"Friends! Romans! Countrymen! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him!"

Mark and Christopher watched in fascination as the young boy acted out an excerpt from a play written by the famous French playwright Jean Racine. As it turned out, Shakespeare did not become famous in this timeline, or perhaps... he never even existed. Still, in a rather elaborate twist of fate, many of his most famous plays were written by Jean Racine, including Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Other plays like Merchant of Venice and Othello were written by an Italian writer.

Unfortunately, the rest were lost to the timeline changes, and even the plays themselves were a little different from the originals. Still, Mark had not ventured too deep into these topics, since playwriting in the 1600s did not affect his script writing for the moment.

Thomas Hughes, what Jack Black was named in this alternate history, continued his recitation with varying gestures and movements across the room, enacting scenes in a slightly exaggerated manner, but that was exactly how plays needed acting to be, since it was difficult to observe expressions from the backs of the old theatres.

Christopher was not overly impressed by this acting, thought. For cinema, unlike theatre, subtlety was vital. With the availability of close-up shots, having exaggerated expressions and reactions would only make it seem overly dramatic and feel like it was out of place.

5 minutes later, Thomas finished his recitation and smiled while taking a sip of water the butler had brought in.

"That was certainly-" Christopher tried to encourage the child, however, Mark interjected.

Mark had seen how movie sets were, and how people interacted with each other. Nobody would be there to praise the child on set. If Christopher did that, it would seem like favourability at the set due to being the producer's son, and the rest of the staff and possible even actors would likely shun him. As such, he did not let Nolan continue with his actions that could potentially ruin the child's chances of success in the industry from having a bad image.

"That was a good theatre performance. Unfortunately, we are making a movie. This is a part of the script we will be making if your father agrees. Please read your lines, and act them out based on the setting of the scene," Mark said while pulling out a copy of the script he had brought along with him, and then flipped to a particular page before handing it over to Thomas.

Thomas blinked for a moment, then turned to his father who had been staring at the interaction over the script, clearly acting like he was not interested but in reality very much so. Mr. Hughes immediately covered his eyes with the script once again, preventing his son from seeing his interest.

Thomas blinked for a second before nodded and accepting the script. As Thomas read the script, Mark came up behind the child and followed his finger across the lines. When he reached certain lines, Mark commented, "Here is where the scene changes from from a casual scene to an unnerving one, where the audience connects with the mother on how bone-chilling it is for Cole to be able to see ghosts."

"Then is changes to touching as the mother comforts Cole, the already accepted sadness within Cole is melted a little, transforming into happiness at not being called a freak for once in his life."

"And here... here is where the scene turned emotional as both the mother and Cole begin to cry while talking, and the dialogue becomes softer as someone crying would naturally not be able to talk as effectively and as loudly as before."

After a while, Thomas had read through the script a few times, and Mark returned to his seat as he watched the aspiring child actor practice random lines out loud. Then, he was finally ready as he cleared his through to get the director and screenwriter's attention before beginning the scene.

For added effect, they had brought in one of the maids of the mansion, to act as the mother in this case, since Thomas did not technically have a mother. Howard Hughes... girlfriend passed away after giving birth to Thomas, and he ended up becoming the son of a Mr. Hughes who did not even know of his existence until his birth.

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"I'm ready to communicate with you."

"Communicate?"

"Tell you my secrets..."

"What is it?"

"You know the accident up there?"

"Yeah..."

"Someone got hurt."

"They did?"

"A lady. She died."

"Oh my god! You can see it?"

"Yes..."

"Where is she?"

"She is standing next to my window..."

"...Cole you're scaring me."

"They scare me too sometimes..."

"They?"

"...Ghosts."

"You see ghosts Cole?"

Thomas nodded while being a little scared, "They want me to do things for them."

"Th- They talk to you? They tell you to do things?"

"They're the ones that used to hurt me... What are you thinking mama?"

"You think I'm a freak?"

"Look at my face. I would never think that about you! Ever. Got it."

"Got it..."

"Just let me think for a minute."

"Grandma says hi... She says she is sorry for taking the bumblebee pendent. She just likes it a lot."

"...What?"

"Grandma comes to visit me sometimes."

"Well... that's very wrong. Grandma's gone. You know that."

"I know. She wanted me to tell you. She wanted me to tell you she saw you dance. She said, when you were little, you and her had a fight before your dance recital. you thought she didn't come to see you dance. She did. She hid in the back so you wouldn't see. She said you were like an angel. She said you came to the place where they buried her. Asked her a question. She said, the answer, is 'everyday'. What did you ask?"

"Do- Do I make her proud?"

Thomas began crying. Mark felt it. the knot in his throat. The itch in his heart. This was not the random emotions caused from the ghosts of his parents, nor was it from the random spike in emotional activity after meeting his sister in the nightmare. It was the raw, yet predictably repeatable emotions he gained from watching or writing movies.

'Sadness with a hint of joy... an emotion that leaves you wanting more,' Mark revelled in the emotions while Nolan's eyes sparkled. He turned to Mark and saw the mix of emotions he was expressing, and nodded to himself before turning to Mr. Hughes.

"Mr. Howard Hughes."

"Yes?" the man raised an eyebrow as though not expecting the question, but had long since been observing everything and already knew the result. Thomas had always been interested in acting and theatre. This was why he took wriggled his way into the drama club from the financier's club Howard had wanted him to take. Still, he slowly improved his skills, and when the annual festival came after 3 years, where Thomas took-up the lead role, Howard was finally convinced of his talents and folly invested in his career as an actor... an actor with boat-loads of money.

And today, he could see the recognition in the director's eyes, and knew he had succeeded. The screenwriter had not said a single word after instructing him on how to act for each of Thomas' lines, but Howard could feel he too was on board. He could feel it in his bones, and he was excited. Especially after reading the bit of the script he had read so far, and the scene Thomas had just acted out. Somehow, it made him recall his mother... and the fights they had had.

"We will take you up on your offer," Nolan raised his hand.

"Haha, boy, a pleasure doing business with you!" Mr. Hughes put down the script, stood up to shake the hand of the standing Christopher Nolan, before sitting back down and motioning for Thomas to be taken away.

"Thomas' fees will be discusses directly with his agent, no need for me to get involved. For now, let me get back to actually reading the script. there is still a lot left."

"Of course." Nolan nodded and sat back down, while Mark simple smiled as the emotion slowly left his body. Unlike the other times with the ghosts of his parents or sister, he did not feel the loss of the emotion as it left, but rather he felt closer to something. It was this feeling that he had gotten hooked to in his past life, but he would not be a slave to it this time around. Plus, the feeling was a lot more pleasant when acting was involved rather than just his own writing, and even more pleasant when someone was acting out a script he himself had written.

'The joy's of emotions... It has its ups, and its downs.'