The first was the release of Norwegian Wood at the end of November of 2008. That was when she'd gotten glowing reviews for her performance as Natalie Waters, tons of offers for new movies, and she'd met Peter O'Brian, who one way or another would become the most important man in her life.
The second was on August 1, 2018. The day she had believed the on-set rumors about Peter and Yuri Langslet having an affair and had filed for divorce from the former. Of course their marriage had been going down the drain anyway, but they might never have ended it, Peter being as Catholic as he was. She wondered if he still clung to his belief that they were still married, especially now that marriage was no longer a legal state at all, though the divorce had gone through before legal marriage had been exchanged for a more religiously neutral term. Perhaps that had been the start of the real pain, and the downward spiral she had taken into full divahood.
The third was on June 16, 2042. On that day she found an email from Phil Tinmayer, which she nearly deleted as spam before remembering who he was, as she hadn't heard from him in over ten years . It read, "Henry dead. Yuri in desperate shape. Too old to look after her. Can't think of who else to ask for help. Please go see her. Please."
Kelly's first thought was that she would of course go see her, and bring food, since Henry Martin had been Jewish, and while his wife wasn't, she might sit shiver for him anyway. But she very nearly didn't. At the age of 52, the ability to care that much about other people had nearly left her. The only person whom she was connected to was her son Harold, and he hated her.
At 18, Harold probably had more money than his mother did. It was her declaration that he was paying for his college himself that caused Kelly to visit her old friend after all. She reminded him when he protested this that he had the money, and he had said what hadn't needed to be mentioned and she really wished he wouldn't have: she didn't. Hollywood was no place for a woman over forty years of age, and though Kelly had made a lot of money over her lifetime, she had spent a lot of it. She was resigned enough to her lot now to regulate her spending, and she thought she could last a while on what she had, but there was no money for paying for something as expensive as the kind of college Harold wanted to go to.
His words that night stung her hard, harder then she thought she could still be stung: she was a selfish spendthrift, she hadn't realized when her time was over, even though she'd hastened her demise by her outrageous behavior, and her inability to act anyway, and now she was no use to anyone in the world, and in a few more years he'd probably have to take care of her, and she should remember that. There was nothing in her answering screams about ungrateful children that could be called anything besides pathetic. After that scene, it hadn't taken more than a glimpse in the mirror for Kelly to decide that she had to get out and do something, preferably something charitable.
The next day, July 9, she packed some clothes, got into her car, drove out of her house for the first time that week, and after a brief stop at the 'mart took the route that went from it to Yuri's, rediscovering it, as it had been over 15 years since she'd last driven it.
At the gate she found an intercom which she flicked the switch of several times before a loud burst of static hit her ears so hard they had to have done some permanent damage, and when she heard nothing but faint static following, she yelled, "Anybody there? HELLO?"
After there was no response, she was about to get back into her car when her ears took more damage from a loud voice demanding, "WHO IS IT?"
"It's me! Kelly Aimes! Do you remember me?"
There was nearly a minute of silence. "I have food!" Kelly added, hoping that would help.
There was a longer period of silence. Then there was an unpleasant creak, and the gates swung open. Kelly drove through.
She rang the doorbell, got no answer, discovered the door to be unlocked, went inside, and started searching the house for Yuri.
She found her in a small room where had a lot of old electronics in it, including a DVD player. When she entered, the first thing she ran into was herself, 19 years of age, up on a screen, throwing her arms around Tony Kurosaki and crying out, "I want you to always remember me. Will you remember that I existed? That I stood next to you like this?"
Why had she been so dramatic? She should have played that moment softer. Why hadn't Henry told her to play it softer? If she remembered correctly, this was one of the most important scenes in the movie. It ought to have been perfect.
It was the DVD of Norwegian Wood Yuri was watching, and it lay on top of four more DVD cases, which Kelly guessed were Number the Stars, The Baltic, Where the Streets Have No Name, and either Lights In or Card.
Yuri herself was seated against the wall, one hand on top of the remote control. She looked very old, much older than she'd looked in the magazine pictures Kelly had seen of her since the breaking up of their friendship. Her face looked a bit swollen, though the light in the room wasn't very good. She did not react to Kelly's entrance at all, though Kelly was right next to her.
"Yuri?" she said softly. Still no response.
Kelly put her 'mart bag in front of Yuri. "I have food."
"Thanks," Yuri said, her eyes not moving at all.
This obviously couldn't be healthy. Even so, the only reason Kelly didn't walk out and leave her there was that she really didn't want to go home.
It was enough of a good deed, she decided, just to keep her company. So she squatted down next to her, waited for her to react, decided such a wait would be in vain, and turned her attention to Norwegian Wood.
It was an informative watch. The last time she had seen this had been somewhere between ten and fifteen years ago, and back then she hadn't been paying much attention to anything other than the fact that Peter was in it, and he was playing a character who was a total bastard. Strange as it was, she had been paying attention to herself least of all.
She was better than she remembered. Though perhaps she had been just a little too calm during her final scenes. Though she liked the subtleties, such as the way her fingers-not her fists-clenched-it was good of Henry to feature that without overemphasizing it, and that bit with the eyes was really good.
What really amazed her was the ending. Back when she'd been nineteen and she'd first watched the newly-made movie, she had been confused by the ending, though of course she hadn't blamed Henry for it, because it hadn't been his choice; the author had driven a hard bargain when negotiating the rights. Given the original novel had been set in Tokyo with all Japanese characters, she supposed he'd had the right to make a few unusual demands. She still thought it was more Tony's performance than the actual ending, but something about it really did make her breath catch, and left her dazed through half of the credits. "He won the Oscar for that ending, I think," she commented, when she could speak again.
Yuri started crying, then started screaming. "Well," Kelly couldn't help but mutter, "I'm making progress. I've gotten her to respond."
She waited patiently for Yuri to stop screaming, then asked, "Are you going to eat or not?"
"Will you go away if I do?"
Kelly considered. On one hand, it would get Yuri to eat, in theory, and she was getting tired of this game. On the other, if she left, she'd have no proof that Yuri had eaten, and when it came down to it, she was aware that Yuri needed more help than that.
Plus there was that ever-present fact that she still really didn't want to go home.
"I can't," she said at last. "I'm sorry."
Yuri pushed the plate away and sat with her arms folded across her chest. It was the act of a petulant child, not a woman in her late fifties, and Kelly said so. Yuri ignored her.
Kelly wasn't sure what her next move should be, so she decided that she might as well eat herself. Because she knew herself well enough to already know that, barring Yuri taking the trouble to actually throw her out, if she had been likely to leave any time within the next few days, she would have left just now.
She was surprised to find her in the master bedroom. She'd taken herself to bed at around 10 PM, and had honestly believed that Yuri would fall asleep in front of the screen. Which might be neglectful on Kelly's part, but really, she was doing Yuri a favor by staying like this, and she felt no obligation to bodily drag the woman anywhere.
Nor did she now feel the need to either wake her or undress her, though she has fallen asleep in the shorts, blouse, and sandals she had been wearing the previous day.
No, she'd leave her there until noon or something. Hopefully she'd get up on her own before then. After all, if she'd been getting up and going to bed before Kelly's arrival; there was no reason why she should stop now.
Kelly hadn't brought much food to last beyond the previous day, so she checked out the pantry. There was a cabinet's worth of canned goods, and a bunch of water bottles. Kelly, though being no expert on the matter, was getting the general feeling that Yuri, strictly speaking, wasn't sit shivering so much as just plain wallowing, but she made a mental note to go grocery shopping.
For now, though, it looked like breakfast was a choice between canned tomatoes, canned olives, cream of mushroom, chicken broth, some Mexican canned monstrosity, or peas.
She ended up going with the cream of mushroom, which she ate very slowly, half hoping Yuri would get up and come in before she was done. No luck.
She hadn't seen any servants around, and at any rate she was used to functioning without them, and so washed all her dishes herself. It took her a couple of minutes to locate the dishwasher, because Yuri had a real state-of-the-art one that was built into the wall. But once she found the switch, it was a very easy process to start. Made her wonder why the contraption was so stacked up. If Yuri had made the effort to load it, had it really been too much trouble afterwards to turn it on?
She checked on Yuri again, and found her to still be asleep. She hadn't moved either after Kelly had showered and dressed, "borrowing" some of Yuri's clothes which more or less fit her. It was about mid-morning when Kelly was heading out the door to go to the 'mart, and she looked in one last time to see her still slumbering away.
She was photographed as she drove out the gate. She was so startled that her hand slipped over her horn, which honked loudly and nearly made her jump in her seat. Almost everyone had forgotten about her existence; she hadn't had to deal with the paparazzi like this in years. Even now, she was quick to realize, they were probably only photographing her because she'd just come out of Yuri's mansion. How long, she wondered, would it take for them to identify her for the tabloid reports?
Shopping at the 'mart itself was thankfully uneventful. Though she did find herself buying much more than usual, and was fairly certain after ring-up that she was pretty close to her monthly limit. Perhaps if she was going to stay with Yuri, they would work out something with the latter's money? She had a lot more of it than Kelly. Or at least Kelly was pretty sure she did, though she hadn't worked much either, since Henry's health had started failing...was it ten years ago?
Noone photographed her on the way back through the gates, either. Henry had been dead long enough that there were times that they actually had something better to do.
She was carrying the first two bags in when she found Yuri awake, still in the previous days clothes, sitting on her sofa and staring at the ceiling. She walked over to her and placed the bags in front of her. "I've got a lot of these," she said, "and you're eating half of them. So help me."
When she returned with two more bags, both Yuri and the first two bags had vanished from the living room, and she could hear the sound of cabinets opening and closing in the kitchen.
Yuri was indeed there, unloading the two bags and putting their contents away. Since she knew where everything went, Kelly left it to her and went back out to the car.
After that they worked together without talking. When Kelly had carried all the bags in she found that whenever she took something out Yuri would just point to where it went.
But when everything was put away, and Yuri started leaving silently, Kelly demanded, "What do we say?"
Yuri glared at her and replied, "Why are you here?"
"I was thinking of 'thank you'..." Kelly couldn't help but start.
"I guessed that. Now tell me why you're here."
"Can I not be here just to help out an old friend who obviously needs it?"
"Kelly," said Yuri impatiently, "last time we talked before you showed up at my gate yesterday, you called me a whore because I sided with my husband, who had done what he had to do to keep you from ruining his movie and gotten the performance out of you which won you your Oscar in the process. Then you told me you'd slap me silly if you weren't worried about lawsuits, threatened to sue yourself-"
It hurt to be reminded, so much that Kelly cut her off. "That was nearly twenty years ago."
"Yes, and in that time you've grown even worse. You think Henry and I were that far out of the loop? We kept good track of your exploits. Three more marriages and divorces, a fourth engagement, walking off a set and causing a production to collapse in on itself...do I need to go on?"
"No you don't. Okay." She sagged in defeat. She suddenly felt very old. "I came here because I didn't have anywhere else to go, and I wanted to go somewhere. Be with someone. Let me stay, Yuri, please. You need me."
"You're right. I do. Come on, let's make ourselves some proper lunch."
Kelly wasn't sure what Yuri meant by "some proper lunch" at first. It turned out to be cooked and served on plates with two different kinds of juices on the table. It tasted very good, and she said so.
"Thank you," said Yuri tersely.
Kelly lost her temper again. "Can't you take a compliment?"
"I can take one if I think it's meant."
"I did mean it," Kelly said weakly. How could she possibly live with this woman when she wouldn't believe anything good of her?
Something about the way she said it must have floored Yuri, because she just stood there and said nothing for nearly five seconds before saying, very quietly, "You did mean it, didn't you?"
"I did. Yuri, I'm not sure this is going to work."
"No. It will. Because it has to. I just admitted that I need you, and you've pretty much made it clear that you need me. So somehow we will make this work, because neither of us have any other choice in the matter. Why don't you help me with the dishes?"
The dishes ended up taking a little time, since Kelly'd forgotten that she'd run the dishwasher that morning, and now they had to take everything out and put it away. Again Yuri pointed out to her where everything went, and by the time they'd put the last of the knifes away Kelly had memorized that.
"Is today Thursday?" Yuri asked when they were done.
"Yes," Kelly answered. "It's Thursday, July 10th."
"Good, that means Astrid's on tonight. I have been watching that sometimes, you know, when I remember to. Henry and I used to watch it together." On the last sentence her voice shook a little, and Kelly found herself reaching out and squeezing Yuri's shoulders. Yuri took a deep breath and pulled away. "It's all right; I'm all right now."
It was probably just as well that Yuri had suffered the moment of grief when she had; if she hadn't, Kelly would have uttered the catty remark still on her tongue about how Henry and Yuri along with him would appreciate a show where the college-age Slayer ended up involved with her Watcher, even if one of the points of the series was that he wasn't actually that far apart from her in age. But instead she kept it to herself.
"It's strange now, you know," she was saying, "to watch these sequels come up to series I watched as a teenager."
"Well, of course they would now," said Kelly. "Once Whedon died, it was only a matter of time before his estate sold out. The timing's good enough for the old viewers of Buffy to watch this show with their grandkids!"
"I would never have watched Buffy with my parents."
"Definitely not with your mother," Kelly reminded her.
"Okay, my parents weren't usual anyway. But I had some friends, and they were the same way about it. And Astrid really isn't too dissimilar a show, now that they've got some good writers on it. Those poor grandchildren must spend the entire show wishing their grandparents would just go away! Oh, when are these commercials going to end? Surely they weren't this bad back when I was watching Buffy!"
"You're just being sentimental; they were."
When the current commercial gave way to yet another one, Yuri continued, "Of course, as a girl, my favorite show was Star Trek: Voyager. Mostly because I had a crush on the young handsome blonde guy in it." She considered this for another moment. "I had absolutely no taste, didn't I?"
"Think nothing of it; you weren't supposed to." Kelly herself had been a handful of years too young to enjoy the two shows back when they'd first been airing, though she'd seen some of Buffy over the years. "Do you know they're making a sixth Star Trek series, finally? Harold's looking to get a part in it."
"Harold?" Yuri looked horrified. "Look, I hate to say this-"
"You can tell me he can't act. I don't mind hearing it."
"How likely do you think he is of getting cast? Please, Kelly, this is my youth! Everyone has their youth, don't they? Even I have my youth. And I have so little for it-that crush I talked about, that cheering when those two characters got together and that anger when those two didn't-those are just a handful of many girlhood memories for most women, but I don't have many more."
"I understand completely," said Kelly. "Remember, I grew up in Hollywood too. I wasn't as famous as you were, but I knew people who were, and I saw what their lives were like. As for Harold, I wish I could tell you more. But we don't communicate much anymore. I think he was looking into the possibility of being in the series for long enough before I even heard what I said."
"You two don't communicate? Really?"
"Really. It's only gotten outright bad recently, so you wouldn't have heard of it."
"You're right, I wouldn't have. Since Henry got his final illness...." She drifted off and looked down. Kelly was still trying to think of something to say when the opening sequence to Astrid finally started playing and Yuri brought her head back up to watch.
"Ginger Alis," she read off the name of the the actress playing the title role. "Wonder how she's going to fare once the series finally leaves the air? It can't be long now; it goes on much longer and it'll probably just start to degenerate."
"This'll be what she's most famous for, no doubt about it," Kelly agreed. "But I'm sure she'll find something to do with her life. Didn't the original actress on Buffy manage to pay to bills with horror movies afterwards?"
"Spend the rest of my life making horror movies?" Yuri shuddered. "Good thing I wasn't an actress until I grew up! If that had been my only choice, I think I would have rather just gotten straight to work on my memoirs!"