Callie Leary
Thanks to all helpful things you guys said, I was feeling in much better spirits as I got ready for the big commercial shoot.
But we got there late as usual that afternoon of the big commercial. One word: Hal.
We passed through an empty office on our way out to the newly renovated playground. Standing in a sort of semi-circle were the usual suspects—Barbara and another office aide whose name I can never remember, a few mentors, and a couple of kids.
And standing in the middle of the semi-circle, armed with a Leica on a tripod and a boom mic, was Kyle Farn.
He was giving stage directions to a couple of people I didn’t recognize. Kyle looked really official and in charge. I halfway expected him to break out one of those black and white slate boards and shout, “Action!” But when he caught sight of us, he froze. After a heartbeat I heard him say, “Why don’t we take a break for a few minutes? Thanks.”
Hands dug deep in his pockets, Kyle sauntered over to us, hardly raising his head to make eye contact.
“What’re you guys doing here?” he asked.
“We’ve been volunteering here for weeks now,” Nia said. “Barbara told us a friend of ours was shooting this commercial, but we thought—”
We’d all been holding out hope that Amanda would be the one behind the camera, as unlikely as that was. Never one to wallow on what might have been, Nia leapt into action. “So, you’re shooting this commercial? How are you doing that, exactly?”
Kyle shrugged a shoulder. “My dad works at Orion Public Access. He said if I shot a promo, he’d run it. Noah’s been volunteering here for over a year, and he’s always complaining about lack of funds, not enough volunteers…So I thought, you know, I could help him out by making a commercial. I’m actually pretty good,” he said, his voice defiant.
“But where’d you get this stuff?” I pointed to the camera. “Did you get that from your dad, too?”
But in that moment I answered my own question. Taking a second look at the camera, I saw the words, “Property of Endeavor” written on the camera. Then I suddenly flashed back to the flyer I’d seen posted on the same day that I’d run into Kyle in the hallway—the flyer that said equipment was missing from the A/V room.
Kyle must have recognized the understanding dawning on my face, because he turned bright red. “It isn’t what you think,” he said quickly, lowering his voice. “I wasn’t going to keep it. I just wanted to borrow it long enough to shoot the commercial.” We must have looked unconvinced, because Kyle blundered on. “You don’t know how it is for some of these kids. They don’t have anybody. If we can get people to spend some time here, or do something great for the kids like take them to a concert…”
He clammed up then, but he’d already said enough. I mean, we’re not stupid. Nia and I exchanged significant looks, but Hal was the one who spoke up, keeping his voice low. “You got those tickets for Noah and his kids, didn’t you? You took them from Heidi.”
Kyle nodded his head. “You know Heidi Bragg has everything, and that concert meant so much to the twins. And besides.” His expression hardened. “Heidi had it coming after what she made me do with that whole Spirit of Endeavor thing. Payback, you know?”
Well, I couldn’t argue with that, but Nia—who could probably argue with the entire Supreme Court bench—could. “But you can’t just take things from people, Kyle. You’re not Robin Hood,” Nia said.
Kyle sighed. “I know. But listen. You guys are friends with Amanda, right? She was all about doing the right thing. So maybe I shouldn’t have stolen those tickets—or “borrowed” the camera equipment—but I’m doing a good thing. You know? I mean, don’t you think Amanda would say the ends justify the means?”
We took a good look around. Ok, the fence had been recently painted, and yeah there were a lot fewer weeds now, but the playground equipment was old—one of the three swings was missing, the rope ladder was missing some rungs, and the rusted metal slide was too hot to use whenever it got warm. And I’d heard Nia say that there were a lot more kids needing mentors than there were mentors to go around.
Finally, Kyle cleared his throat. “Look, just don’t say anything. I’ll return the equipment, I promise. Just let me do this. Please.” He gave us a pleading look. “Catch you later?”
He didn’t wait for a response. He went back to the camera, leaving us to stare after him, dumbfounded. Kyle Farn had stolen Heidi’s Lady Gaga tickets. We could safely scratch Amanda off this suspect list once and for all.
But something Kyle said has been pricking at me all day. He said Amanda would have approved of what he’d done, because the ends justify the means.
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