I talked to one of the park rangers, and he told me about the Cuban crocodile.
“It is the smartest crocodile in the world. They know not to come ashore because we have trained them not to when people are present. If we’d known they were around, we would have put up nets and kept them out of the area you were working in. They also sometimes hunt in packs. What you observed was them doing that when you ran to the shore. The crocodiles only get to about six to eight feet in length and top out at about 180 pounds, so you would have been a challenge to bring down.
“Something else that makes them unique is they can jump. I’ve seen a crocodile take a duck right out of the air before, so it wasn’t a surprise when that one grabbed the hat. They’re also aggressive. Even though they are trained, we won’t turn our backs on them,” he explained.
That was all I needed to hear to convince me not to volunteer to get back into the water. That, and I would rather be about anywhere else at this point. I stunk, and so just shucked my shoes and pants to get the worst of it off me. I had my gym bag with me, so I put on shorts.
Laurent found me and wanted to talk.
“We need to get more footage. What we got was great, but we need to show other scenes of you in the swamp. I think I can get around not having Kimberly in the rest, but I can’t use this without the other scenes.”
“You’ve been a jerk to me since before this movie even started. Why would I help you out? And even if I wanted to, there’s no way I am going back into the water with those things,” I said.
“What if I could guarantee your safety?”
“If you went in first and proved it was safe, I might consider it, but that still doesn’t solve your being a jerk.”
“Do you really think there’s anything I could do not to be a jerk at this point?” he asked.
“Good point. I might actually enjoy you being gator food, so the only way I do it is if you do it first.”
I knew that Laurent would never go for it. Boy, was I wrong. That guy was crazy.
The park rangers chased off the two crocodiles and then put nets up to keep them out. They called in more rangers to watch the other side of the island, and we were set up again.
Laurent, true to his word, stepped into the muck. I had my phone film him in case one of those crocs decided to snatch his hat with his head in it. He didn’t appreciate me pointing and jumping at every little bubble or ripple in the water. I figured he deserved it.
They had another girl play Cici while planning not to show her face. The new girl wasn’t happy when they slimed her. Even I gagged a bit when she got near me. Laurent got his revenge when we got into the water, and a bunch of bubbles came up. I about peed my pants, but the water wasn’t deep enough to hide a crocodile where we were filming. I felt foolish but figured better safe than sorry.
Once we finished for the day, I put this down as something I would never ever do again.
◊◊◊
I came back to the hotel to find Caryn in my suite, talking on the phone to Megan.
“He’s back. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Caryn said and hung up. “How was your day?”
“I almost got eaten by a crocodile.”
“Okay, that sounds like fun. I have some recruiting news. Michigan has stepped up their game: they confirmed having a camp at Lincoln High this summer. Megan needs to send them dates when you’ll be in town and confirm your attendance.”
“Don’t you want to hear about the crocodiles?” I asked, somewhat hurt.
“Not right now. What do you think about the camp?”
“We may need to fire Cassidy. She didn’t even try to protect me.”
Caryn cupped her face in her hands and rubbed her temples. Mom did that sometimes.
“Tell me about the crocodile,” Caryn said.
“It was crocodiles …” I began.
I told her about what happened. They let me see it in playback, and it was dramatic. Watching Kimberly face-plant was priceless. All I can say is you could never get a second shot of that, and we were lucky it came out well. Kimberly might get an Academy Award for her portrayal of a screaming girl who sees live crocodiles coming after her. She was very convincing, and I had claw marks on my neck to prove it. I thought she did a better job than that
I might need to work on my running technique, but my excuse was I had a frightened girl wrapped around me.
Caryn thought I was full of it until she called Cassidy and confirmed my adventure. Then she was concerned, but not about what I would have thought.
“You don’t expect me to call your mom and tell her about this, do you?”
I hadn’t thought of that.
“Maybe she could just see it in the movie,” I suggested.
“You’re the boss.”
I gave her a dubious look because that never seemed to be the case unless it was something she wanted.
◊◊◊
Chapter 4 – Balancing Act Tuesday May 24
Since Kimberly had quit, I got the day off. The writers were frantically working to write her out of the movie.
