the punks and the cable access movie

It's an excerpt from my published novel, PUNK MINNEAPOLIS

“Groovy tunes!” Raven said. “I was just thinking up things to do with Brett for the mummy movie.”

“Leave him alone,” Sandra ordered.

“No, it’s okay,” Brett assured her. “I’d love to be killed by a mummy. Hey,” he asked Raven, “why a mummy? Why don’t you just play a vampire? You look like one.”

“I play an Egyptian High Priest who pukes blood. And I did think to maybe do a werewolf movie, but a mummy costume is easier to get right. And my mummy is going to wear black jeans. That’s cooler looking and I’m not wrapping up some guy’s butt. And it’s quicker.”

“So how are you going to get killed in the movie?” Becky asked Brett.

“I’m going to get eaten by a crocodile in the lake.”

“And where do we find an alligator?” Sandra asked Raven. “Don’t tell me you have a hand puppet.”

“I’ll go to the library and get some nature footage of an alligator and intercut it with Brett in the water splashing around, and we’ll get a shot where we squirt blood up in the air.”

Sandra wondered, “How will you pull this off?”

“He rents a canoe,” Brett said. “And first I paddle around for awhile and then the boat tips over and then I’m attacked. Like Jaws!”

“We can’t get the camera wet,” Sandra reminded Raven. “And it’s way too big to put in a boat.”

“No,” Raven explained. “We keep the camera on the shore and use the zoom lens to get us close. It’s got a pretty good zoom. Right?”

Brett looked impressed. “It sounds like you all really know your movie making.”

“I can’t think about anything else.” Raven smiled big. “I just want to be a really cool movie maker. It’s just going to be totally underground. Totally cool.”

Becky smiled. “They’ll see it and I’ll become a star.”

“Me too!” Raven added.

“And I just want to be Raven’s slave and dog,” Sandra joked, irritated.

“Sorry.” Raven smiled in chagrin. “I don’t mean to leave you off the credits all the time. We! We! We! I’m the director but she does everything else. Because she has the jeep and the cable access membership card.”