Hearts' Desires (13 page)

             
Not bad. But I could’ve done this myself…
             
Although it had looked good to the observer – the timing of the scene was not quite right, and the horse of the second stun
t
man veered nervously away from the prepared line. So everything had to be repeated…
             
Vance reached out for another cookie and landed in the box simultaneously with Alison’s hand. Under their fingers lay
the last cookie. With some effort, he suppressed the laugh, which would probably have been disastrous for his makeup.

             
“Sorry. You take it.”
             
“No, you.
You’re the one who just complained about pos
s
ible starvation during filming.”
             
He simply had to smile; there was no way out of it. Som
e
how Alison had this… strange effect of relief on him. Even if she meant anything but that! He looked away and inhaled deeply to regain control and not to cause Chang any additio
n
al work.
             
“Uh… well… I experienced that on this one set, where we filmed in Canada, in the snow. Honestly, I was pinned there on the ground for 4 hours, which seemed like 10 to me. I did not need a lot of acting skills in the end to play a half-dead guy!”
             
“Well, we won’t let this happen here, right?” Alison felt som
e
what in funny mood herself. “Open your mouth – and down with this cookie!”
             
“Alison?”
             
Jake’s loud voice let her snap back to her usual self. I
m
mediately grumpy, as if caught doing something forbidden, she stared at her camera assistant. “Please don’t tell me someone screwed it up, Jake!”
             
“No. Only wanted to ask you if we should take the T-4-filters for the shot with Vance,” he shouted back across the place. “It’s still too much light, in my opinion.”
             
“Yes. T-4! – Vance, are you ready?”
             
“’Course.”
He swallowed the last crumbs of the cookie. Then he walked to the prepared spot, where the decorators already had arranged some stones.

             
Alison followed him, to make sure her actor was pos
i
tioned the way he had to be for this scene
, while Nora took over the s
u
pervising job at the other scene.
They had made
first preparations yesterday, with a crewmember taking the place of Vance, and now some tiny yellow crosses on the ground indicated where he should put his head, arms and legs. Alison watched everything with eagle eyes.

             
“Burt, take this grass and wood a bit down! There, yes! He should have fallen 5 meters down from there, so this should look more cracked. – Vance, your right arm a bit down, and your head back. Yes, that’s better.”
             
She stepped out of the scenery, and Chang arrived to give Vance’s makeup the finishing touch.
             
“We
’ll take
one test shot first. Remember, Vance, don’t move, until Lauren shows up and checks your pulse. You’re unconscious, after all.”
             
“I know.”
If I have to stay in this position much longer I’ll break my neck for real…
“I’ll count to ten, after she first touc
h
es me, is that okay?”
             
“We will see,” replied Alison.
             
“Good.” He leaned back again and closed his eyes, wai
t
ing for the signal. One of the little rocks pierced in his back, and he really hoped the crew could manage this scene within a decent time! He knew the exact course of events which
would
take place, and matched the sounds he heard to the specific actions. There were the steps of Lauren.
And the sound of Jake’s camera, when he turned it on the movable base…
The rock in his back began to cause slight pain.
             
Camilla rushed through the last shrubs which blocked her view, followed by the first camera on a track.

             
”Dad! O my God!” she cried, passing the marker on the ground.
             
“O my God…. What happened?” She fell to her knees and stretched her hands after the motionless figure in front of her.
“Dad?
….
Can
you hear me?!”
             
Good so far…
Alison thought, watching the scene from a
nea
r
by seat on the camera crane, which they did not use this time.
A bit more panic in her voice perhaps…
             
Now Lauren placed her fingers at his neck to check the pulse…
Why I always have the feeling, everything this girl does is a sedu
c
tion?!

             
Vance made a very small move.
Yes, not bad… he does wake up
slowly
…
Vance leaned back in the chair, while one of Chang’s helpers removed the special makeup. He was tired, and his back, where the little rock had pierced, felt as if someone had stabbed him. Altogether, they had needed two and a half hours to complete the scene. It was now 9 PM. But outside the makeup-‘studio’ something was going on, that revived Vance’s exhausted spirits. The distinctive scent of a
braai
! This was one of the few things he was really crazy for. And in his opinion, the Americans would never be able to
do
a decent barbecue the way the people in South Africa could do it, no matter how hard they tried! The American name alone, "ba
r
becue" sounded hard and not remotely as pleasant as the term in his native Afrikaans. Saying '
braai
' already evoked del
i
cious smell and taste of tender meat; it was a simple clear word with an embedded truth - yes, Vance could
philosophize
about it!

             
In years past, shortly after he had moved from Canada to L.A., he had bought springbok-meat and the necessary spice mix in a special store in L.A., and then had a little
braai
in the garden of his home. Later, Carolyn had complained about the smoke ‘tarnishing the walls of the house and the expensive white furniture’ and – about everything else. She was into Nouvelle Cuisine, something Vance at first found funny, and later annoying. Of course, she didn’t cook herself…

             
He tried to push the unpleasant memories aside, when he
left the make-up trailer, and the scent grew more alluring, irr
e
sistible. The stuntmen and many of the film crew already had gathered around the area that promised such delights. There were lamb chops, slices of beef and large
boerewors
in diffe
r
ent flavors wai
t
ing for them.
             
“
Carel
is celebrating his newborn twins!” someone a
n
nounced and raised a bottle of beer for a toast.
             
The happy stuntman and party host grinned. “If I cannot be at home with my folks, I’m going to celebrate here!
C’mon everyone!”
             
“That’s exactly what I need now!” whispered Vance in Thabo’
s direction
. “I’m surprised Alison allowed this!”
             
“Well, there was not much she could do about it!” This was Jake’s voice. “The guys had already got everything t
o
gether, while we were busy with the last sequence! And we have to eat anyway.”

             
He sat on an overturned box and sniffed with half-closed eyes.
“Delicious, right?”
             
“No argument here!”

             
Vance grabbed one of the beer bottles the other stuntman just distributed. It was wonderfully cold. This was turning into a perfect evening after a
long working day…
They all sat in the circle around, like a huge family, chatting, laughing. Mer
e
dith brought her guitar along and promised some country songs. Yes, a perfect evening to let every sorrow vanish ou
t
side the circle of fire and light…
             
Vance stretched his legs, sighed and looked up in the sky, where the glow of the brightest stars was stronger than the light of the fire and artificial lights from the little camp. His gaze wandered back again, and over the figures of his co
l
leagues. Now and then, some especially bright sparks were carried upwards in the heat of the flames, danced like tiny little elves in front of the people’s faces and over their heads, b
e
fore they died in the nightly cold and were swept away by the wind.
             
The crew
, stuntmen
and actors exchanged some funny and weird stories of past productions, including the one, where the m
i
crophone fell in the secretly prepared birthday cake for the director just at the moment of its presentation – Jake’s favorite personal anecdote.
             

             
Lauren flirted with the stuntman Wayland, who just told her about the risks of
hang gliding
.

             
“Oh I’d love to do that anyway,” Lauren answered and leaned against his arm.

             
Disgusting
, Jake thought, but nonetheless he was forced to admire her long eyelashes. And the moment he managed to turn his gaze from her face, it fell on her long legs…
Pure poison
.
Than
k
fully, Vance seemed to be immune! Jake envied his friend. He m
a
naged to think straight in a pool of beautiful Piranhas!

             
Suddenly, Vance detected, that something was missing in the picture of perfection around him.
             
“Where is Alison?” he asked.
             
“You know her and her vegan eating habits. A barbecue must be something for her like a Black Mass for a Catholic priest,” Jake answered. “She has probably retreated into the bus to eat one of her snacks.”
             
Vance nodded, turned his attention back to Meredith’s cou
n
try song, but a couple of minutes later he got up. It didn’t feel quite right to sit here and enjoy this wonderful night, knowing there was someone alone outside the ‘family’.

             
“I’ll go and check, if Alison is alright.” Sensing what he felt might be questioning looks by Max and Jake, he continued: “Ma
y
be she has trouble with her foot.”

             
Lauren’s mood dropped rapidly, hearing this and seeing him walk off the same instant. Oh, there was something s
e
rious going on! She knew it! Focused on her growing a
n
noyance, she only realized that Thabo was offering her another paper plate with freshly grilled meat, when he poked her.

             
“Do you enjoy making me jump
like that
?” She hissed and grabbed the plate without thanks. The obnoxious boy an
s
wered something she didn’t pay any attention to. Vance was gone to look after Alison! Couldn’t she look after herself? Did she look that hel
p
less?
She would bet that
the
old frump had fallen into the mud right in front of him on purpose! How else could something that stupid and ridiculous happen?! Lauren stared into the direction where Vance had just vanished in the nightly shadows and then bit in
to
her steak almost angrily.

             
Vance found Alison sitting in the bus and listening to the news. Even from the outside, he had noticed her worried look, and now entering he discovered why. The news reporter just me
n
tioned the “highly instable situation in Zimbabwe”.
             
”Alison?
Hello...”
             
”O sorry.
Didn’t hear you coming.
Anything up?”
She tried to sound normal.

             
“A lot can happen in the next few days,” he answered, and thus preventing her from any attempt to avoid the subject. “These guys in Zimbabwe will think twice before
risking
a co
n
frontation with the S
0uth
A
frican
army.”