Mr. 365 by Ruth Clampett Page B

partway down the stack of papers on her clipboard. “Sure Will,” she says, giving him a warm smile before turning back to continue her discussion with me.
    I touch her arm. “Lindsey, this is important. Okay? We need to make sure that happens.”
    Lindsey tips her head but nods. “Okay, Sophia, I’ll see what I can do.”
    I nod to Will. “I’ll make sure it happens.”
    He walks away with a huff. I step away from Lindsey and follow him as he heads up front. He dodges all the open equipment cases and steps over the cords snaking all over the floors. I imagine it’s unsettling to have his furniture shifted around and all the lights they’ve brought in. It must not feel like his house.
    Aaron looks up from where he’s hunched over the camera and notices us. “Hey, guys. How you doing, Will?”
    Will shrugs. “Okay, I guess. You getting what you need?”
    “Yeah, it took a while to get the balance of lighting right, but I think we’ve got it now.”
    “Good,” Will says.
    “And we’re almost ready for you. You ready for us?” he says with a laugh. “You look uncomfortable, but I bet you’ll come off great on camera. And Paul’s a kick. He’ll make it fun.”
    “Listen to Aaron,” I say.
    “Okay,” Will says, trying to give him an unforced smile. “I’ll take your word for it.”
    When we wander back out to the hall we, run into Paul.
    “Good, I was about to go find you,” Paul says, slapping Will on the back. “So we thought we’d start with you welcoming us in the front door. If you’re ready we can do a run through?”
    “Let’s get it over with,” Will says.
    Paul motions to Lindsey and me to join them, and we head out to the front porch.
    Paul turns to Will. “Okay, this is really straight forward—the opening shot. When we say action we’re going to have you open the front door and then say your line. Then you’ll step back and open the door wider like you’re letting us in. The cameraman will actually do a tracking shot going through the door.”
    Will nods.
    “I’ll show you the walk through.” Paul steps inside and closes the door.
    A second later Lindsey yells, “Action!”
    Paul pulls the door open with a huge grin on his face. “Hi, I’m Will Sander, and—”
    “Saunders,” Will says.
    “What?” asks Paul, barely restraining an eye roll.
    “Saunders, my last name is Saunders.”
    “Right. Well, you get the idea. Let’s start over.”
    “Action!” Lindsey shouts.
    Paul swings the door open. “Hi, I’m Will Saunders and welcome to my magical Christmas wonderland!” He steps back and does a dramatic arm sweep, then waits several beats, pretending to watch the imaginary cameraman entering the house.
    “Cut!” Lindsey yells to end the scene.
    “Magical Christmas wonderland?” Will’s face twists in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding. That’s so corny.”
    Will looks over, and I cringe a little.
    “Is he always this literal?” Lindsey whispers.
    “Corny? Corny?” Paul asks, the edges of his ears turning red. “We’re talking about a house full of Christmas decorations, are we not?”
    “Paul,” I say with a warning tone.
    “Where’s his shirt, Sophia? I thought we had an understanding.”
    “He’s not wearing the shirt, Paul,” I say firmly.
    Will folds his arms over his chest and shakes his head.
    Paul presses his lips together and glares. “We’ll discuss this later,” he says to me in a low voice.
    He motions to Will. “We need to get going. Come on, you do this now.”
    Will reluctantly steps inside the door and closes it.
    “Action!”
    He opens the door and stares straight ahead at a tree in the front yard then starts speaking in a monotone voice. “Hi, I’m Will Saunders and welcome to my home.” His movements are robotic as he pulls the door open further and counts to four before looking back at the threesome.
    “Cut,” Lindsey says with a weak voice.
    “Sorry, Will. No can do. We need more energy or it will fall