Suddenly, I realized how far apart we'd grown.
For a moment, I had a wave of nostalgia for my childhood, when I could always reach out to Nevada for assurance.
It wasn't that way any more. It was exactly the opposite. Nevada was leaning on me.
"Thanks, Nevada," I said, forcing a smile to my lips. "And don't worry. Everything'll turn out all right now."
He turned and I watched him walk out of the office.
Shortly after he left Dan Pierce came into the office.
I reached for a cigarette and lit it.
"About what you said this morning.
I think we ought to change the script.
You better send for the writers right away."
He grinned knowingly.
"I already did."
10.
WE COMPLETED THE PICTURE IN FOUR WEEKS.
Nevada knew what was happening but he never said a word.
Two weeks after that, we held the first sneak preview at a theater out in the valley.
I got there late and the studio publicity man let me in. "There are only a few seats left on the side, Mr. Cord," he apologized.
I looked down at the orchestra.
There was a section roped off in the center for studio guests.
It was jammed.
Everybody at the studio from Norman on down was there.
They were all waiting for me to fall on my ass.
I went up into the balcony just as the lights went down and the picture came on.
I found my way in the dark to a seat in the middle of a bunch of youngsters and looked up at the screen.
My name looked funny up there. JONAS CORD PRESENTS-
But the feeling left when the credits were over and the picture began.
After ten minutes had passed I started to sense a restlessness in the kids around me.
"Aw, shit," I heard one of them whisper. "I thought this was gonna be somethin' different. It's just another friggin' Western."
Then Rina came on screen.
Five minutes later, when I looked around me, the kids' faces were staring up at the screen, their mouths partly open, their expressions rapt.
There wasn't a sound except their breathing.
Next to me sat a boy holding a girl's hand tightly in his lap.
When Rina finally pulled Nevada down onto the bed with her, I could feel the kid squirm.
He whispered, "Jesus!"
I reached for a cigarette and began to smile.
Nobody had to tell me this picture was box office.
When I came down into the lobby after it was over, Nevada was standing in the corner surrounded by kids and signing autographs.
I looked for Rina. She was at the other end of the lobby surrounded by reporters.
Bernie Norman was hovering over her like a proud father.
Dan was standing in the center of a circle of men.
He looked up as I came over. "You were right, Jonas," he cried jubilantly.
"She creamed 'em. We'll gross ten million dollars!"
I gestured and he followed me out to my car.
"When this is over," I said, "bring Rina to my hotel."
He stared at me.
"It's still eating yuh, isn't it?"
"Don't lecture me, just do as I say!"
"What if she won't come?"
"She'll come," I said grimly. "Just tell her it's collection day!"
It was one o'clock in the morning and I was halfway through a bottle of bourbon when the knock came on the door.