Touch of Hellfire

☕️129☕️

Spring 2008

"And the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay goes to..Final Body, written by Heather Gilmore."

I rose from my seat, smiled at the cameras and I stood up on the stage, taking my award and I stood in front of the microphone.

Now I was speechless, but for this moment I had to pull myself together.

"For nearly twenty years, I've been thinking about what I was going to say on this stage but now that I'm here, the speech I wrote is irrelevant because I didn't get here alone. The first people I'd like to thank are my grandparents, who put me through the greatest schools in America and gave me the greatest opportunities. The next person I'd like to thank is the amazing Nina Russo herself, without her there would be no Final Body. The next people I'd like to thank are the residents in my home town in Connecticut, who always had faith in me and encouraged me to keep going. I'd like to also thank my closest friends, Tessa and Andrea, who always had my back through the toughest times and kept me from going insane. Next, I'd like to thank my fiancé Jess. He always believed in me and even when I was close to giving up, he picked me back up. Lastly, the two most important people, my mom Lorelai and my sister Rory. Every Saturday, my mom would sit me and Rory on the couch and we'd watch movies, when I was ten, I said to her that one day I was going to make a movie become rich and marry Leo DiCaprio. Since that night I started writing scripts and I showed them to her and she loved them. I made my own short movies with my sister and we'd play them for her. They supported my choices from day one and they're always there for me and they helped me up when I was down. Without any of those people, I wouldn't be here today, so don't thank me for writing the scripts and bossing around the directors, thank them because their contributions are what truly brought Final Body to light, not me, them. Thank you."

A round of applause sounded through out the entire venue. Honestly, I was scared that the freaking orchestra was gonna play me off.

"They were gonna play her off," I heard someone backstage saying. "But her speech was so touching they decided to be nice and let her finish."

I smiled to myself, holding my award.

Winter 2016

"Damn it," I grumbled digging through my bag. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

"It's in the kitchen!"

"What?" I called back.

"Your phone!"

I ran downstairs and grabbed it. "What would I do with out you?" I asked Jess.

"Crash and burn," he told me. "I married a crazy woman."

"You signed up for this," I reminded him. Roxy looked up at us and then back down.

"Roxy is turning into a real teenager," I told Jess. "Getting sick of us," he agreed. "We're leaving, Amilia's looking after you."

"Bye Roxy," I shut the door. We put our bags into the trunk of the car and Jess got into the driver's seat while I rode shotgun.

"Are you sure SNL is okay with this?" Jess asked me. "I email the sketch scripts, still need a life," I explained. "Isn't it crazy?" Jess mumbled. "Next April, we've been married for nine years."

"I know," I laughed. "Achievements of the decade, still married."

"Hey, you won an Oscar for Final Body, that deserves to be on the list," Jess told me.

"I still remember the day you proposed, literally in that tent with everyone, I was nervous as heck, you dropped the question and I said yes in a heartbeat," I smiled. "Only feels like yesterday all that happened, graduating from Columbia..everything."