Free Hearts' Desires by Anke Napp Page A

tricks right now! Thabo waved in his direction, and a moment later, he heard Jake’s characteristic voice sound across the parking lot.
              “Hello, Vance!” When his friend was close, Jake conti n ued grinning: “Heard some things…”
              “Whatever you heard , if it’s about Lauren and me – it did not happen!”
              “No reason to jump on me like that, man! What’s going on with you lately?”
              Vance breathed deeply and now gave Jake an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Maybe I haven’t slept very well. And the trouble with Carolyn… But let’s get our mind off these things! Work is waiting!”
              “Work is a perfect cue! There comes Alison! … And… doesn’t she look like Grace Kelly in that dress …”
              Vance climbed into the bus. He certainly wasn’t interested how she looked! But in the door he turned around, watched Alison and admitted that his old friend was absolutely right. She looked gorgeous and regal!

The scheduled scene was a very complicated one, needing perfect choreography. The content was relatively simple: M a rens was on a hunting party with two of his friends, played by South African a c tors, who had joined the team this morning : Piet from Pretoria and Wayland from Durban. During the hunt, an accident would ha p pen, and for the future viewer of the movie it would look just as if Louis had tried to kill Camilla’s father. In the sequences before, a lot of tension had been built up between the characters – about racism, apartheid and pe r sonal regrets – and this would be the culmination of it all, a key scene and the second plot point of the script. Therefore, Alison wanted this scene as perfect as possible; 200 percent perfect!
              Nonetheless, some not so good news waited for them at the location. The stuntmen had not arrived yet. Their car had broken down and they did not think they could make it within the next hours. And to make the ordeal complete, an official from Animal Welfare showed up, in his hands a bunch of p a perwork. Alison s i lently gritted her teeth, while she walked up to him. Had she not phoned these guys already and had she not solved every single problem?! They exchanged some p o lite small talk, and after that they went over to inspect the sp e cial ammunition and everything else…
              “You see, no game will be hurt at any time,” Alison e x plained, showing the prepared weapon props. “There are no bullets to i n jure them. These things do not even produce a sound that could frighten the animals. I can demonstrate for you. We will add the appropriate sound later, in the studio.”
              Yes, the Animal Welfare representative wanted to see and hear every detail. He apologized for his intrusion, tried to point out the many abuses the wildlife was suffering, especia l ly here. Getting nervous and angry the more time passed, Al i son answered again and again she had complete understan d ing of the situation and she would never allow anything that violated the directives of the N a tional Park.
              Well, he wanted to speak with the crew responsible for the lighting, and then the wranglers – simply with every one…
                  The actors and the rest of the crew passed their time tal k ing, eating, or having a catnap. Max Dumont turned on the busses radio in search of something interesting. And that, he got! Drowsy from the heat behind the windshield, he caught some news, distorted by static.
              “…at this point not able to evaluate the situation in the cap i tal… heavy losses in the ranks of the local police…”
                  Max was startled and tried to get a better lock on the broadcast.
                  “… That the rebels move