Chapter 24: Thoughtful Dilemmas

"Alex, what's got you thinking?" Sullivan asked as he saw Alexander holding a comic book and didn't seem to flip its pages at all.

If anything, the boy looked like he has some sort of internal conflict he couldn't solve. It is as if something in that Superman page was putting him into deep thought.

"It's nothing, grandpa." Alexander quickly got out of his ranting trance and reflected back a question to solve the lengthy explanations for his absentmindedness. "Is your business meeting done? Mr. Gale seems to be gone already."

"Yes. It's done. It won't be long before Back to the Future is going to go operational." Sullivan was quite happy and looking forward to the project. It was his feature film return that employs his grandson's vision.

"Congratulations to you then grandpa." Alexander commended while also giving himself an imaginary pat on the back.

It was crazy to think that he came up and manipulated all these events to happen within a span of three weeks.

Two weeks for conception while an extra week to influence his grandfather to do his business magic. The fact that he also pulled in Top Gun as something of his own within that time period is also quite a feat.

Within 3 weeks since his birthday and re-life, he had done and made so many major decisions than all the previous 47 years of his past lifetime.

It was also at this moment that Alexander realized that there are still many days, weeks, months, and years ahead.

If he could be as productive then as he is now, Alexander felt that he could probably be a terrifying force not to be reckoned with.

Of course, that is only on the side of pop culture with movies and shows. Yet that is already a future worth looking forward to.

The next thing that Alexander had to worry about was what he was going to do for the next couple of days.

His first 3 weeks have already been a thrill ride of creativity and the joy of idea plundering.

It made sense to continue that streak but the thing to take into consideration is the fact that his greatest partner might not be able to keep up.

Thinking of this, Alexander can't help but ask. "Grandpa, how long are you going to film and doesn't making a movie need a lot of money? Where are you going to get the money and how much are you going to spend?"

Sullivan could only chuckle at his grandson's successive questions. It was a stark difference to how he had been the one one-sidedly doing the incessant questions in the past.

"You don't need to worry much about that sort of stuff, Alex. Just keep in mind that grandpa is going to give you a theatrical gift." The old man assured with confidence while also breaking some important news to his grandson. "The big catch though is that I might be away for quite some time with all the busy and off-location things that my production team has set."

Alexander could only nod in understanding. "I'm not going to be much of a trouble while you're away and you know that."

"Of course. It is choosing your guardian that I am going to be worried about." Sullivan had to consider between his previously cheap and trusted babysitters or the pricey professional ones. This was the dilemma that cruxed the old man.

Alexander noticed that it was his grandfather's turn to ponder on things and be deep in thought, so he just kept to himself while doing some thinking of his one.

Although Sullivan opted to make thing aspects of production a secret to him, he still could make some educated guesses on the matter which is the source of his own dilemma.

The source of funds should be from his grandfather's long-time friends and money-lending partners as making a film like Back to the Future is in no way affordable to their Creed family's little millions.

Knowing the tactics of film companies and Sullivan, Alexander could more or less tell that the film would use other people's chicken to lay eggs for their profit.

A 20+ million dollar movie is no joke at this time period and Alexander could already tell that Creed Pictures won't be able to afford multiple productions yet.

A feature film takes months of preparation, filming, and post-production. It would be quite suspicious if a 9-year-old like him would take a hand in that.

He could visit from time to time but it would be doubtful that he could even be of help. Alexander had not much hand on the film production so he didn't have to worry about that but he still had to keep tabs from time to time.

Film theory and being the credited screenwriter don't necessarily translate into the gritty and hands-on work after all.

This is where the crux of his 4th week and onward troubles and that is the fact that Sullivan wouldn't be able to keep up while Alexander could still go on as an idea factory that wouldn't be able to busy himself distracted with true blue filming.

Back to the Future and the reserved Top Gun movie would already busy his grandfather for the next three years or so.

Since he can't play much of a major role on that, Alexander's three years would be spent on spitting out plunderable movies from his memory. Granted that his Mind Mansion is still terrifyingly operational.

If Alexander suddenly churns out more picture books of notable films every week or two, it would only serve to pressure the old man.

His grandfather seems obsessed with making his storybooks into movies after all.

Hence, the imbalance would be with having too much supply and not enough manpower to process it.

Alexander could already imagine his old grandfather being haunted by the piles of his picture books that he couldn't make happen.

With that glaring problem, he could only think of other solutions to pass the time while also being able to flex the creative capabilities of his still enhanced mind.

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"It looks like I need to branch off from movies." This was what Alexander whispered in a tone only audible to himself.

Just as he said that, it seems Sullivan has also solved his babysitter dilemma and that was to do more of the pros and cons of cheap and pricey babysitting later and going home for now.

"Alex, head to the car first as I still have some errands to give to the store personnel." It was his grandfather's decision and Alexander followed.

He put the Superman comic issue back and decided to go with the same choice as his grandfather did, to go home for now and assess the pros and cons of his new creative output for later.

"Wait..." An epiphany suddenly struck him as deciding for a new output point for his creativity didn't need to wait.

Alexander looked at the Superman comic book and the comic book titles available at Creed Toys. Without suspense, the answer to his problems is laid out in his eyes through an organized store display.