Chapter Twelve:
Everyone but Ishio nodded. Erica smiled, then spread her hands. "Okay, enough being tough. You all did a fantastic job. It'll get better the longer you do it. Now, I want to get you guys into make up to get you all banged up for the next scene. So, head on up, behind the Inn, to the trailers set up back there. Marie and Joanna are waiting for you."
"What happened to the formal breakfast she promised us?" Joey asked suddenly.
"You're hungry?"
"He always is," Tristan said.
"So are you."
Erica frowned slightly, then smiled. "I'm sure Candy kept some stuff nice and hot. Go on and eat. Anyone who isn't hungry, you can go ahead and get into make up. They're not going to be able to do all of you at once anyway. Yami, Tristan, you're welcome to eat on us, if you want. Tea, too, if you find her and Daisy."
"Thanks!" Tristan said cheerfully.
The pair of them turned and hurried up the driveway. Yugi smiled with long-suffering affection and fell into step beside Yami while the rest walked up with them.
/You did wonderfully, Aibou./
Yugi looked down at the pavement beneath his feet, embarrassed. /Thanks./
/Erica seems like a nice person./
/She is. I think doing this really is going to be fun./
Yami smiled. /Good, I'm glad./
On the porch of the Inn, Tea and Daisy were waiting for them. Tea told them that Joey and Tristan had already hurried by to find the food stand.
"How'd the crash go?" Daisy asked.
"Good," Rin said, joining them on the porch. "The two stunt people came and crashed the cars like it was nothing."
"We saw them in their golf cart. They passed us on the way. They looked really intense."
"They are. The girl said Japan is pretty, and that's it. Just came down, crashed the cars, got back in their cart, and left. Erica says they're really hard to work with."
Tea and Daisy joined the group following after Joey and Tristan. Behind the Inn, Yugi saw a small town of trailers, tents, and portapotties. People were bustling about, shouting at each other, shouting into phones, and hauling equipment. There were cables running everywhere that people stepped over without a second thought, though Yugi found himself having to watch where he was going intently to avoid tripping up.
"Hey! You guys looking for Candy or Marie?" a man shouted to them.
"Are you guys hungry?" Yugi asked the rest.
"Starving," Daisy said.
"We never did get to have our picnic," Tea said, and Yami nodded.
"I'm not. I think I'll get into makeup," Rin said. "Some of us should."
"I'm with you," Sota said. "I can't wait to get some more done."
"I'm not hungry either," Mark said.
The man was beginning to look irritated. He pointed in two different directions. "Candy's that way, Marie's that way."
"Thanks!" Yugi shouted back. "Sorry!"
The group split up, with those who were hungry heading towards Candy's and those who weren't taking the path toward Marie's. The various crew milling around paid them no more attention than brief glances.
Candy's was an enormous food stand of the type seen at fairs and carnivals. In hot pink letters lined with blue lights were the words Candys'-Best Grub You'll Ever Have. Candy herself was visible behind the counter. Indeed, it would have been hard to miss her. She was a gigantic woman. Standing probably six feet two, she was amply busted, thick in the waist, arms, and hips, with a large patrician nose and big, doe-like brown eyes. Her black hair shone like a raven's wings, pulled tightly back from her face. Her hands looked capable of snapping tree trunks.
"Whoa," Joey murmured.
Candy saw them. A grin spread over her mannish, yet appealingly good-natured face. "Hello!" she cried in English, her voice as big as her body. "Hope ya'll speak some English. Sorry, but I cain't make heads nor tails of ya'lls' language."
"We speak English," Joey said in that language.
"Great! What cain I get ya'lls? Got American, Cajun, Italian, French, Spanish, German, and been learnin' to make ya'll's Japanese. What'll ya'll have?"
"Uh…"
Menu's right thur." She waved a ham hand at a long whiteboard scrawled with various junk food dishes in different colored marker. There were no prices.
"All's free," Candy said, resting her upper half on her folded arms on the counter. The wood groaned. "All on Erica and her company. If'n ya'll's confused 'bout anything', I kin tell ya'lls what's what."
Yugi thought her accent might be heavy Southern. It made it difficult to understand her, and he saw Daisy looking completely flustered.
"How about we just order whatever's easiest," Tea suggested in Japanese. "She's hard to understand."
"What does the crew usually ask for?" Joey asked in English.
"Oh, 'bout everythin'."
"That's helpful," Tristan muttered.
"Ya'll's lookin' mighty lost. How 'bout I just gets ya my most popular dishes?"
"Sounds good," Joey said, relieved.
"So, ya'll's the new actors," Candy said, once they'd been served a strange mish-mash of dishes. Jambalaya, chorizo quesadilla, teriyaki, miso soup, shrimp gumbo, and French eclairs and German chocolate cake for dessert. "How're ya likin' it?"
"It's great," Joey said around a mouthful of food. "Erica's great."
"Yep, she is," Candy agreed. "Ya know, that lady, she don't forget nothing. I gots me six kids stateside 'n' she don't forget a birthday, nor me and the mister's anniversary. She's like that with everybody."
"How long have you worked with her?" Tea asked.
"Oh, I reckon it's been about ten years, in betweens the kids. I was there for her first international movie she made."
"Twelve Ways to Die," Joey said enthusiastically.
"Yuh. You're one of her big fans, I take it."
"Yeah."
"Me too," Tristan said, a bit put out. "But I wasn't there for her casting call."
"She's good people. I don't like her movies much myself, but the woman's good."
"This food's good, too," Joey said. "Man."
"Why thank ya." She looked at a watch clamped around one meaty wrist. "Ya'll's got some time yet, I reckon. Takes them girls 'bout an hour to do the makeup, even just the little blood."
"You said you've been with her about ten years," Yugi said.
"Yuh."
"The news said there was a lot of accidents on the sets of her movies."
He felt Yami's surprise and disturbance at that news, and saw Tea look over at him sharply. Candy's expression grew harder, like she was sizing up Yugi's reason for asking about them.
"Been some, yuh."
"I didn't know that," Tea said, looking extremely worried. "Is this safe?"
"Everythin's got it's risks," Candy said. "I tol' ya, Erica's a good woman. She feels terrible about any accidents, but she cain't stop her work on account of 'em. Lots of people get hurt in cars, but they don't stop making 'em. She takes lots of precautions, but sometimes things happen."
"How often have things happened?" Tea pressed.
"Sometimes," Candy said flatly. "Not every movie. Sometimes several a movie, sometimes none."
Tea looked at Yugi and Joey, troubled. "Are you guys sure you ought to be doing this?"
"Of course they should be," Tristan said. "This is awesome. So what if some accidents have happened? That doesn't mean anything'll happen this time.""That shows a lot of concern for your friends," Tea said reproachfully.
"You worry too much. They'll be fine."
"Yeah, Tea, I know all about this stuff," Joey agreed. "It really doesn't happen that much. It's all sensationalism, you know, draw attention to the movies. She's made dozens of movies. Bound something'll happen sometime or another, but that happens with lots of movies. And we're not going to be doing stunts or whatever, you know. Just the acting, the dialogue. You saw, the stunt was done by those two siblings. If anybody's going to get hurt, it's them. We'll be fine, don't worry about us!"
"Well… if you're sure."
"Doesn't matter, he wouldn't change his mind anyway," Tristan said.
"Damn right."
Yami looked at Yugi directly in the eyes. Yugi offered him an uneasy smile.
tbc…
A/N: Okay, that was way too ridiculously long a wait, right? Well, let's put it in the shortest terms possible. Life sucked, I got help. Also some minor health stuff. I'm better. Still struggling with the oomph to write, but I came back, right? If you're still reading after all this bullshit… THANK YOU!
