Page 22 of Stone Promises

She looks over at the kids as if she forgot they were there. “Uh, okay. Class, this is Thad Stone. Thad is an actor and he’s going to talk to you for a little while about what it means to have a job like his.”

A boy raises his hand before I can get a word out. “Yes, Billy?” Mallory asks.

“You’re in that new movie, right? The one about the world ending? I’ve seen you on TV, only your hair was shorter and you were a lot dirtier.”

I laugh. “What you saw was called a movie trailer. That’s where they take bits and pieces of the movie and show it to you so you’ll want to come see it in the theater. Although it’s rated R, so I don’t think any of you should go. But if your parents want to go, that would be great. And all that dirt on my face and clothes is called makeup. Do you know it took a makeup artist an hour to make me look like that?”

“That’s cool,” Billy says. “Did you really jump out of that plane?”

“No, I didn’t. That was a stuntman. But they made him up to look like me, and in the movie, you can’t tell the difference. Sometimes I do my own stunts, like I had to rappel down the side of a mountain for another movie. It took me two weeks to learn how to do it. That’s part of the fun in acting. You get to do so many things and pretend to be a lot of different people.”

All the kids raise their hands. Mallory points to a girl in the back. “Yes, Jessica? What’s your question for Mr. Stone?”

“How many movies have you been in?” she asks.

“Five. But only three of them have been released so far. The other two have been filmed but aren’t in movie theaters yet. That’s why I’m here in New York, to promote the fourth film I did,Defcon One. My first movie was calledRed Sky Rising. I had a very small part. I played the son of the main character, but I was only in three scenes. My next two movies were calledI NeverandLast Week. They were romantic comedies.”

“Like where you kiss girls?” Jessica asks.

I nod. “Yes, but I didn’t get to kiss any because I wasn’t the main character.”

“Yes, Ryan?” Mallory asks, pointing to a kid wearing a SpongeBob SquarePants shirt.

“What’s a main character?” Ryan asks.

“It’s the most important person in a movie.” I motion to his shirt. “Kind of like SpongeBob. He’s the main character of that TV show. In my new movie,Defcon One, I’m kind of like SpongeBob, but in the movie,Last Week, I was more like Squidward, who’s called a supporting actor.”

One by one the kids ask questions and I patiently answer every one as Mallory learns more about me than she would ever ask. I’m a fucking genius. She’s getting insight into the man she thinks she doesn’t know anymore. She’s getting to hear all the good stuff, and not just what the press thinks is a newsworthy story. She’s getting see my job is just like any other job, only I do it in front of millions of people. And as each minute passes, I see her become more and more relaxed.

But as time wears on, I realize I’ll have to leave soon and I’m not exactly sure what is supposed to happen next. I never got that far in my head. If I leave here without her commitment to see me again, I’m as good as yesterday’s news. She could just blow me off with another text. I’ve got to up my game. Hit her where she’ll feel it. Get her students on my side. I look around her classroom for ideas.

I spot what looks to be a fundraiser poster on the wall. One of those pictures of an empty thermometer and as they raise money, they color it in from the bottom up. It looks like they are pretty close to reaching their goal. “I have a question for one of you.” I look around the room, carefully choosing my subject as they all wonder who I’m going to pick. “SpongeBob, can you tell me what ‘Wishes for Kids’ is?”

Ryan’s face lights up when I choose him. “We collect money for kids who can’t come to school like us. Kids who have cancer and other bad stuff and sometimes they live at the hospital. They get to take trips to Disney World and stuff because they are sick.”

“Ahhh, I see.” I look around and pick another kid. “Jessica, right?” She nods shyly. “Can you tell me how much money you’ve raised?”

She walks up to the poster and points to the amounts down the side. “We have almost eight hundred dollars.”

“Wow, that’s great,” I say.

“I guess, but Ms. Ellison’s class is going to win the party,” she says with a frown.

“Jessica,” Mallory says. “Fundraising is not about winning. It’s about giving to others.”

“Yes, Ms. Schaffer.” She returns to her seat.

“Well, wait a minute,” I say. “Why can’t it be about giving to othersandwinning?”

“What do you mean?” Mallory asks me.

“Can anyone tell me how much money you need to get the party?”

The boy in the blue shirt, whose name I can’t remember, says, “My friend Joey said that Ms. Ellison’s class has almost a thousand dollars. That’s a lot.”

“And can someone else tell me when the fundraiser is ending?”

They all look at each other and shrug. Mallory says, “Friday. It ends this Friday.”

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