Silas just about jumped from his seat in celebration as Reiserová claimed victory in chess. The Bishop Secretary’s hard worked had paid off. Silas politely clapped and smiled with genuine joy when he was defeated.
“Ah, well done! Surely you’re some sort of chess master?” Silas rhetorically asked, further complimenting the Czech President. Silas believed he had the President exactly where he wanted her to be, where she might think she had Silas in the palm of her hands, maneuvering himself in the greater 4D game of chess he was playing.
Reiserová’s requested prize of a divulged secret peaked Silas’ interest. Now that was a very good request, in his mind. “I know many, many secrets, and you can trust me that many of them are far from… trivial. I know a lot about a great deal of people. Stuff you probably don’t even want to know. Hmmm… maybe take some time to think of a specific question about someone, and the next time we meet, you can ask me and I’ll answer that for you. Deal?”
Silas tried to maintain eye contact with Reiserová as she then asked about Mikaela’s ability to have children, but he struggled to keep up with her eyes darting around every direction. “Oh. Don’t apologise, I won’t tell a soul. Mikaela doesn’t have any biological kids because she isn’t married yet, and she’s never been married before. She’s waiting for marriage first. The College of Bishops had to amend the Inquistan constitution so that she was allowed to adopt children in the first place, since the Archbishop previously wasn’t allowed to have any type of kids at all without being married.”
The Bishop Secretary paused for a second and leaned back in his chair more comfortably. “Mikaela is very free-spirited and open-minded, but she also has a stubborn side that never compromises on her own values. I think some people have a very warped perception of who she is, because of her image. I mean, she doesn’t make it easy for herself, with some of her antics. However, she’s a very religious and deeply spiritual person, which is what I guess you’d expect of someone who is the Archbishop of the Inquistan Orthodox Church. Her side of our family, especially her father, always took their faith and the Church quite seriously. Compared to me, Mikaela is basically a nun, or maybe even a saint,” Silas explained with a knowing smile. “She isn’t very imposing about her beliefs, so I think some people might not realise that.”
“Yeah, my cousin used to try and set me up with people all the time. She’s only recently stopped and has finally given up on me. It only took about 15 years of determination and persistence from me to avoid going on most of the dates she tried to set me up with. Maybe in 14 years’ time you will also be that lucky, who knows? She has good intentions, and she just wants people to be happy, but I don’t think she realizes how meddlesome it is. Though, sometimes, the dates she’s put me on were pretty fun, so I can’t always complain.”
After their discussion and dinner, Silas got ready for bed, but joined Reiserová out on the deck to watch the city lights and enjoy the night’s sky. At some point Silas noticed that that Reiserová was breathing more heavily than usual, and he noticed that she had fallen asleep. Silas slid back inside the yacht to fetch her a blanket, covered her, and then returned to his chair beside her. Silas steadily exhaled and fixed his gaze on the lit-up shoreline of Saint Dominico, and soon fell asleep.
Silas was startled awake when Mikaela appeared standing above both him and Reiserová, looking down at them while they laid on their deck chairs. Mikaela was holding two acai bowls and was smiling from ear to ear.
“Good morning, sunshines! Rise and shine! I have your breakfast for you here. We’re heading back to Saint Dominico now, so eat up real quick. Captain Jimin is waiting for Bina and me, pronto!” Mikaela instructed.
Mikaela turned around and disappeared into the yacht. Silas asked Reiserová how well she managed to sleep last night, and made some basic conversation with her as he slowly ate his breakfast while watching the yacht draw itself closer and closer to Saint Dominico. Silas was feeling quite groggy and could barely hold his eyes open. According to his watch, it was barely 6:45am.
The yacht eventually pulled up to the port, where Silas and Tomás bid the ladies adieu as Mikaela and Reiserová got into a separate pink limousine. Silas made sure to pass on his email address and contact details to Reiserová so that they could keep in touch to discuss business opportunities in the future. The captain of the ship, Santiago, walked the ladies to the limousine and opened the door to their vehicle for them. After getting inside, Santiago gave them a rather ominous goodbye.
“See how safe the waters were because of me? That won’t always be the case,” he stated rather grimly, before then shutting the door. Santiago waved goodbye as the limousine pulled away. Mikaela exchanged looks with Reiserová and quickly initiated some small talk, to get their minds off of what he said.
The limousine eventually reached the airport where the Girls on Tour Jet and Captain Jimin were waiting for them. Captain Jimin bowed to the ladies and helped them onboard, and they quickly jetted off to Los Angeles, California.
Upon landing in LA, the girls hurriedly deboarded the Girls on Tour Jet and were taken on a private tour bus with an open-air second level where they could sit and look out at their surrounding around them. The tour bus drove past all of the tourist hot spots in LA, where they caught glimpses of all the iconic landmarks of the City of Angels. When the famous Hollywood sign appeared in the distance, Mikaela made sure to stand up and had Reiserová pose with her with the sign in the background.
Eventually, the tour bus made its stop at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “We need to find our names on the Walk of Fame! I’m sure we have our names somewhere, right?” Mikaela enthusiastically wondered. The pair walked up and down the entire boulevard, snapping pictures and selfies with the names of entertainers and stars they admired. In the end, however, it became apparent that the Archbishop and the President did not have their own stars on the Walk of Fame. “How do they not have the biggest pop star from Inquista and the best actress from Czech Slavia on the walk of fame? This doesn’t make sense!”
Mikaela did not allow this transgression to dampen their spirits. “You know what, we’re gonna make it so big they’ll have no choice but to include us! I have an idea,” Mikaela declared, taking out her phone and ringing up one of her besties who was big in Hollywood, Ludacris. Ludacris earned himself a Hollywood star after his critically-acclaimed supporting role in the hit film Copalyse Now (2020).
“Hey, Luda, it’s your girl Mikaela. I know this is short notice, but I’m in Hollywood right now with my girl Bina and we need to earn ourselves a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Do you know if you can land us any gigs, just for today?”
It seemed like an impossible order, but Ludacris assured her that he would look into it, since ‘nothing is stronger than family’ – something that Ludacris’ co-star Vin Diesel always assured him. After a few minutes, Ludacris called Mikaela back with some good news.
“Ok, my agent tells me they have an opening slot for you and your friend for a short role. The job requires you guys to do some voice acting work for Minions 3: Gru’s Drift. Your characters will have a 1 minute and 47 second cameo, but they’re also willing to have you record an original song for the movie sound track,” Ludacris explained.
“1 minute and 47 seconds? Can they give us at least 2 minutes? I’d love to sing a song for the soundtrack! Let them know that Bina can sing the Czech cover version,” Mikaela requested, without consulting Reiserová.
Ludacris hung up and then once again called back a few moments later. “Ok, they said they can give you guys a 1 minute and 59 second cameo, take it or leave it. They’d love a Czech version of the song too. They’re expecting you in the studio immediately. I’ll text you the studio location.”
“Woo! Thank you so much, Luda. Love you! Talk to you later,” Mikaela cheered with glee. The Archbishop swung her arms around the Czech President and gave her a tight hug. “We’re gonna take Hollywood by storm!”
The Archbishop had the tour bus take the President and herself to a large motion-picture studio facility. The pair were escorted inside where they were greeted by the film’s director.
“Welcome to Global Studios! We’re so excited to have you both on board with us for Minions 3: Gru’s Drift! We’re hoping to show a new side of the Minions Universe that audiences have never seen before, and we truly feel that a singer and actress of your kind of calibers will add new dimensions to the cinematic experience that we aim to achieve,” the director explained as he led them to the voice recording studio.
Inside the studio, the director then presented them with their characters, who had just been drawn up and animated. “This is what you’ll look like in the film!”
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“O-M-G! Minkaela looks gorgeous. So stunning! You have captured me so well, it’s like a mirror!” Mikaela uttered in awe, marveling her character. The Archbishop then gasped as she looked at the President’s character. “Aww, she looks so cute! Bina, they captured your beauty perfectly. Artie will think you look really radiant here as well!”
The director then provided the pair with their script, which barely involved any lines in their short near 2 minute cameo, most of which consisted of gibberish, since minions speak a gibberish language known as Minionese.
“Have you ever voice acted before?” the director asked.
“No, no voice acting, but I’ve spent so many days in the studio singing. It’s basically the same, right?” Mikaela wondered. The Archbishop then turned to the President. “Have you ever done any voice acting?”
The director then went over the core principles of voice acting, and laid out how the recording session would work. Mikaela was really impressed by the director’s attention to detail and his experience in the field.
“Are you single by chance?” Mikaela suddenly asked.
“Oh, yes, currently,” the director answered, somewhat taken aback by the sudden question.
“Are you into people who are a bit shy, awkward, and quiet?” Mikaela pushed on.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Have you ever dated anyone with crippling depression and anxiety?”
“Not that I recall, but I don’t think that would be an issue for me.”
“Have you ever felt like you wanted to get close to someone that you wanted to ‘save’ or ‘change’ for the better? Like feeling drawn to someone who is a walking cry for help?”
“I’d like to think I help change people for the better?”
Mikaela gave Reiserová an approving look. “Ok, we’re adding him to the Rikkalek list,” she whispered quietly.
The Archbishop and President then proceeded to lend their voices to the characters and spoke out their lines into the recording microphone. Once their lines were read to the satisfaction of the director and sound engineers, it was time to record Mikaela’s song for the soundtrack, as well as Reiserová’s cover for the Czech version of the film.
“This song is amazing, Reiserová and I wrote it in the drive over here,” Mikaela assured the director.
After giving a minimally satisfactory vocal performance, Mikaela turned it over to Reiserová. “Ok, Bina, you got this! Sing your heart out!”
