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who's just gotten away with something.
Eric was looking at Phil with the stunned expression of someone who can't reconcile what's
before his eyes with what he knows.
Is he seeing something I don't?
"Why don't you tell Eric everything you've told me? That way we'll have a different
perspective on things."
Phil smiled again. Beth began to suspect something. What, she wasn't sure, but she began
to suspect Phil of trying some kind of complicated game on them. "Well, I started in '38 with
Warner, then moved over to Disney."
"Uncle Phil "
"I'm getting there! It was years later I was working right here in Burbank on the studio
lot when I saw my first elf. We were watching the dailies for one of the early color
features you know what dailies are, don't you, young man? and I noticed that someone
was sitting a few seats over from me, somebody I'd never seen before. I figured he was one
of the execs, dropping in to see what we were working on, but then "
The old man's eyes brightened, and softened with remembrance. "Then, when they turned
the lights back on, I saw him clearly. He was very tall, wearing the strangest clothing, with lots
of golden hair, curling all over his shoulders. No one, mind you, especially not an executive,
wore long hair in those days. My God, he looked just like Snow White's Prince Charming,
the way I wanted to do him. Jeez, what a travesty that was. See, the Old Man had this thing
about long hair on guys he'd've just as soon put crewcuts on the Greek gods!"
"Uncle Phil "
"Right, the guy. He just sat there, looking up at me and smiling. And the most peculiar thing
about it was that no one else seemed to see him. It was like he wasn't there. That's when I
saw the ears, and I had it figured: either he was an elf, or I was drunk. And I wasn't drunk, at
least not that day. He saw me looking at him, and he kept smiling at me. And then . . . and
then he leaned real close to me, and whispered, like it was a big secret: 'Nice work on that
last scene, Phil. But you got something wrong a unicorn's hooves are supposed to be
silver, not gold!' "
Phil's cackling laughter rang through the room, and Eric smiled, slowly. "Well, that was the
first time I saw Prince Terenil. I wanted to talk with him some more after all, I'd never seen
an elf before so I just told him right back, 'Look, whoever heard of pastel unicorns,
anyway? It's artistic license!' He laughed, and said we ought to go talk about it. I tell you, I
was just about to bust out with excitement. I mean, me and an elf. We got some sandwiches
from the commissary and sat under the trees on one of the backlots, just talking. Talking
about eveything animation, art, elves, humans. Turns out he was a real cartoon
fanatic thought it was amazing how we created living characters out of nothing but voices
and blobs of paint. We had a lot in common, for an animator and an elven prince." He shook
his head reminiscently. "He really liked the Duck. You know, that Duck was sure my fav "
"Uncle Phil " Beth said wamingly, having finally figured out what was going on. "You can
put on that senile act with everybody else, but it isn't going to work with me."
The old man raised his cola can to her, not looking the least bit repentant. "Okay, sweetling.
Yeah, those were the days. We used to meet a couple times a week like that, sitting in a
backlot, eating lunch, and talking." Phil's eyes clouded suddenly. "Until the big layoffs, that
is."
He sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "That was a bad time, for me, for a lot of people in
the Industry. Leila my wife she was alive then, and working days in a department store.
We were all right for a while, living off her salary and our savings, but then money started
getting tight. Just when I thought I was gonna have to go back to being a security guard.
Prince Terenil showed up on the doorstep, with a leather pouch in his hand. Honeybunch,
did I ever tell you that Leila could see the elves too? Wonderful woman, Leila. God, I miss
her."
He fell silent for a moment, and just stared sadly off into space, so sadly that Beth didn't
have the heart to prompt him. "Best thing that ever happened to me, was Leila," he said
softly. "She really was. God, I miss her "
The old man's eyes were so lost, so infinitely lonely, that Beth finally had to pretend to
examine her Coke can, overwhelmed by the feeling that she was intruding on something
very private.
Phil cleared his throat, and took another sip of his cola. "Yeah, she could see them; she and
Terenil had a real thing about keeping me from not going off into a gloom about the layoffs.
So Terenil showed up. He said he had a sudden craving for a piece of Leila's pecan
pie but after she'd fed him, he said, 'It's about time I returned a little something for your
hospitality.' He opened that leather pouch up over the kitchen table, and then there were all
these sparkling stones on the formica. A dozen little gems. I thought my jaw was gonna
come off, and Leila she started crying, and hugging him . . . He would never tell us where
he got them, just that he didn't steal them. Leila sold them to a jeweler, and we had enough
money to live on until the studios started hiring animators again."
You never told me that story before. Uncle Phil. "It was right after that he took me over to the
Elfhame side of... whatever. What they call 'under the Hill.' My, now that was different." His
eyes had lost their sadness, and were focused on something infinitely lovely, but very far
away.
"Did you ever meet Perenor?" Beth asked. The animator nodded, but his cheerful smile
faded. "Oh, I definitely did, Beth. That was quite an afternoon. Prince Terenil and I were at
the Elfhame Grove, you know, the one where they all used to meet and party. We were
eating oranges and taking that was when most of the San Fernando Valley was still
orange orchards, Beth, years
before you were even born and suddenly Terenil stands up. He has this intent look in his
eyes, like he's listening to something, even though I can't hear anything but the birds in the
trees around us. Then he starts off through the trees. I didn't know what was going on, but I
followed him."
Phil's lips thinned to a hard line. "And there, on the edge of the oak trees, is this handsome
silver-haired elf, with a human boy. They're just sitting there, not doing anything that I can [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]