Martell 2024

Island Extras

Kate and Melanie sat at the edge of the beach, the gentle waves barely touching the tips of their water shoes.

"Melanie, let's go explore this island a bit. I saw an opening over there," she nodded her head in the direction of the lush jungle of green palm leaves. Kate slowly inhaled the salty air before continuing. "This is a good time to go because we're done for the day and they're going to take a while to load all of that stuff onto the ship."

Melanie's feet pressed lightly into the wet sand as a tiny wave sped back into the ocean. She looked over to where the film crew were working, her face pulled in deep thought. They seemed to be busy putting all of their equipment away. "Well, I guess if we're going to go, we better go right now. They'll probably be done soon. "

A smile beamed across Kate's face as she quickly got up from the white sand. Her hands worked to brush some of the sand from her legs as she started walking toward the vegetation. "Yay! This will be fun! We'll be back in a half hour, and no one will even miss us."

"Kate, now you're positive there aren't any animals in there."

"It's safe. We've been filming in and out of the jungle all morning. They chose this little island for that reason. There aren't any animals or snakes."

Kate and Melanie had been lucky to get 'extra' parts in the movie. Sometimes the crew seems to forget they're even around, but the young women were thrilled to get to be in a scene or two. Today, they got to travel for a short island scene. It took longer to set everything up than it took to film the scene.

The two began their trek through the trees. Kate ducked as a parrot flew close to her head. "That's not a dangerous animal!" She giggled. "Kate cocked her head up for a moment and listened to the jungle. Soft, babbling water joined the sounds of the birds. "This way", Kate prompted. "I think I hear a waterfall!"

"Cool!" Melanie walked quicker to keep up with her friend.

*******

“Oooh!” Both of the girls gasped in unison when they finally found the waterfall.

“That’s a big waterfall! I’m glad you had the idea to explore the jungle, Kate, or we would have missed it. I’ve only ever seen a waterfall like this in movies.”

“I’m surprised the crew didn’t want to film in this area. No doubt they just wanted to get the shots over today as quickly as possible. They’re way over the time they estimated the movie would take so far. Speaking of which, I think it’s time we should be getting back. Ready, Melanie?”

Melanie took in one last look, turned and started walking in response. “Yeah, I wish we didn’t have to keep our phones on the ship. I would have liked to take some pictures of the waterfall.”

“At least we got to see it.”

After a while, Kate stopped walking, her brow showing the confusion she felt. “Wait, this doesn’t look right.” Her head surveyed the surroundings. “I think we’ve been walking in the wrong direction.”

Melanie felt her heart racing at the thought of being lost. “Are you sure?” Her eyes spotted a Palm tree leaning on its side, and let out a sigh of relief. “We’re good. I remember we pasted this leaning Palm before.”

“Melanie,” Kate’s voice cracked a bit. “There are a lot of leaning Palm trees. Look,” She pointed. “There’s one and another, and that one!”

Melanie’s eyes were wide, watching Kate point out all the trees that looked identical. “We better find our way fast because we didn’t have that much time.” She looked around. “Let’s go back to the waterfall and try to figure out which direction we came from.”

Kate nodded and they both hurried back to the waterfall.

*********

“It took longer to get back here than I expected. I can’t believe we walked way in the wrong direction.” Kate bent over, resting her hands on her knees, breath heaving. Her eyes looked up. “There! Ugh! We needed to go that way. Come on!”

“Right, okay.” Melanie followed nervously.

The two sprinted through the jungle for what seemed like ages. “Kate, the sand is getting softer, we must be getting nearer to the beach!” Just as she said that she saw the opening through the trees! “We’re here!”

*******

When they ran out into the beach area, their hearts sank. The beach was empty.

“Is this the right beach?” Kate walked in a complete circle frantically looking around.

“It is. They left. We’re alone here.” Melanie sobbed as she ran to the section of the beach where the film crew had been.

Kate started following her but froze. Her eyes noticed a small boat docking at the other side of the beach. “Melanie, a boat. This way!” The two were running once again.

******

"Hi I'm Kate and this is Melanie. Can you help us, please? We..."

"Hey there, why are you two running and out of breath?" The older of the two men asked. "Are you alright? Are you with the film crew?"

Kate observed that the younger of the two had been taking several pictures of them. "We were with the film crew, but we wandered off. They left without us. I guess no one noticed us missing because we're extras and they don't know us so well."

"Oh shoot! That sucks. Why would you wander off if you knew they were leaving?"

"We got lost! We couldn't find our way back. We need you to take us with you when you go." Melanie commanded.
"And why is he taking pictures of us?"

"Sure, sure. We won't leave you here. You're good. We make a living from taking pictures of celebrities. We didn't know who you were so we thought we'd take pictures and figure it out later." His arm gestured out to the sandy beach. "So, no one is filming here anymore today?"

"Thanks for taking us. No, no one is coming back to film. They're done." Melanie tried to sound pleasant when she noticed her friend had been glaring at the guy for taking their pictures.

"I'm Joe, by the way, and this is my son, Larry." Joe looked around again at the beach. "Darn it. We were offered good money for taking a few shots of the lead actors filming in that movie. I guess we better head out of here." He paused in thought. "Hey, since it turned out all we accomplished here today was rescuing you, could you get us those pictures we needed the next time you film with them?"

Larry helped the girls climb into the boat.

"Deal." Both of the ladies said at the same time.

Word Count: 1,151