?”

  “Jim is my grandfather! My mother’s father.”

  “Are you joking?”

  “No, no, no,” Pam repeated, moving to her bedroom to find some family photographs she had kept in the drawer of her nightstand.

  Marilyn looked at the photos carefully. In them, the man with black hair and blue eyes she remembered so well appeared, next to an attractive woman, two boys and a girl, Pam’s mother. In others, he appeared alone in the countryside of on the porch of his house, much older than when she had known him, but with the same intense look. The best photograph of all and the one Pam looked at most fondly, was one of her aged ten and her grandfather, planting a tree on the farm. Both were smiling and looking happily at the camera that immortalized this unforgettable moment.

  “Do you know my mother’s name? Norma! My grandfather never forgot you, that shows it.”

  “Pam…” Marilyn whispered emotionally.”Did Jim die?”

  “That’s the best of all, Marilyn. He’s still alive and kicking. At 89 he still has iron solid health,” Pam answered, just as excited as her friend. “My grandmother however, she died ten years ago.”

  “And tell me… was he happy?”

  “I suppose. He had three children: Paul, William and my mother, Norma. He worked in the fields his whole life and you know what? I’m his favorite grandchild,” Pam said proudly. “Actually, he’s the only one that supports me in this crazy adventure… as I said, my parents want me to go back to their town and abandon my dreams of becoming a great actress.”

  “My God, Pam. I’m stood in front of my great love’s grandchild!” Marilyn could be very melodramatic.

  “And that sentence, trains only come by once in life, my grandfather says it a lot. He always has,” Pam laughed, remembering the day that her grandfather was the only person to encourage her to go live the Hollywood adventure. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t achieve anything, Pam, at least you can’t say you didn’t try. There are trains that only come once in life,” he had said to her, raising his large and wrinkled hands.

  Pam did not think a spirit could cry. It was something ‘physically’ impossible, but, she could see tears on Marilyn’s face. Many. And a hopeful and excited smile that touched her.

  “Would you like to see him?” Pam asked.

  “Jim? Do you think he will see me?” Marilyn asked nervously.

  “I highly doubt he will be able to see you, Marilyn,” Pam laughed sadly. “But we could go see him and I will investigate your story, I’m sure he still remembers it and I would love for him to tell me his version. He used to like to tell me about his troubles and he never mentioned you… but the fact that my grandfather was your first love is, wow! I have no words, Marilyn! It’s all very exciting!”

  “Why do you think he never spoke of me, Pam? the platinum blond-haired diva asked, disappointed.

  “Perhaps, just like you, he thinks that the beauty of this story is keeping it secret, that it’s something that stays between him and you,” Pam answered, trying to cheer her up.

  Marilyn smiled, wishing the moment would come when after 73 years, she would once again see her first and most authentic love. Even though he would not be able to see her… even though she was dead. Even though time had taught them to heal wounds and live with absences.

  If Marilyn and Pam had been able to hug, they would have done. The moment called for it. But that was physically impossible, and so they kept to gazes. They looked at each other with complicity and happiness, thanking destiny for having brought them together in such a flamboyant, magical and curious way.

  There was nothing that Richard could not do. His stubbornness, confidence and perseverance, made him the ideal person to get what at first glance seemed impossible. After three days of shaking heaven and earth, he managed to expose that the young Matt Perry, for his daring initiatives, had to abandon the direction of the movie Toward the Light. No one is irreplaceable in Hollywood, they had told him. Not even the director. Fortunately in this case, the integrity of those that were above him, helped Richard in his labor to bring him down. But it had not always been like that, not for hundreds of actresses full of dreams and directors and people with power in Hollywood without morals. After finishing an important call, he dialed Pam’s number. He wanted to hear her voice and tell her that the movie would be passed onto Karl Brady, an important director of fifty years of age without the type of intentions that many powerful men have in Hollywood, without the type of intentions Matt thought he could have. Karl was Richard’s friend, so the agent, calm, knew that the secondary part Pam had gone for in the audition would be hers. Karl had liked her spontaneity and her agreeable physique, very appropriate for what they were looking for in the character.

  “Pam, the part in the movie is yours.”

  “Really?” Pam asked, silently jumping for joy.

  “Yes. Tomorrow we’re meeting the new director. I’m sorry about the other day, about Matt… You’re safe with me, artist.”

  “Thanks, Richard.”

  Richard hung up with a smile on his lips. He was surprised by the feelings this freckled young woman was bringing up in him. He looked at her photographs in detail, those that had conquered him from the first moment he had seen them. The well-hidden cast behind a few retouches and an appropriate wardr
obe, her angelical face full of light and magic. Her intense blue eyes and those lips, that smile that would conquer the world, just as it had conquered him.

  CHAPTER 11

  YOU ARE BETWEEN WHAT I WANT

  TO HAVE AND WHAT I AM AFRAID TO HAVE

  (Marilyn Monroe)

  The days flew between meetings, rehearsals and study, much study. The beginning of filming of young Pam’s first movie was about to start. Everything was ready, only a few days were left before the start of the new cinematographic journey that was already much talked about in the media. They already spoke of Pam Miller who would play the role of the great Marion Cotillard’s cousin in the film. They already spoke of her as promising, with a photogenic face, that would be much talked about in Hollywood and in the whole world.

  Samantha Moore called Pam. It was not the assistant of her assistant, but herself who wanted to talk to Pam and try her luck, in case the actress still wanted the important and influential agent to take on her career. Too late, Pam said. Samantha accepted the negative answer and said “here people don’t run, they fly”. Even so, she wished her luck and admitted that Richard was good, very good, and that he had had a better eye than her.

  Brad sent her hundreds of WhatsApps, that Pam ignored. In them, Brad told her that the joke she had played on him had been a good one, that he had deserved it and that he wanted to see her again.

  Her parents called her everyday, interested in every small detail of the project, that Pam told them with a smile. Finally they were proud of her… she could not throw in their faces that they did not believe she could succeed. She could not tell them that they had told her a thousand times to abandon her dreams and come back down to earth. She could not tell them that they had not allowed her to daydream. They were her parents, they only wanted the best for her.

  “It doesn’t matter, Pam. You are worth much more than the rest of them. You don’t want people with ulterior motives in your life,” Marilyn recommended.