Chapter 2
The night was perfect stillness and only the conversation of the crickets echoed through the dark silence. Lisa's mother and Bill had been asleep now for more than an hour. It was time.
She fastened her suitcase closed and took one last look at the room that had been hers for as long as she could remember. Then she tiptoed down the stairs, holding her breath so as not to disturb the stillness of the sleeping household, and slipped quietly out the front door.
She felt a sudden pang of sadness tearing at her heart as she realized she was leaving her childhood behind, and leaving her mother for whom she felt only the deepest love.
Under cover of the darkness she walked down back streets toward Tarn Junction. The suitcase felt heavy, but she did not dare to stop and rest. She could not break her stride. She feared she might break like a little child and run back into her mother's arms. And she walked quickly, frightened too that her parents might wake and discover her absence.
She was only a few blocks from the Junction now, but she stayed off the coast highway, walking instead down little side streets until, at last, she found herself only a few hundred yards from the Freeway entrance.
She put her suitcase down by the side of the road. She had to take the chance now, she thought, as she stepped out into the road and put out her thumb.
She had only been standing there a few moments when a sleek white Jaguar screeched to a stop.
A handsome man in his early thirties peered out at her from the darkness. "Jump in," he said in an easy and friendly way.
"Thanks," Lisa smiled and opened the door, sliding comfortably into the soft leather seat.
Cal Harding looked at the beautiful young girl beside him and smiled quietly to himself. What a beauty, he thought... and I've seen plenty of beauties. But this chick ... something special...
"Where you heading?" he asked speaking very calmly and confident.
His calm and relaxed manner put Lisa at her ease.
"L.A.," she smiled ...
"Are you visiting friends down there?" he asked.
"No. I really don't know anyone down there. But I . . ." here she hesitated. It wasn't the sort of thing one blurted out to strangers.
He didn't probe with questions. He didn't have to. The trip would be a long one and he was confident she would open up to him by the time they got to L.A.
They drove in silence for awhile and, before she had even realized it, Lisa dozed off. She had no idea how long she had been asleep, when she awoke abruptly as the car came to a stop at an all-night restaurant. It looked like Denny's.
"Where are we?" she mumbled out of her sleep. For a moment in her disorientation she thought she was home in her room. Then a sense of fear mixed with exhilaration filled her young body as she realized she was on the road, very very far from home.
"Hungry?" Cal asked.
She was starved, but she had so little money and it had to last until she could find a job in L.A. "Nope ... I'll just wait here," she said shyly.
"Come on ... my treat," Cal smiled.
"Oh ... no ... I couldn't."
"Hate to eat alone ..."
"Okay," she laughed. He was such a considerate man.
Now that they were in a well-lighted booth, Cal Harding took a better look at the young hitchhiker. Oh yeahhhhh! he thought to himself. What a pair of tits. Jesus, I get a hard on just looking at them through that sweater... and, Christ! I've seen the most beautiful women in the world stark naked!
Lisa studied the menu and Cal studied Lisa. Oh, this baby will do. Yes, sir. She'll photograph like a wet dream.
"So, you're going to L.A. to get into movies?" Cal grinned.
Lisa looked at him in astonishment.
"How did you know?"
Cal's answer was sincere. "You've got what it takes to be a movie star kid. And I'm not just saying that to flatter you. But it takes a lot more than just being beautiful to be a good actress, if you know what I mean. It takes a lot of life experience."
Lisa didn't really know what he meant but she smiled and nodded. She was flattered by his encouragement.
"Are you in the movie business?" she asked.
"Sort of," Cal chuckled to himself. "I'm a photographer," he said. What he didn't tell her was that he took pictures of people in every manner of sexual combination and had directed some of the most sensational sex films ever seen-films that all Hollywood whispered about because of the famous faces in them.
"What kind of pictures do you take?" Lisa asked.
"Did you ever hear about or see a magazine called Top Floor?"
Lisa blushed. Everyone knew Top Floor. It's formula of sensual naked woman and articles by first-rate writers had made it one of the top magazines in America. These days it had expanded still further and had a four-page photo spread of graphically explicit sex scenes in every issue.
"Come on, now, little girl. Don't tell me you think there's something wrong with showing the naked body?" He laughed with superiority, knowing it would make her embarrassed to admit a prudish viewpoint. But the young girl held more firmly to her convictions that he would have given her credit for. Lisa blushed, but would not be manipulated: "I really don't think much of that kind of magazine" she said. "It exploits women."
Good, thought Cal. J like a strong one. More fun to tame!
"You're prettier than most of the girls in the magazine, you know. Much prettier." Where intimidation didn't work, maybe flattery would.
"Thank you."
"Now I'm not even gonna try and talk you into anything ... too many girls give their eye teeth to model for us."
"I'm sure," said Lisa curtly. "But not me.
"I like a girl with spirit," Cal said. He wouldn't push the point. He'd play a nice easy game with this little one. She would be eating out of the palm of his hot hand soon enough.
They drove in comfortable silence through the night, Lisa dozing from time to time. Occasionally they would engage in an easy, joking conversation. There was no more mention of that magazine Top Floor and Lisa was happy for that.
The sun was just coming up over the Santa Monica mountains when the white XKE came off the freeway onto Sunset Boulevard travelling east.
"Listen ... I live at Ace Carbone's mansion . . . we'll be there just in time for breakfast. I'm sure he wouldn't mind a bit if you would join us ..."
Ace Carbone's mansion-she had seen pictures of it in People magazine a few months earlier.
"Oh ... no thank you ... I-I..."
"Hey, little girl. You got someplace to go?"
Lisa looked down then at her hands which were resting in her lap. She was becoming embarrassed because of the conversation with him and the direction it was going in. Her fingers started to fidget.
"Well, n-no."
"Then you just come on with me. Carbone doesn't bite, you know. He's a pretty nice guy ... and he knows a lot of people. He could help you with your career."
"Are you sure he wouldn't mind." "Hey, you're shy!"
Cal was charmed. It wasn't often you got to see a girl blush in the City of the Angels.