Free Johnny Hangtime by Dan Gutman Page B

Roland.”
    â€œJohnny, you don’t have to do it.”
    â€œI want to do it.”
    â€œAre you sure?”
    â€œI’m sure.”
    â€œYou’d better talk it over with your mother first,” he said, handing me the script. “She might not feel the same way you do.”
    Â 
    I didn’t tell Mom about the fight with Bonner or about Roland’s visit. I wanted to look over the script for Two Birds, One Stone first.
    Roland wasn’t exaggerating. There was hardly any story to the movie at all. It was just one action scene after another. It looked great.
    The Niagara Falls gag would have me in a canoe going down the Niagara River. Just as the canoe is about to go over the Falls, a rescue helicopter would swoop down and carry me to safety. It was the last scene in the script. It would be dangerous, of course. But not as dangerous as going down the river in a boat that was supposed to sprout wings.
    When Mom came home from work that day, I didn’t tell her about the script. There was no way she was going to let me do a Niagara Falls gag. Not after what happened to Dad.
    There wasn’t much to say over dinner. All I could think about was Two Birds, One Stone .
    I had a few options before me. I could be honest with Mom. I could tell her what Roland told me, show her the script, and plead my case. If she said doing the movie was out of the question, I could simply defy her, claiming I’m old enough to make my own decisions. Or, I could make Mom happy and quit doing stunts for good. Mom would probably be so thrilled, she’d go out to dinner with Roland.
    Then another option occurred to me. Examining the script, I saw that the final scene of Two Birds, One Stone— the Niagara Falls scene—filled chapter 19 and chapter 20 completely. The previous action scene ended.
    I took chapter 19 and chapter 20 threw them in the trash.
    Then I went out to the garage and got Mom’s old typewriter. I rolled chapter 19 into the typewriter until it was at the bottom of the page. There, I typed the words THE END.
    Anybody reading the script would get to the bottom of chapter 19 and think the movie was over. There was no way to tell an entire scene had been cut out.
    I felt bad about what I did, but I didn’t know what else to do. I really wanted to do the movie, and I knew Mom would never let me.I knew I’d have to tell her eventually, but I figured I would cross that bridge when I came to it.
    The next night, when Mom came home, I told her about Two Birds, One Stone and gave her the script. As she read it, I pretended to be watching TV but actually watched her out the corner of my eye. I tried not to let on that I was nervous. I hoped she wouldn’t notice that the typewriting at the bottom of chapter 19 didn’t exactly match the rest of the script.
    â€œSuperfluous…superfluous…superfluous,” was all she said as she flipped the pages.
    Finally, Mom reached the last page. She sighed, closed the script, and looked at me.
    â€œI don’t like it,” she said, making my heart sink. “It’s the same old junk, just more of it. But I don’t see anything in here that’s worse than the other gags you’ve done.”
    â€œSo I can do it?”
    â€œIf you want to.”
    â€œYou’re the best mom in the whole world!”

13
TWO BIRDS, ONE STONE
    A week later, I still hadn’t figured out a way to break the news about the Niagara Falls scene to Mom. We hadn’t shot one second of film yet, but reports about Two Birds, One Stone were already turning up in magazines and on TV.
    People were saying this would be the movie where Ricky Corvette would grow up. He would stop playing a cute kid and take on his first role as a young man. Very few child stars grow up to become adult movie stars. Everybody wanted to know if Ricky could make that leap. If he flopped, his career would probably be over.
    The cast and crew of Two Birds, One