The Black Stallion and the Lost City by Steve Farley Read Free Book Online

six feet high and twelve feet wide. Alec figured the crew had already installed the underground heating pad, because Conrad and one of the other snake wranglers were now raking smooth the ground on the other side of the glass. The rest of the crew waited behind the camera, milling around or checking their equipment. Alec spotted Karst and Jeff sitting on folding chairs besidestacks of black camera cases. They waved to Alec, and he jogged over to join them.
    Karst glanced at the set and shook his head. “Snakes,” he said. “Train horses is hard. Train snakes and a two-year-old boy? I think we stay here all day.”
    Jeff laughed. “Whatever else he is, Conrad is a good snake wrangler. If anyone can pull this off, he can.”
    “Who is in this scene besides the snakes?” Alec asked. “Before, you said it was a dream scene, right?”
    Jeff pointed out Carla, the sixteen-year-old actress playing Alexander’s mom in the scene. “Freddy Roth has an eye for talent and picked her up in Xanthi,” Jeff said. “Never worked in films before. That’s her mom, Veronica, standing next to her. The other woman is Helen, from wardrobe.” The three women were riding herd on a two-year-old boy who was having the time of his life playing with a toy sword someone had given him and kicking the air with his feet.
    “Mr. Kung Fu over there is Otto,” Jeff said. “He’ll be playing the Alexander-as-a-kid character in the snake scene. Helen is Otto’s real mom. They are German expats, living in Xanthi. Helen works in the wardrobe department, and when Bateman saw Otto on the set one day, he thought the kid would be perfect for the dream scene and Helen agreed. I don’t think she knew her son’s costars were going to be a pair of snakes, though.”
    Jeff gestured to where the assistants were just finishing smoothing out the dirt in front of the glass. “It looks like they have the hot pad in place and are about ready.” He glanced at Karst and they both stood up. “We better stick close in case we can help in some way. Come with us if you want, Alec,” Jeff said. “Just remember to stay well behind the cameras when we get ready to roll.”
    A few minutes later, cameras, sound equipment and actors were all in their places. Conrad stood back to one side, holding his snake-wrangling tool—a four-foot-long wooden stick with a hooklike tip. Alec briefly stepped behind Bateman and the camera crew framing the shot. He could see that from this angle, the glass was nearly invisible.
    Helen brought Otto to his mark only a foot or two away from the glass and less than three feet from the snakes curled up quietly on the other side of the barrier. Otto barely seemed to notice them and occupied himself with digging a hole in the dirt and letting the earth crumble beneath his fingers.
    “That’s perfect,” Bateman said. “Terrific. Conrad, you ready?”
    “More heat,” Conrad called to his assistant working the controls of the hot pad. Soon the leopard snakes seemed to wake up from their nap. One slithered to the glass and tried to climb it. Conrad movedhis wrangling tool and pulled the snake off the glass. Then he gave the other snake a prod with the stick to get him motivated.
    The snakes turned their attention on each other, facing off, winding up in coils, one twitching the tip of his tail threateningly. “Ready, boss,” Conrad called out. “Better go now.”
    “Action.”
    Helen called a signal to her son from where she was standing just offscreen. Otto reached up and touched the glass and, for what looked like the first time, noticed the snakes. His reaction was more curiosity than fear as he watched the two snakes getting riled up on the other side of the glass. Suddenly one of the snakes darted off and the other chased it, both streaking for the edge of the glass as if trying to slip around to the other side where Otto was still lolling about in the dirt.
    “Stop,” Helen called in English as she dashed onto the set and