In The Blood

Resurfacing

(Tim)

"Ya think ya want me to do what?" I gaped at Adam, not quite believing what he was saying. I couldn't believe he'd said it and was asking me to do it. Or that he thought I physically could.

He sighed. "Stick with me here, OK? It's not hard. Look at Austin here."

I did not turn to look at Austin, though I could see him out of the corner of my eye as he pulled it off. Gracefully, at that. There is not an ounce of grace in my body. And the thing was, Adam knew that.

"Want me to do it instead?" Austin volunteered, now about two yards away from the Adam and me.

"No," Adam declined. He walked over and turned him around. "I want you back over there, under the pavilion."

"Are we, like, going to stay under it the whole time?" Chance asked, already having been exiled to his designated spot on the pavilion.

"Us four are," Adam confirmed, encouraging Austin back in place. "Tim and Jenika are the only ones moving around."

Jenika was actually dancing on the log Adam was wanting me to hop, skip, and jump across. "It's plenty wide, Tim. You won't fall."

Yeah right. Falling is my forte. I eyed the creek babbling just under it. "For one thing, I do not hop, skip, and jump, Adam, you know know that."

"Well, technically, he said to skip up to the edge, jump up onto the log, hop when Jenika gets up on it, and the two of you walk across," Rob pointed out.

"Yeah. Skip, jump, hop, and walk," Adam choreographed.

"You can do it," Chance encouraged from his steady, stable, and safe spot.

"Come here." Jenika gestured me over. "I'll help you and show you."

"Go watch her, Tim," our cameraman advised, switching it to his other shoulder.

Knowing this was a recipe for disaster, I sidestepped a root, swung a long leg over a pile of rocks, and pushed through a thicket. I am so ending this video shoot facedown in the creek. Skip, jump, hop, and walk, my ass. Didn't he know who he was working with here? In my preordained spot, I crossed my arms. "OK, baby, show me."

"Very easy." Jenika walked back to the bank and hopped off the log easily. "I'll show you." She took my hand and we walked backwards, my foot slipping slightly on a leaf. A leaf. And they wanted me to balance on a damn log. Yeah right.

"Back a little further," Adam directed.

"Much further and we'll be in the woods!" I pointed out.

"I want you just inside the tree line," Adam said.

Just inside the tree line. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't get leaves, dirt, and shit on my contacts and stepped into the woods. Something buzzed near my head and my eyes flew open just to see I'd found a wasp nest in the tree I was standing under. I screamed and ran my deathly allergic ass back out of the woods. No way in hell I'm going back in there. My right leg slipped out from under me and, still screaming, I started to slide down the embankment towards the creek.

"Nowhere in the script does it say to run," Austin complained from his safe spot.

"And if it does, I'mma need to have you rewrite it," Rob announced from the bench under the pavilion. I wished I could be on the pavilion.

Jenika reached out and grabbed me before I took an unplanned dip. "It's OK, I gotcha." Slowly, I stood up and glared at Adam.

"OK, try it again," he advised. "Little bit slower so you don't fall."