The Winner's Game(44)
“Uh, ma’am,” he calls, chasing after her. “You can’t just…I mean, there’s no way. The spots are full.”
She brushes him off and keeps walking.
Five minutes later Mom comes back into view, only now she is walking beside a dark-haired woman carrying a clipboard. The man from before is nowhere to be seen. The woman strides right up to my door and crouches low enough that I’m eye to eye with her. “Hey there. I hear you kids want to be in a movie.”
“Of course. But the guy said they’re full.”
The woman, who I assume is Jody, cocks her head very sympathetically. “Well, there’s always an exception. Your mom and I had a little talk, and I think we can find a way to get you in. If you’d like to park the car, I’ll personally take you over to Wardrobe and get you rolling. OK?”
Something about this doesn’t feel right to me, but in my excitement I ignore the feeling. Whatever Mom said to them, it worked!
Jody takes us directly to a makeup tent, where professionals apply a quick layer of powder to cut down on the sun’s glare, then she leads us two blocks north to an old, historic county jail in the heart of the city. There’s a lot more gear there than I expected—cameras on special tracks, lights hanging from temporary scaffolding, microphones on special booms, and power cords running every which way on the ground—but there are far fewer people than I would have guessed, especially given all the extras we saw back at the staging area.
When I ask where everyone else is, Jody explains, “The scene you guys are in is where one of the villains breaks out of jail. His family will come speeding up to the jailhouse, he’ll jump in their jeep and then speed off. We just need a few pedestrians in the background when that happens. Most of the other extras are heading to a beach down south of here for a much bigger scene where an old pirate ship sets off on its final voyage at sea.”
Her last sentence causes Cade’s eyes to bulge. Literally.
“Wait…a…minute,” he stammers. “I knew this movie had something to do with pirates, but there’s an actual pirate ship? And they’re filming it today?”
“Of course.”
“Uh-oh,” quips Bree.
“And I’m not in it?”
“Well…no,” Jody says, sounding unsure. “This was the scene I thought would be best for you guys.”
“Here we go again,” I whisper.
Curling his lips, Cade impolitely snarls, “Avast! This be the wrong scene for the likes of Cap’n Cade!”
Jody chuckles at his performance. It takes her another second or two to catch on that he’s totally serious. “But in the other scene you guys would just be faces in the crowd, way back in the distance. Here, we’ll actually get to see who you are on the big screen.”
“You shouldn’t have mentioned pirates,” Bree states. “He’s a bit loco over them, if you know what I mean.” She’s twirling a finger around the side of her head in the universal gesture for “crazy.” Then she covers one side of her mouth and carefully whispers her words, as if to protect Cade from what she’s going to say, even though it’s obvious that she wants him to hear every bit of it. “B-t-dubs, the whole family hates it when he turns into ‘Captain Cade.’ We’re hoping he grows out of it.”
Mom takes a giant step forward and gently grabs Bree’s arm near the elbow. “That’s enough, young lady. Let’s just drop it.”
“It’s the truth, though,” she continues. “Who goes around talking like a pirate?”
Cade’s hands are at his side, but they’re clenched, prepared to strike. “Watch yer tongue, lass, or I’ll gut you like a fish!”
“He’s really good,” Jody comments, sounding genuinely impressed.
“Please don’t tell him that.” I sigh. “He’s liable to go on like this for hours. Maybe even days.”
Now Mom steps right into the middle of us, making sure Cade has no path to Bree or me. “Cade, stop.” Her voice is still motherly, but she definitely means business. “Ann and Bree, zip it. Got it?” She turns back to my brother. “Cade, this is the scene you’ve been assigned to. You’re lucky to be in it at all, so don’t ruin it. Just let the pirate thing go.” She holds his gaze until he finally looks away.
In frustration, he quietly spits out what is becoming his favorite pirate-swear. “Poop deck!”
Mom frowns ominously, but the assistant director laughs it off. “The kid’s got spunk. I like that.”
Jody has a few things to wrap up ahead of the shoot, but before leaving she introduces us to another of her assistants, who is giving detailed scene instructions to the other extras. We spend the next half hour with five other pedestrians—a jogger, a businessman, a mother with a baby stroller, and a middle-aged couple—sorting out where to stand and how to behave when the so-called “bad guy,” played by a man named Jake, comes busting out of jail. Cade is assigned to be the son of the middle-aged couple. His only prop is a very real looking ice-cream cone made of plastic, which he is instructed to lick as he strolls along the sidewalk near the jailhouse. Mom, Bree, and me are a bit farther ahead of Cade along the sidewalk, much closer to where the action will happen. We’re coached to walk “gracefully, as though out for a Sunday stroll without a care in the world” and then to scream when the getaway car comes screeching to a stop on the street just ahead of us. The rest of the extras are on the other side of the scene, walking toward us at various intervals.