I think everyone else was just posturing and hanging onto their guy. When they saw Ben’s guy get body-slammed, they all stopped. Kendal rushed up and grabbed my collar and pulled me out of the Pub.
“Let’s go. I don’t need to bail you out of jail tonight,” she told me as everyone started to make a hasty retreat.
When we got back to the hotel, others showed up and wanted to talk to me about what had happened. Halle had had the sense to grab Kendal’s and my coats. She arrived with Ben, Kent and Craig. Ben put me into a bear hug.
“Thanks, man. I was in a little bit of trouble there,” he told me.
“Why didn’t you use the stuff they taught you for the movie?” I asked him.
He looked at me funny and then it dawned on him. We had all been taught some moves for the action scenes. He used some of them in our sword fight.
“I guess I just forgot.”
“How strong are you?” Craig asked.
“Strong enough to break you in half if you keep hazing me,” I said as I gave him a menacing look.
Everyone cracked up when it dawned on him he might want to be more careful with his pranks.
Kendal pulled me to the elevators because I needed to get some sleep. When I got to my room, I was still keyed up, so I got my Shakespeare out to read. It didn’t take long for that to put me into a coma. I would have to remember that particular sleep aid.
Sunday February 22
THE SCRIPT FOR THE day called for me to climb down the face of a cliff to get into a complex. When I got to the location, I had to admit that it was obvious why they’d picked it. It was perfect. The concept was we were on a frozen world. Looking out over the valley below the cliff, you could see a frozen landscape for miles.
The cliff we were shooting at was only about thirty feet high, but it was high enough that if something went wrong I could kill myself. One of the fears I had was of heights, so when I looked over the edge, I felt my stomach tighten. The stunt coordinator took a moment to explain everything to me.
“We know you’re not a climber, so we’re going to rig it so it looks like you are. What we’ll do is put you into a harness and attached it to a cable. A winch will lower you safely. You just need to lean back and walk down the wall.”
When it finally came time for my portion of the shoot, I was okay. They only had to lower me about ten feet. The stunt people could do the rest.
The other shot they needed me to do was to take a couple of running steps, then swing away from the wall and jump over a frozen waterfall. They’d positioned a camera on a crane to capture the wide angle. They had other camera guys on cables, like me, to catch it from both sides.
I was scared to death of this one because I had to let go of the cable and run across the face of the cliff at almost a ninety-degree angle. I then had to kick out and let my momentum swing me out away from the cliff face. It sounded straightforward, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it.
Jessup had to give me a pep talk, and the stunt coordinator had to have one of his guys do it so I could watch before I let them dangle me over the edge. They had the wire attached just above my waist to keep me from tilting too much. The harness they had me in, under my wardrobe, felt stable.
I leaned out and trusted they knew what they were doing, took three big steps and then pushed off. It was obvious I hadn’t gotten enough speed as I looped out away from the cliff face and went sailing towards the frozen waterfall. I ended up about half as far as I needed to go. I figured out as I was flying through the air that if I didn’t look down, this was actually fun.
I think I shocked everyone when I just bounced off the waterfall and turned, and when I swung back I ran back towards where I started and kicked off to fly through the air again. This time when I reached my starting point, I twisted around, took several long strides, and then kicked off hard.
One thing I forgot was that I had no brakes. My eyes got big as I sped out and around the frozen waterfall because the cliff face was rushing up to me. My instinct was to reach and grab onto the wall, but I knew that would mean slamming into it. I instead used my legs, leaned out, and ran a few steps before grabbing for a handhold.
I was relieved I was done, or so I thought. Jessup ended up wanting me to do it six more times. By the time we were done, I no longer had the lump in my throat. I was having fun. When they finally let me off the cliff face the stunt crew were all waiting for me.
“You keep that up and we’re all out of a job,” one of them commented.
“After I felt secure, like I wasn’t going to go crashing to the bottom, I was okay. It was as if I was flying. It reminded me of doing a zip line. The only difference was you don’t have any brakes.”
“First time I ever did it, I crashed into the wall and about knocked myself silly. I forgot to tell you about landing. You figured it out, though. As long as you use your legs you’re okay.”
“Thanks for that,” I said with a big grin.
JESSUP WAS HAPPY ALL the hard shots were done. All that was left were the dialog scenes that needed to be done outside. We got the majority of them done in the afternoon. I had just a handful to do tomorrow morning and then I was scheduled to fly back.
Chapter 9 – It’s a Wrap
Friday February 27
On-site production of Star Academy had wrapped up Thursday. All that I had left to do was voice-over work. I was flying out today to get that done. Jessup and Janice had talked, and they liked the fight scene between Ben and me. They said they might have us go back into the studio and add to it.
On the home front, Harper and I hadn’t been able to get together since we started dating. She’d been making all kinds of suggestions which quite frankly were uncalled for. By the end of two weeks with no female companionship, Mr. Happy was even checking out Lisa Felton. Harper had decided me being gone again this weekend was not acceptable. She had booked a flight, through Kendal, to join me in LA.
Of course, I told my parents what we were doing. I was a little surprised when my mom called Harper’s mom and they discussed it. I didn’t find any of this out until Harper called me. She was a little pissed I hadn’t given her a heads-up. The fallout was my mom and Harper’s were going with us to LA. Of course, Mom had met Harper and liked her, but she wanted to get to know Mrs. Mass.
When we got to the airport, we met Harper and her mom at the gate area. Harper looked excited and nervous at the same time.
“David, Mrs. Dawson, and you must be Kendal,” Harper greeted everyone. “This is my mom, Beverly.”
“My friends call me Bev,” she supplied.
The moms seemed to hit it off. We only had two first class tickets, so I gave them to Bev and Mom. Kendall had the three of us seated together. I noticed she kept the center seat for herself. Harper took her aside and I realized Kendal was just giving us a hard time. I let her have her fun with Harper. After some intense negotiations, they switched tickets. We all had to go to the counter to make the adjustments.
When we finally were seated and safely in the air, I leaned over to Harper.
“Wanna join the mile-high club?” I asked.
“Who says I’m not already a member?” she said, and then giggled when she saw my reaction.
“You two better cool it. Knowing boy wonder, he’d get you caught,” Kendal warned us.
“It’s like we have three mothers with us,” I teased Kendal.
I was not expecting Harper to whack me. Kendal gave me a knowing look. I wondered if that was part of the negotiations for the seat.