Page 28 of The Curse Breaker

By Garrett Rudd

Who is that breathtaking redhead stealing hearts and making stars like Judy Garland green with envy? It’s Long Island native Cate Callahan. Starring in the new screwball musical comedy Summer Point, Miss Callahan has made the film a smash hit. No one is looking at Gene Kelly when they can watch Miss Callahan dance like a Rockette and sing like a songbird!

After a few supporting roles in Be My Darling and Double Trouble, the starlet got top billing in Roommates alongside Mickey Rooney and is now starring in Summer Point. Audiences are loving her on-screen.

Notoriously media shy, Miss Callahan only agreed to do this interview when she realized the reporter was a Long Islander too. “Long Island is my island,” Miss Callahan tells me over a lunch of steamed salmon and green beans at Greenport hot spot Hooked. “There is no place I’d rather be.” There were a few questions she wouldn’t answer—like her age. (“Darling, men like a mystery!” she said with a throaty laugh. This reporter’s guess is somewhere around the midtwenties.)

Single, and hailing from “somewhere across the pond,” Miss Callahan said she hates spending time in New York City! “I go there to film my movies, but as soon as they call, ‘Cut,’ I’m on my way back to the island.” Miss Callahan even turned down the chance to present at this year’s Oscars! (“I don’t do planes, and who wants to take a train ride that long? I’d rather let the awards come to me.”)

She’s an enigma, dear readers! We can’t wait to see her in her next film, Seaside Inn, which she will film right here on Long Island’s East End with Mickey Rooney.

Ten

Benny

Benny and Zara spent the downpour in the library reading Evelyn’s new journal entry while Gil sat and read all the diaries Evelyn had given them already. Benny couldn’t help but be nervous for him. Hearing what Evelyn had done to save him and their friends was a lot for anyone to take in, let alone someone who lived it. “How are you doing, Gil?”

Gil was quiet for a moment before he spoke. “I have a lot of feelings. Sparrow was my best friend, and she kept all this from me,” he said slowly. “I wish I could ease her burden. Tell her how thankful I am for all she did.”

“She knew,” Benny told him, feeling that tightness in her chest return. “That’s why she and Aggy worked together to find me. Together, we’re going to end this curse. Just like she wanted.”

His laugh was bitter. “We will need a great deal of luck, I’m afraid. Not everyone wants to be free of immortality.”

Benny felt her fingers tingle. “Like who?”

Gil paled.

A knock at the library door interrupted them. Wally held a tray of cookies and a pitcher of iced tea. “I just wanted to remind you of the time,” Wally told Benny as he placed the snacks on the table, and Zara and Gil dove for them. “The vineyard event you’re attending with your mother starts at six p.m.”

Benny threw herself back on one of the leather chairs and placed her hands over her face. “I don’t want to go to a stuffy party! We need to get to the monument!”

“First of all: you may soon own that vineyard, so start liking stuffy parties. Terry Estate Vineyards hosts most of the big ones in town,” Zara reminded her. She placed a few Post-it Notes on the wall. These had names on them: Calia, Charlotte, Violet, Victoria.

Benny had written the same notes. She, too, thought there was something strange about this woman Evelyn had befriended.

“And second, it’s almost four o’clock,” Zara added. “It will be close to dark by the time this rain lets up, and the club probably closes at six anyway. Gil will stay with me tonight, and we’ll all go first thing tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Benny said, resigned. She felt like her heart was being squeezed. Tomorrow. One less day the island had to stay put. She had to move faster. “Let’s talk about the pages.”

Zara nodded. “Three entries, and they’re not in order. Gil? You read these too?”

Gil sat up and nodded. He was lost in his thoughts, Benny could tell.

Benny grabbed a pad of paper on the coffee table and the pen that was with it, and wrote out a timeline. “One journal entry is dated immediately after the last entry from Evelyn’s first game.”

“Yes. Evelyn turns around and poof! The island is gone,” Zara said watching Benny take notes. “And Kimble warns Evelyn about someone named Grace.”

“Grace.” Benny wrote her name in big letters and circled it. “Could she be the person who shows up at the end of the entry eleven? Who says hello? I also want to know more about the new neighbor in entry twelve who says she can see the island too. Her name keeps changing, which is fishy.”

“Something’s up there.” Zara drummed her fingers thinking, and Benny noticed Gil jump up from his chair and start pacing. “Could this be the same woman referred to in the note? The one that says, Don’t trust her?”

“Maybe, but why wouldn’t the person who wrote the note just say, Don’t trust Grace? Or Don’t trust Charlotte?” Benny wondered aloud. “And why pull entry three about Calia’s arrival out of Evelyn’s original journal pages so we couldn’t read it till now? Charlotte offered to help Evelyn find the island again even though it disappeared. Isn’t that a good thing?”

“I thought so,” Zara said, tucking her legs under her on the chair. “Unless it’s more than just a random meet-my-neighbor moment and that’s what Evelyn didn’t want you to know at first. Maybe she can’t be trusted. What if Calia-slash-Charlotte has something to do with the game?”

Behind them, Gil dropped a book off one of the bookshelves and hurriedly put it back. He was acting fidgety.

“She must.” Benny looked down at her notes again. “If we’ve learned one thing so far about Evelyn, it’s that she doesn’t do anything without a reason. Oh! And her dad seemed weirded out about where Calia-slash-Charlotte lived too.”