"What just happened?" Alice Mihara asked herself as she got to her feet and looked around her bedroom. Everything looked familiar and yet all wrong at the same time.
Because you fell through the mirror a panicky voice said in her head.
She looked at the mirror near the bathroom door with apprehension.
"Impossible," she said.
She sat on the bed to take a moment to put on her loose sandal, then she went to the mirror and tentatively reached out expecting her shaky hand to go beyond the mirror frame, but her fingers encountered solid glass. In a panic, she went to the bedroom door but found that it was locked. With a pounding heart, she went to the bathroom door, beyond was the other door that led to the hallway. She opened the door and screamed when all she saw was a brick wall a mere foot beyond the opening.
"Cut!" someone yelled.
Alice screamed again and turned to face the person who had just yelled cut.
"Alice, what are you doing?" a man asked. "Why are you at the bathroom door? You are suppose to exit through the other door to go meet the men waiting for you in the living room."
Barely able to think, she said, "The door is locked." The man was surrounded by bright light making him hard to see. Instinctively, she shielded her eyes.
"God damn! Somebody check that," the man said. "Alice, go back to the mirror and do the cross again. Wait, never mind. Let's move on. Strike this! Set up for the living room! Alice take ten. Ishani, check her makeup." The blinding light went out.
I'm on a film set? Alice thought no less confused. She worked at a Honolulu TV station and was no stranger to sets and knew one when she saw one, but what the hell was she doing on this set?
People walked around her and started dismantling her bedroom, walls and all. New walls were put up forming her living room minus the wall that led to the kitchen and front door.
"You were great Alice," the man said.
She could see him now. He was chubby with a reddish trimmed beard and long blond hair tied back in a ponytail. He wore a loud red, silk aloha shirt, khaki shorts and sandals. "I liked the confuse and innocent act but I don't know what the screaming was all about."
I'm fucking crazy is what that screaming was all about she wanted to say but couldn't as her throat and chest tightened with panic and confusion. A pretty and shapely dark skin girl walked up to Alice and looked her in the face.
"Hambone," the girl said to chubby blond guy, "Dizzy wants to talk to you in the office."
"Thanks Ishani," Hambone said and walked off the set.
Ishani the makeup girl guided Alice to a chair where her kitchen should be. Alice mindlessly watched as Ishani selected eyeliner and lip paste from a makeup kit on a table. "Want a smoke?" the makeup girl asked as she worked on Alice's eyes.
"Don't smoke," Alice said flatly.
"Brave of you to quit in the middle of a shoot," Ishani said. Then she leaned back and gave Alice a serious look. "You okay? You look kind of freaked out?"
"I am freaked out," Alice said in a hard whisper.
"Don't blame you," Ishani said as she dabbed at Alice's lips with pale pink lipstick paste. "Agreeing to do this unsimulated sex movie is really risky. If this falls flat it could mess up your career."
"Where is Nelson?" Alice asked numbly.
"Who's Nelson?"
"I'm dreaming. This isn't happening," Alice said on the edge of hysteria.
"If you're backing out," Ishani said seriously, "You had better let Hambone and Dizzy know right now."
Freaked out as she was, Alice had to ask, "Is the director's name really Hambone?"
"It's Charley Hammond, but we all call him Hambone.
"Who is Dizzy?"
Ishani laughed. "Our producer? Desmond Howe? Girl you feeling alright?"
Alice said nothing as she watched a couple of guys carry her living room sofa onto the set and put it down on a spot marked with tape away from the window, right where it belonged.
Where's the lamp and koa end table? she thought blankly.
On cue, another guy stepped in with said lamp and end table and put it next to the sofa exactly where it should be.
"That's it. This is too much," Alice whispered. She stood and marched in the direction where the front door to the her Honolulu townhouse should be. Just beyond a camera, she saw a red exit sign in the distance and made for it.
"Hey! I'm not done," Ishani called after her.
Alice stopped in mid stride, she saw a familiar face. It was the Hawaiian guy from Nelson's bukakke party, the very guy she had planned on fucking in her living room just to piss off Nelson. Seeing someone familiar filled her with marginal hope. She walked up to him, stared him in the face and pleaded, "Help me." He smiled at her. Insanely, she found herself responding to him sexually.
"Know what you mean," the Hawaiian guy said still smiling. "Before now, it's been fade to black or call in the better looking body double."
"No double can ever looks as good as you Harry," Ishani said catching up to Alice.
"This is crazy," Alice said.
"You telling me," Harry said with a nervous laugh. He took Alice's hand in his and squeezed it gently. "I'm glad I'm doing this with you. Makes it way easier. Gotta go change, see you in a little bit." He smiled at her one more time and walked away.
"If I had to fuck anyone for real on camera it would be Harry Hoopii," Ishani said with a dreamy glaze.
"He's ... wow," Alice agreed.
"He's up there with Cloony and that Thor guy in my dirty fantasies," Ishani said nudging Alice. "Anyway, you seem upset. You want me to go get Hambone and Dizzy?"
Seeing no point in running anymore, Alice shook her head, went back to the make up station and sat down. If she were dreaming she'd eventually wake up. And if she were crazy? Well ... nothing she could do about that either. But mostly, her new calm had everything to do with the thought of seeing that handsome Harry Hoopii again. And she had to admit that she was curious as to what was going down on this movie set. What did Ishani say? Unsimulated sex? What the hell is that she wondered?
A few minutes later, Harry returned to the set wearing just a dusty mauve robe. She watched him from across the room as he spoke to Hambone the director and some skinny guy in a suit.
"That's gotta be Dizzy the producer," she whispered to herself.
She focused on Harry. The guy was flawlessness with that delicious mix of Hawaiian and Asian. She longed to be near him, her fingers itched to touch him. I might be crazy, she thought, but he is beautiful.