Free The Extra by Kathryn Lasky Page B

tavern scene.
    “It was a record they were playing, not live music. The guitarist just had to fake the fingering,” Lilo said. “I saw it, behind a curtain.”
    “His fingering was all wrong, and the music they chose was ridiculous. They should have me holding the guitar and not the accordion. Besides, I wasn’t in one shot with the stupid accordion. I could show them a thing or two about real Spanish music,” Django said. It was one of the few times Lilo had ever heard him really angry.
    “Enough of your music review. Tell us about the film. What’s the script like?” Rosa said, tucking a short strand of hair behind her ear. Lilo flinched when she saw some of the hair simply fall out, but Rosa didn’t seem to notice. She had once been a very pretty girl. She had a straight little nose and high cheekbones and blue eyes.
    “First off, I discovered that this film is not just
one
of the most expensive but
the
most expensive film ever to be made in Germany. I heard them talking. She — Tante Leni —”
    “Are we really going to call her that?” Rosa asked.
    “I don’t think we have a choice,” Lilo replied, and fingered her chocolate, which she had somehow resisted eating and planned to share with her mother before bed.
    “She was given fifty thousand reichsmarks for just this part here in Krün, and it’s only, as they say, the tip of the iceberg,” Django said.
    “Who’s paying for this?” Lilo asked.
    He opened the script to the inside cover. “See that stamp?” The girls bent close to look at it.
    “The Reich Film Department,” Rosa whispered.
    “Yes, Hitler, the Third Reich, is footing the bill here.”
    Lilo and Rosa both sat back. It all seemed very confusing.
    “Why should the government pay for it?” Lilo asked.
    Django sighed. “She’s a charmer, that one. She’s obviously charmed the Führer.”
    All Lilo could think of when Django said the word
charmer
was
snake.
Tante Leni was both the snake and the charmer. In her mind’s eye, she saw Fräulein Riefenstahl writhing up from a conjurer’s basket with her glittering beady eyes.
    “What do you think that notebook is that she always carries?” Lilo asked.
    Django shrugged. For once he didn’t have an answer.
    “Django, tell us the story of the movie,” Rosa said.
    “All right. The scenes with the red marks by them have already been shot, and you can see that they don’t go in order at all. They haven’t even filmed the opening scene. They have to go to the Dolomites for that. The hero, Pedro, kills a wolf.”
    “A wolf!” Lilo exclaimed.
    “Yeah, a wolf. What’s wrong with that?”
    “Nothing . . . nothing at all,” Lilo said. “Go on.”
    “The wolf is threatening the shepherd’s flock of sheep — well, actually they’re the marquis’s sheep. The shepherd works for the nobleman. And there’s a knife scene toward the end where Pedro kills the marquis.”
    Rosa laughed. “Oh, thanks for spoiling the ending for us.”
    “I’m confused,” Lilo said. “The ending can’t spoil anything if you don’t know the story. Tell us the story. And begin at the beginning. Why are they calling it
Tiefland
?”
    “All right. Here it is: First,
Tiefland
means lowlands. There are problems in Roccabruna, which is in the lowlands. There’s not enough water. The greedy marquis, Don Sebastian, owns prize bulls. He gets the stream diverted so he can water his bulls. The farmers, therefore, don’t have enough water. No water means no crops. And no crops means no money. Farmers can’t pay the rent to their lord and master, Don Sebastian. Pedro is a shepherd for the Don’s goats or sheep or whatever grazes up there. Now, you have to understand that lowlands doesn’t just mean low in the geographic way. No, it’s a symbol.” He pulled his mouth down in a sarcastic grimace. “This is fancy literature, I guess. It means low-down, bad people. And in case the audience misses the symbolism, someone warns Pedro, “Don’t go to the