Hollywood (我就是好莱坞) Part I

CHAPTER 8 - BASKETBALL REFEREE

The moment he woke up, Eric's head felt as heavy as a mountain. He shook it a few times to get rid of the feeling, and once he had taken note of his surroundings, he smiled as he sat up. It was already past nine in the morning.

This was the Williams' residence second floor bedroom, the blazing summer sun rays were streaming unhindered through the south balcony's French doors. It was already August and you could feel Los Angeles' warmth way before noon.

It's been half a month since his rebirth, and Eric had been busy with all sorts of things. He hadn't even had the time to act as a tourist before jumping into the Hollywood circle.

He laid back down and looked around him.

The bedroom was large, more than thirty square meters. Even if you included his bed, wardrobe, desk and some random antiques, it still felt empty.

Ralph had wanted to divide it into two separate rooms but refrained since only their father and son duo lived there. Until death, he had never made an attempt to remarry either.

Eric wondered if all drinking addicts were the same, burdened by similar heartrending pasts.

When he got down from the second floor, it took him half an hour to tidy up the mess in the living room left behind by yesterday's party, and after taking his breakfast, he drove out.

He spent several hours visiting music shops and finally settled on a Strauss piano. He left behind his address to get it delivered, and purchased a thick stack of books on music arrangement from the bookstore nearby.

It wasn't done on a whim or because Eric wanted to become a singer, it was to prepare for future movies' soundtracks. He had so many classic movies in mind, and if he wanted to replicate them to perfection, he couldn't neglect that point. He had to at least understand arrangements to some degree or he'd be turned into a laughing stock by those music professionals.

Hollywood was different from China. In China, directors would often just find a musician, listen to his works, and if they liked something, they'd shake hands and be done with it.

But in Hollywood, original soundtracks were an integral part of movies. Let's not even mention background music, just the theme songs were enough to become classics. Like "Unchained Melody" from Ghost, "New Divide" from Transformers, "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, "Young and Beautiful" from The Great Gatsby, "Let it Go" from Frozen, as well as Juno's entire album.

Carrying his new found books home, delivery men soon came and the piano was set up in the study at the west side part of the living room. Well, although it was called a study there wasn't a single bookshelf there, just a large desk and other miscellaneous stuff. It used to be Ralph's, and he never had a reading habit, so all of Eric's books were in his room upstairs.

After the piano was in place, he had to tune it. As Eric sat on the bench and placed his fingers on the keys, the delivery men didn't try to hide the ridicule in their eyes. He ignored them and started playing "Happy Birthday". After playing for a while, he glanced at the amazed delivery men and their necks stiffened. Even in his past life, Eric's piano skills could be considered good.

As a revenge for their contempt, he cut their tips by half. The several delivery men didn't notice that as the tall white one muttered to himself once they were in the car: "Strauss, ah, Strauss ! That's worth at least 20,000 US dollars...". The tone of his voice was as heartbreaking as a woman learning about her grandfather's death the eve of her marriage. If Eric had heard it, he would've probably felt ashamed at his earlier gesture. Luckily though, he hadn't.