Zenith of Desire: The Hollywood Incubus

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This intense boy, who carried himself like a man three times his age, was making her job easier. If Elizabeth complained to her parents about being chaperoned, Maya could now say: Even Marvin agreed you shouldn’t be alone with boys at night.

Even Marvin thinks it’s a good idea.

Elizabeth hugged the stuffed panda a little tighter. ”But...”

She hesitated. ”You’re not like other boys.”

Her voice had lost its usual dramatic confidence. ”You’re just...”

She searched for the right word. ”...you.”

”You write movies. You read all those giant books. You know weird science stuff nobody else talks about.”

She looked at him with complete sincerity. ”I don’t think you’re scary.”

Marvin held her gaze for a long moment before smiling. ”I’m glad you feel safe around me.”

He spoke quietly. ”But being safe isn’t about finding one person you trust. It’s about building good habits that protect you everywhere. And I want you safe. Even from me. Especially from me. I’m exactly as dangerous as I need to be, Liz. And exactly as safe. That’s the trick of it.”

Elizabeth thought about that. ”...Oh.”

Marvin nodded toward the neat stacks of scripts covering his desk. ”Now...” he said. ”I believe somebody wanted to borrow one.”

Elizabeth’s gloomy mood vanished as though someone had flipped a switch. ”I knew you were gonna say yes!”

Elizabeth grinned. ”See? I told Maya I was good at negotiating.”

She hopped off the bench so quickly that her stuffed Po panda toppled onto the cushion behind her.

She hurried to the desk, slowing only when she reached the scripts.

For a moment, she simply stared. There was something almost sacred about them. Four completely different worlds waiting to be opened.

”Can I?” she asked quietly, glancing up at Marvin.

He nodded. ”Go ahead. But don’t blame me if you don’t like them.”

Elizabeth carefully picked up the first script.

”The Illusion of Reality Project.” She liked the title immediately.

Returning to the bench, she tucked her feet underneath herself and began reading.

The trailer fell quiet again.

Only the scratch of Marvin’s fountain pen and the occasional turn of a page disturbed the silence.

Barely ten minutes passed before Elizabeth frowned.

She flipped back several pages.

Then forward again. ”...Huh.”

Another page. Then another.

Finally she lowered the script onto her lap. ”This is...”

She searched for the right word. ”...really smart.”

Marvin smiled without looking up. ”That’s usually the goal.”

”I mean...” Elizabeth scrunched up her face.

”I kinda get it... ...but then I don’t.”

She pointed at one page. ”Everybody keeps talking about reality and computers and what’s real and what’s fake.”

She sighed dramatically. ”My brain hurts.”

She looked at Marvin. ”It’s like reading grown-up homework.”

Marvin chuckled. ”That’s fair.”

”I think I’ll read that one when I’m, like...” She counted on her fingers. ”...twenty.”

She set The Matrix aside with surprising gentleness, her respect for the work evident, before reaching for the second script.

The winter tree on the cover immediately caught her attention.

”This one looks pretty.” She smiled. ”It looks like a fairy tale.”

She settled back into the corner of the bench and started reading. Five quiet minutes slipped by.

Maya watched in amazement as Elizabeth became completely absorbed.

First curiosity. Then excitement. Then confusion. Then... Something quieter.

Elizabeth read another page. Then another.

Finally she closed the script with a soft snap.

”Okay.” She looked at Marvin.

”No.” Marvin finally looked up.

”No?” She hugged the script against her chest. ”I mean... It’s really, really good.”

She nodded several times. ”I loved the beginning. And all the dragon stuff.”

Her face brightened. ”The drawings are amazing. They looked so real. I could actually picture those giant dragons from the skeletons. And all those huge bones..”

She smiled. ”The museum was my favorite part.”

Then the smile slowly faded. ”But...”

She looked back down at the cover. ”After that...”

Her shoulders drooped. ”...everything gets sad.”

She searched for words only a child would use. ”It’s like somebody turns all the lights off. And nobody turns them back on.”

She rubbed both arms unconsciously. ”It just keeps getting colder. I don’t know... It made me feel lonely. Like everybody forgot how to be happy.”

She looked back at Marvin. ”I still think it’s beautiful.”

She gently patted the cover. ”But after the museum... it feels like walking through a giant freezer.”

She wrinkled her nose. ”I don’t like stories that make me feel cold inside.”

Elizabeth carefully set the winter script back on the desk before reaching for the third pile.

”Project Amy: The Enchanted.”

”That sounds fun.” She was expecting magic, expecting the warmth of *Harry Potter* or the kinetic joy of *Kung Fu Panda*.

She opened it with renewed excitement, expecting another complete story.

Instead...

She blinked.

Then flipped another page.

And another.

Most of the pages were blank except for handwritten notes and scattered pencil sketches—a girl in a wedding dress, a mischievous chipmunk, a dragon that looked as though it had been carved from crystal.

Elizabeth frowned. ”...Where’s the rest?”

She flipped through several more pages. ”This one’s empty.”

She looked up at Marvin. ”It’s mostly drawings. And notes. Where’s the story?”

”I’m still writing it,” Marvin said, not looking up from his current page, where Elle Woods was currently realizing that Warner was a total bonehead. ”After I finish this one. It’s... complicated. Story takes time. Patience.”

Elizabeth puffed out her cheeks. ”But I want to read something finished.”

She folded her arms. ”You promised.”

Marvin smiled to himself. ”I did?”

”You did.” She nodded emphatically.

”You said one day you’d write something I could read.”

”That was, like...” She counted on her fingers. ”...last month.”

She pointed at him. ”And promises count.”

”Mary-Kate says they’re basically little contracts.”

Marvin finally laughed. ”That sounds exactly like something she’d say.”

He placed his pen down and turned his attention to the manuscript he had been developing throughout the night, inspired by the idea sparked from Paris’s unexpected visit.

A thick stack of pages held together with a red binder clip. He held it out. ”This one’s only the first act.”

Elizabeth accepted it carefully with both hands.

”It’s rough. And it isn’t finished. But if you’re willing to forgive the messy parts...you can read it.”

Elizabeth’s face lit up. ”Really?”

”Really.”

Elizabeth took the manuscript with both hands, as if receiving communion. She looked at the title page, where *Project Paris* was written in bold letters. A strange feeling fluttered in her stomach—a premonition, or perhaps just indigestion from too much craft service pizza.

But she controlled it and started reading...The trailer became quiet again.

A minute passed.

Then another.

Finally she looked up.

”...Is this for a girl?” she asked, her voice carefully neutral.

Marvin turned fully in his chair to face her, his expression unreadable. ”Of course it is. I can’t exactly be Elle Woods, can I? Not legally, and definitely not blonde. Not yet, anyway. Maybe in another life.”

Elizabeth’s grip tightened on the script. ”So it’s for... a friend? A girlfriend?”

”Yes.” He answered without hesitation. ”I promised I’d write something for her... So I am.”

Elizabeth traced her finger along the edge of the manuscript. ”...She’s your girlfriend?”

Marvin smiled. ”Something like that.”

”I made her a promise. And I keep my promises.” He shrugged. ”I think people deserve that much. Keeping promises is important, Liz. It’s how you build a world.”

Elizabeth was quiet for a moment.

Then she asked, trying to sound casual, ”...So you really like her?”

”I do.” Marvin answered honestly.

”I like a lot of people.” He smiled. ”I’ve been lucky enough to meet some very interesting women.”

Marvin smiled, and it was a complicated expression—warm, apologetic, honest. ”I have many girl-friends, Liz. Many. With a hyphen. And more without. The world is full of interesting women, and I find I can’t resist interesting women. It’s a failing. Or perhaps a feature. I’m not sure yet.”

Elizabeth looked back down at the pages.

”...Oh.” For reasons she couldn’t quite explain, that tiny word felt heavier than she expected. Elizabeth sat quietly, still holding the script against her knees.

She stared at him, her young mind struggling to parse the geometry of adult relationships, the calculus of affection divided among many recipients. She thought of her sisters, their friendships, their rivalries. She thought of the way her heart hammered when she saw Marvin, and how it must hammer for others when they saw him too.

At ten years old, the idea of caring about more than one person that way felt impossibly grown-up. It didn’t fit anywhere inside her world.

”So...” She looked back up. ”You promised her a story...”

”And you promised me one.”

”That’s the same?”

Marvin nodded. ”The promise is.”

He smiled. ”The stories won’t be.”

Elizabeth tilted her head. ”So mine gets to be different?”

”It has to be.” He leaned back in his chair. ”You deserve your own adventure.”

He pretended to think for a moment. ”Maybe dragons.”

Elizabeth immediately nodded. ”Definitely dragons.”

”Or...” Marvin continued. ”Space pirates.”

She gasped. ”Ooh...”

”Or a girl who can talk to animals.”

Elizabeth’s eyes widened. ”Can she have all three?”

Marvin laughed. ”I suppose we’ll have to negotiate.”

She grinned. ”I like negotiating.”

”I’ve noticed.”

The smile lingered for a moment before Elizabeth became thoughtful again.

She looked down at the unfinished script in her lap. Then back at Marvin. ”You know...”

She hesitated. ”I’ve seen people talking about you on TV.”

Marvin raised an eyebrow. ”Oh?”

She nodded. ”They keep saying you’re different.”

She searched for the words. ”Like...like your brain works funny.” She quickly corrected herself. ”Not funny bad. Funny... big.”

She spread her arms as wide as she could.

”Like you swallowed a whole library.”

Her face brightened with the memory. ”One lady even said you’re some kind of miracle. Like you’re God’s favorite child or something.”

She shrugged. ”I don’t know. I kind of get what she meant.”

Marvin laughed, genuinely caught off guard. ”That’s quite a description.”

Elizabeth nodded seriously. ”It fits.”

Marvin smiled and shook his head. ”Maybe some people think that. After what I do... the way I write, the way I think... Maybe God had a hand in it. But books don’t read themselves.”

He tapped the stack of manuscripts on his desk. ”I spent a lot of years reading. And writing. And making mistakes.”

He shrugged. ”There’s nothing magical about that.”

Then he smiled at her. ”Well... Maybe just enough magic to make life interesting. Life is complex. And everything that ever will happen will happen eventually, no matter how infinitely low the chance.”

Marvin reached over to the fruit bowl on his desk and picked up a Gala apple.

”Think of it this way. If you put this apple in a box that has no effect on matter,” He held it up. ”If I leave this apple alone long enough, it’ll rot.”

Elizabeth nodded.

”Eventually it’ll break down into smaller and smaller pieces.”

”Right.”

”The apple disappears.”

”Not exactly.”

Marvin rolled it between his fingers. ”The apple changes.”

”The atoms are still there.”

”They’re just... somewhere else.”

Elizabeth frowned thoughtfully. ”Okay...”

”Now imagine something impossible.” He smiled. ”Imagine the universe had forever. Not a really long time. Forever.”

Elizabeth listened intently.

”Given enough time... ... the matter of the apple will go through all its states. The atoms will scatter, yes, but eventually, given enough time, enough randomness, those same atoms could eventually end up together again.”

”They could become another apple.”

She blinked. ”The same apple?”

”Maybe. Maybe not. But close enough to make you wonder.” He shrugged. ”So if something incredibly unlikely can eventually happen... ...then me existing exactly the way I do doesn’t seem quite so impossible. Not if the universe has enough chances.”

Elizabeth stared at the apple for several seconds. ”...That’s really pretty.” Then she wrinkled her nose. ”And kind of creepy.”

Marvin laughed. ”The best ideas usually are.”

She looked at him with a crooked smile. ”Maybe those TV people are right.”

”Oh?”

She nodded. ”Maybe you’re part genius...Maybe you really are a freak of nature and God.. Also part complete weirdo.”

Marvin grinned. ”I’ve heard worse.”

Elizabeth burst into laughter. The last bit of tension disappeared from her shoulders. She looked back down at the script resting in her lap while Marvin quietly returned to writing.

His pen flew across the page again. After another minute, Elizabeth spoke.

”...Marvin?”

”Mmm?”

”You should sleep too.”

He looked up.

”If you keep staying awake all night...how are you supposed to grow?”

Marvin smiled. ”That’s a fair question.”

”So it’s true?” She sat up eagerly. ”Sleep really makes you taller, grow faster?”

”It helps.” He nodded. ”When you’re young, your body does a lot of its growing while you’re asleep.”

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