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camera?”
    He shook his head. “Brian’s. I just don’t get it. He’s normally my best cameraman. It seems like everything is going wrong lately.”
    â€œWe’ll still be able to finish the racing documentary on time, even if you have to go back to San Diego, won’t we?” I asked.
    â€œOnly if nothing else goes wrong,” he answered. “Let me tell you, if I didn’t have a little backup insurance, there’s no way I could sleep at night.”
    â€œBackup insurance?”
    Uncle Mike grinned. “Yup. We could have a dozen disasters, and in the end, my one good break can make up for it.”
    He got up, poured himself a glass of water and drank it slowly. Almost like he was keeping me in suspense on purpose. But then, a good director always has a good sense of drama.
    â€œYou see,” he began, “about a year ago, I read this book I really liked. It was a true-life story about a woman who ran a railroad company in the 1800s. Thing was, she knew she couldn’t do business as a woman, so she disguised herself as a man and stayed in disguise her whole life. It wasn’t until she died that anyone found out the truth. Now this book had been out at least ten years, and was so forgotten that I was able to buy a two-year option for only ten thousand dollars.”
    Ten thousand dollars was a lot of money to me. But compared to the millions sometimes spent in Hollywood, it was nothing.
    And Uncle Mike didn’t have to explain to me what an option was. It simply gave him the right to make the book into a movie. Nothing else. But to make the movie, he would first have to line up millions ofdollars of production money. Next he’d have to line up the actors and actresses. Only then would he have to pay for the movie rights to the book, which might be a half million dollars. But if he couldn’t line up money or actors, he’d be out only the original option money. And the whole time he owned the option, no one else could make the book into a movie.
    â€œAre you curious who wrote the book?” Uncle Mike asked, grinning above his glass of water.
    â€œOf course,” I said.
    â€œSome unknown,” he said. “Which was another reason I got the option for peanuts. At least she was unknown at the time. Her name is Viola Moses.”
    â€œViola Moses!” I said. “She’s...She’s...” This was so amazing, I couldn’t even get the words out.
    â€œShe’s the Oscar-winning screenwriter who came out of nowhere this year. Having the option to her book is like winning the lottery.”
    â€œNo kidding,” I said. Uncle Mike now had something that everyone in Hollywood would beg for.
    â€œI’ve been making some calls over the last month,” he said. “It looks like it’s going to be easy to line up big money for the movie. And some big stars. This option can take me from award-winning documentaries to a major blockbuster.”
    â€œAnd after one blockbuster,” I said, “you’ll be able to pick the best movies to direct...”
    He kept grinning. “And now you see why I took a chance on the deadline for this racing documentary. The million I make on the bonus will allow me to own a good chunk of the movie myself, which means even more money in the long run.”
    What a dream come true. Could there be anything better than fame and fortune in Hollywood?
    Uncle Mike continued. “And I can’t lose. Globewide Studios offered me two million for the option, right after the Oscars. That, plus they would let me direct. I told them no, because I wanted it all for myself. But ifI don’t make this deadline, at the very worst, I go back to them and accept their offer.”
    â€œSounds good,” I said. “Very good. You don’t have a thing to worry about.”
    â€œThat’s right,” he said. “Nothing at all.” Wrong.

chapter nine
    Finally, almost a