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“How did we not know?” she asks. Then, turning to Paul, she says, “How did you not know? You’re his agent. You must have gone over dozens of contracts and scripts with him.”
He shakes his head at her, and says, “I had no idea.” He gasps and looks at me. “Oh my God, you never once read any part of a contract in front of me. Or a script. How did I not realize that?”
“Gersh and I have a pretty good dog and pony show going,” I answer, picking up Oscar, who was standing on his hind legs and pawing at my knee. I hold him against my chest and he licks my chin a couple of times as a thank you. “He immediately picks up any contracts or scripts while I distract you or change the subject.”
“We’ve been working together for almost twenty years. How have I never noticed this?” he asks, scratching his forehead. “Am I that clueless?”
“Don’t start thinking there’s something wrong with you,” Gersh tells him. “We’ve had our entire lives to get this down to an art. No one knew about it. Not even our grandparents or Hudson’s teachers.”
“Wow,” Brittany whispers. “And here I always thought you were a marginal actor, but it turns out you’re like fucking Pacino.”
Narrowing my eyes, I say, “Thanks. I think. Anyway, the reason I’m telling you all this is because I need to start being honest. With you, with people in the industry, with the public. I want to share my struggles in case it helps some kid out there who’s dealing with a learning disability.”
Paul opens his mouth, and I’m certain he’s about to lavish all sorts of undeserved praise my way, about being brave and a true role model. Instead, he says, “Terrible idea.”
Gershwyn wrinkles up his nose. “Seriously, Paul?”
“Yeah, I mean, eventually, sure, but not right now,” he tells Gersh. “Not when we’ve been working overtime to convince the world he’s a total brainiac.”
“You can still be a brainiac and have dyslexia,” Gersh tells him.
“Yeah, in fact, half of the people at NASA have it,” I add. “Half. Can you believe it?”
Paul squints a little. “Is that a TikTok fact? Because it feels like a TikTok fact.”
“No, it’s real. You can Google it if you like,” I say. “I looked it up after Allie told me that. It turns out there are some pretty cool gifts that can come with dyslexia when it comes to problem solving and creative thinking. Well, for some people anyway.”
Gershwyn nods. “It’s probably why he’s so good at hitting his marks after only seeing them once, and why he’s so good at connecting with people.”
“The point is I don’t think it’ll hurt my new image. If anything, finally being open about how my brain works will let people connect with me.”
“And we can share the stuff about NASA, which will really solidify things for Hudson as far as the role goes,” Gersh adds. “In fact, we can talk about the problem-solving stuff and Hudson can talk about how he helped solve an issue the team was having with this new AI system.”
Scratching Oscar behind his ears, I say, “No way can I take credit for Allie’s work.”
Gersh sits forward a little in his chair. “I’m not saying you take credit for her work, but you told me yourself that it was something you said that sparked the big fix she needed to make to get it working.”
“Wait. Allie the opera date?” Brittany asks.
I give her a deadpan expression, not wanting to talk about her. “Yup. That’s the one. Anyway, all I did was explain how difficult it was for me as a kid to decode the English language. We weren’t even talking about her system at the time so it’s not like I even knew I was helping her.”
Brittany tilts her head. “Tell me about this language thing. I’m curious.”
A sense of relief comes over me, knowing that another person knows the truth and isn’t judging me. “Well, there are twenty-six letters in the English language and they make a total of forty-four sounds, depending on the combination of letters. For someone like me, when I see a new word, it’s nearly impossible to figure out which sound the ‘c’ is making, for example. I needed it all broken down into the smallest chunks so I could memorize the combinations.”
“And him explaining that to Allie helped her realize she needed to break down the information she was feeding her AI system,” Gersh says. “So, you can see how, if Hudson hadn’t been there, it may not have ever gotten solved.”
I shoot him a dirty look. “She would have figured it out eventually. Probably the next day even.”
Gersh gives them a knowing look. “He’s a pretty big fan of hers.”
“Anyway, I’d like to get back to the matter at hand. I really want to go public with this. I think I can help a lot of people.” Myself. I can help myself get Allie back when she finds out I’m finally being honest. Obviously, I do want to help other people feel better about themselves too, especially children. But I also really, really want Allie back.
Paul taps his stylus on his iPad. “Why don’t you let Brittany and I have a think on this, and I’ll talk to the studio about it so we can figure out the best way—and the best time—to go public with it.”
“So long as we’re going to actually do it, Paul,” I tell him. “I’m serious about this. It’s important to me and I don’t want to wait a second longer than necessary.”
“Don’t worry about a thing. We’ve got your back.”
