The Story of the Red Pick Up

The Midpoint: I am dejected. I have no leads. I am where I started, minus an hour. I have 1 hour before I need to go to Kmart and Chipotle. My best chances are past me. I am a failure. This is a microcosm of my life. I get close and then fail. I'll never make movies. I'll never get married. I'm going to be a huge loser.

All right, shut the fuck up, you whiny bitch.

I go out again, the best luck I've had so far is working on the residential neighborhood checking for "for sale" signs.

I drive down a residential street and see another good truck. Gee, I'm lucky to me out here in Montrose, where everyone has an old pick up. I call the owner. An old lady picks up the phone. She says her husband will meet me out front. I notice an NRA sticker on the truck. We'll have to greek that, I think.

I wait for five minutes. Where the fuck is this old fart?

A neighbor comes out of his house and looks at me. "You looking for Earl?"

"Yeah, he's coming out, I spoke to his wife."

He gives me a funny look. "You want me to call him?"

"I just spoke to his wife you dumb hill billy." I didn't really say "you dumb hill billy."

Finally Earl comes out limping around.

"Hey, you, you interested in the truck? She's a lovely vehicle, I just have trouble driving her anymore."

"Actually, I like the truck a lot, but am not interested in buying it, but renting it tomorrow morning. I'll pay $100 for 3 hours. You could drive it, or I could drive it."

"Oh, I'm not much interested in that." And he proceed to talk for 5 minutes about the truck from an obvious script he has prepared trying to sell it. I admit, it's a good truck, but I don't have much of an interest in buying. At least he got to practice his pitch.

"Do you know anyone who might be willing to drive a truck for a movie shoot?"

"No, not really."

"Any teenagers or something?"

"Well, maybe Danny...HEY DANNY. You interested in the movies?"

Danny is the next door neighbor, about 25, looks like a regular type guy living at home with the parents. He walks over.

"You interested in making a $100 tomorrow for 3 hours work?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Talk to this guy."

"I'm interested in having someone drive a pick up truck for a couple of shots in a movie. It'll take about 3 hours, we'll pay $100."

"Sure, I'll do it."

I thank the old man and walk down to Danny's house to see the truck. It's an early 1990s Ford F350, a mongo truck with double wheels in the back and a wire rack surrounding the bed. They use it for painting, I can tell. It looks beat up, but is too big and too new. But I'm tired and thinking this might be my best shot at lining anything up, so we exchange phone numbers and plan on meeting in the morning.

"We can use this truck or my other car."

"You have another truck?"

"Well, my Acura right here."

I look at a beat up, semi tricked out Acura integra. Is this guy mental or something?

I leave, unhappy, keeping two possibilities open - the guy with the good red chevy calling back and using a prop from out diner set the following weekend. But for now, we have a pick up lined up.

I go to Kmart and Chipotle. I am right on time.