My Dad, the Private Eye: The Falling Star

CHAPTER 4

The crowd on the street corner screamed in terror! Dad gasped and turned white as he craned his neck to see better. He didn't actually see the blonde woman land on the sidewalk; too many people were in his way. But she must've landed somewhere, and it couldn't have been pretty.

But then, Dad heard someone yell, "Cut!" And, like a light switch, everybody around Dad went from terrified to bored. Dad was totally confused as people lit cigarettes and checked their phones as if nothing strange had ever happened.

As the crowd dispersed, Dad finally saw what was going on: He'd stumbled onto a movie set! There was a movie camera on a crane, and all these movie crew members started wandering around moving lights and stuff.

Looking back across the street, his view no longer blocked by the crowd, Dad could see that the blonde woman who fell out the window was actually a stunt woman in costume, and she'd landed on a huge air bag. Nobody had actually died or gotten hurt. What a relief!

Then a bossy guy with a megaphone, the Assistant Director of the movie, called out to the crowd: "Break for lunch. Back at 1:45." Dad just stood there as all the people around him made a beeline for a catering truck. They lined up and started collecting bag lunches, one after another.

"Lunch?" Dad said to himself, intrigued. And it appeared to be a free lunch too because nobody was collecting money. Dad decided to get in line. There aren't many things more appealing to an unemployed man than a free lunch.

Dad happily took his bag lunch, grabbed a soda and sat down at these big tables lined up in rows. Digging into the bag, he hungrily took a bite of a ham sandwich. It doesn't get much better than this, he thought to himself.

But then he looked over at another, bigger catering truck and noticed that the line of people there were getting free hot lunches. "Wow, look at what they're eating," he said to the woman sitting next to him.

"We're extras," the lady said with a sneer. "We're lucky we get fed at all, am I right?"

Dad raised an eyebrow and nodded to himself. "Extras..."

Just then, a harried young lady in a baseball cap, the Second Assistant Director, started putting pieces of paper in front of all the eating extras, including Dad. "This is your contract. Please fill out, sign and give back to me tomorrow at the studio. You'll get your checks on Friday."

"Checks?" Dad said, his ears perking up. He beamed from ear to ear as he took a look at the contract. Then he pulled out his phone and called me. When I answered, he was almost yelling into the phone.

"Krista, I got a job! A real one!"