Class Novel: Chapter 8 by Carrie Mullenholz

Author's Note: So since we were supposed to be filming by my chapter I was a little lost on where to begin.  Aaron seemed to set up for Nat and Susan to go see this volcano, so I thought I could bring the movie plot in at this point.  I didn't want to complete skip ahead because it didn't feel natural for her to just start filming when she has such a small crew. I brought Cody in to the movie in this way, but if we don't want him to actually be in it I left that option open.  I didn't have much time to look over it, I have to work from 5-9 tonight so I figured I'd go ahead and turn it in early instead of late. Hope y'all like it!

Nat woke up confused the next day when her alarm went off at 7:30.  She had slept through the night without having to throw up.  She took her daily medicine and went to get ready to head to the Makushin Volcano with Susan.  She knew they had to start taking action on hiring the rest of the cast and crew.  She made a mental note to call Jake Hudson, her unknown actor she was going to make a star.  She grabbed her camera bag and her purse on the way to meet Susan in the lobby. She made sure she grabbed her parka knowing it would be useful today. Susan’s hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail and her eyes squinted in the light.

                “Coffee,” she said to Nat.

                “Agreed. Let’s get some on the way to the volcano.”  They stopped by Amelia’s to get to go cups of coffee.

                “How are you feeling?” Susan asked.

                “Better, surprisingly.  I actually slept through the night and didn’t get sick at all this morning.”

                “Thank God. We don’t have time for you to be sick.”

                “I know.”

                “How long is it going to take for us to get there?” Susan asked.

                “Only about 20 minutes.  Everything around here is so close to the town, I felt like it was perfect to shoot here.”  Her car climbed the side of the volcano to get to the visitor’s center. There were a couple of other cars, but they didn’t see any other people. They parked and went inside the tiny building named “Volcano Service” to get information.  A man wearing what looked like Smokey the Bear’s hat was sitting behind a counter reading a magazine.  He didn’t even look up when they came in.  There wasn’t much in the building besides some pamphlets about vegetation and volcanoes. Nat thought back to Cody’s enthusiastic ranting about moss.

“Hello?” Nat said.

“Oops, I’m sorry. How can I help you?” the man answered.

“Hi, I’m Nat MacMurray and I am interested in using this volcano in a film I—” Susan coughed, “Oh sorry, we are making.  I was wondering if you could give us any information.”

“Well, what is the movie about?” he asked.  Nat braced herself for this question, fighting back the tears that inevitably came when she talked about her brother’s story.

“It’s about two men who went missing in the mountains and only one of them returns.” She felt Susan’s hand rub her back to comfort her.  She didn’t feel like she needed to go into any more detail with him about the plot,

“We want the volcano to be the exterior shots of the mountain they climb up, but I didn’t know if you could hike it.  There wasn’t much information about hiking and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t scheduled to erupt anytime soon.”

“Interesting. Well, the last time it erupted was in 1995.  Scientists have an eye on it at all times, so we’d be able to give you fair warning if anything strange was going to happen.  Although, we can’t predict earthquakes and we have those about two times a month.  Sometimes it’s just a little rumble, but they have been known to shake us up good in the past.  I, personally, have no authority over granting permission for you to use the volcano, but if you leave me with a business card, I can have someone get back to you.

“Perfect. Thank you,” she said shaking his hand. They walked back outside to look at the snowy topped volcano looming over them.

“I better take some pictures to show the rest of the crew,” Nat said snapping pictures.

“Umm, is that smoke?” Susan asked.

“Yeah, but I’m sure we can edit that out.”

They headed back down the volcano to go meet the rest of the crew at Amelia’s.

“Oh shit,” Susan said looking at her phone.

“What?”

“‘Jake Hudson cast as mystery superhero in Marvel’s next action blockbuster. Hudson said he had to give up several roles to get this one, but it was a choice he had to make.’ What an asshole, I knew we should have made him sign a contract.”

“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it,” Nat said hitting the steering wheel, “We didn’t have much in this production, but at least we had a star.  I don’t know what we are going to do.”

“We’ll figure something out.  We had to find the rest of the cast anyway,” Susan said.  Nat parked out front of Amelia’s and they walked in to meet the rest of the crew sitting in a large booth.

“Did you see the news?” Bill asked.

“Yeah,” Nat answered.

“What’s the plan, boss?” he asked.

“I guess we need to go to Los Angeles to see if we can get ourselves another actor.  We needed Jake.  He had just enough stardom to bring in a good crowd without costing us too much.”  They started all chattering among themselves the different actors to try to get.  It was all a blur in Nat’s mind.  The reality of her making a movie to tell her brother’s story was becoming more and more like a dream.

“Can you talk to your dad?” Susan asked snapping her out of her entangled thoughts.  She had to admit the thought crossed her mind several times a day, but fought that innate need to run home to Daddy.

“No. I can’t.  I haven’t told him what the movie is going to be about and I have a feeling it’s going to be too painful for both of my parents to deal with.  Plus, I have to do this without him.  I can’t have his name attached to mine for the rest of my life.  I’d rather fail at this on my own, than succeed with his help.”  The bell on the door caught her attention as she saw Cody walk in to place an order at the counter.  He waved at them and headed over to their table.

“Cody! Sit down with us,” Susan beamed patting the seat next to her.

“Thanks. What’s going on, guys?” He said noticing the solemn air around them. 

“We had our main actor back out on us today.  So, we’re kind of screwed.  So if you have any ideas whatsoever, we are desperate,” Susan said, not-so-subtly scooting closer to him in the booth.  Nat rolled her eyes.  She wasn’t sure if it was out of embarrassment for her friend or if there was a hint of jealousy she felt.  Either way she shrugged it off, not wanting to deal with either of those options.

“I’m not sure that you’re going to be able to find anyone around here to replace them.  We only have the Unalaska Community Theatre and their rendition of “The Importance of Being Earnest” was anything but,” he said. 

“Cody, your food is ready,” Donna said apathetically.

“Well guys, I gotta run, but I hope you can figure it out.  Everyone in the town was getting excited about a movie being filmed here. Bye Odysseus,” he smiled at Nat.  She smirked back at him and rolled her eyes,

“Bye, Cody.”  He had a nice smile with perfect teeth, just like Jack, she thought.

“Nat!” Susan said abruptly.

“What?”

“What do you think if we cast Cody as our lead?”

“What? Mr. Agriculture? I don’t think so.”

“It’s just a thought. But he knows the land well and he has the right look to me.  Couldn’t we just have him read through the script to see how he does?”

“Absolutely not.  He isn’t famous at all. Plus he’s not an actor.”

“But he could be.”.

“What makes you think he’d even be interested?”

“I think I can convince him,” Susan said with a wink.

“Fine. One audition,” Nat agreed, “But if he sucks I don’t want to hear another word from you.”