54 Shooting

The people on the beach have no idea that today is going to change their lives forever.  They are doing all the usual things – adults sunbathing, teenagers showing off, kids and dogs running around in circles.  Waves beat endlessly on the sand and the sun beats endlessly on hundreds of heads.  There is all the heat and glare and noise that you would expect.

Suddenly, a boy stops dead and stares out to sea.  His sister, taken by surprise, runs into him before she can stop herself, sending them both crashing into the sand.  They both stand, shouting accusations at each other and their mother looks up from her book long enough to tell them to be quiet.

“He started it!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!  You just stopped dead.  I couldn’t avoid running into you!”

“I didn’t stop.  I was looking at something.”

“Looking at what?  It’s just the ocean.  You’ve seen the ocean before.”

“I wasn’t looking at the ocean.  I was looking at the thing on the ocean.”

Exasperated, his sister turns angrily towards the sea.  Then her jaw drops.  “Oh...”

Their mother ignored their squabbling but their sudden silence catches her attention.  She looks at them and then in the direction in which they are staring.  When she sees what they have seen, she stands slowly, her book falling forgotten to the sand.

All across the beach, people are stopping what they are doing to stare at the waves.  Or rather, the thing coming towards them across the waves.  Their faces show various expressions of shock and fear, although a few seem merely curious or even excited.

“Cut!  CUT!”

All heads turn towards the voice.  A slightly over-weight man with a greying moustache is striding towards them bawling through a megaphone.

“We are shooting a movie, here, people!  A blockbuster!  A multi-million dollar extravaganza that people will talk about for generations to come.  Something we can all tell our grandchildren we worked on.  To look at you lot, you’d think we were just out for a picnic!  You’re all actors, right?  I mean, that is what we’re paying you for, isn’t it?”

He approaches the family, scowling at the actress playing the mother who is fanning herself with her book.

“You, kid!”  He points at the actor playing the boy who is the first to spot whatever is approaching over the water.  “What is it you see?”

The boy stares blankly at him.

“Out there, kid,” and the director gestures with the megaphone towards the ocean.

“He means what are you supposed to see – you know, when they’ve put the CGI in,” mutters the actress playing his sister.

The boy brightens excitement growing in his voice as he speaks.  “Oh, it’s the Oil Slick, Mr Shaw.  He’s the baddy!  I see him racing over the surface of the ocean as a giant puddle of oil, all black and dirty!  And then the puddle turns into...”

“Right, right!  That’s what’s coming at you over the water.  Wouldn’t that terrify you?  Wouldn’t you piss... er... wet yourself if you saw something like that?”

He shrugs.  “Maybe.  I don’t know.  I’ve never seen something like that.”

The director rubs a hand over his face.  “OK, kid, OK.  What’s the most frightening thing you’ve ever seen?”

“Er...”  The boy considers for a moment, then grimaces as the memory hits him.  “Benji, my dog, got hit by a car.  His back leg was all...”

“Right, right.  Now, when you look at the ocean, I want you to think about how Benny looked, OK?  Get a real good picture of it in your head.  Remember all the feelings you had at that moment, right?  Then multiply it by ten, by a hundred!  That’s what’s coming at you, right?  That’s what the Oil Slick makes you feel.  Got it?”

The boy nods.  His face is ashen and his eyes deep pools of fear.  “I... I feel...” he says weakly, then without warning throws up on the director’s shoes.

“Looks like your little pep talk was quite effective,” smirks the actress playing the boy’s mother as his real mother forces her way through cast and crew to reach her child.  She bustles him off to clean him up, throwing a vague apology over her shoulder towards the director.

“Lunch!” he shouts wearily.