Bro’s Day

“Okay great now action!” Tucker burst out of nowhere.

The group meandered off crossing the street to their different posts. For a few hours they stood there, holding out their cups, shaking them to get noticed.

“No, no way, none of this is working,” James announced quietly to Ronny, “I need you to do something about the kid.”

Ronny looked over at the kid and the conspicuous smile he had on his face. “Oh,” Ronny acknowledged the request by hiking over to the boy and taking a knee next to him. “Hey there bud, um,” he paused for a moment, “great work so far! I wanted to tell you something is both good and bad.” He shook his head, “Mhm, and,” he looked over at James and Tucker and gulped, “we need you to look a little more pathetic, can you just try to um,” pointing to his mouth he illustrated.

The boy looked around confused for a moment and then agreed, “you know it’s the acting business, I’m so sorry to do this, it’s just part of the business.”

Rolling continued smoothly, and about an hour before they planned to stop counting they began the individual interviews.

Each of them took some close up B-roll of the actors and then set up for the question and answer portion. The homeless were exposed and given a script..the final line being.. “because I did it for Mountain Who.”

As they continued the process they picked up their gear and began moving it across the street to approach the young woman. “Okay great, let’s wrap it up with the girl’s story. What do you think should we make her addicted to crack or dope?” James inquired.

“Crack is definitely trending online,” Ronny mused with a smirk.

The woman turned towards them as they approached her.  Setting up the tripod, they asked her a few soft ball questions to make her comfortable. “So is that your kid?”

“Um, actually no, It’s my little brother.”

“Oh okay great, so let’s get started.”

“Hey dear, you can just tell us your name.”

Looking into the camera with blinking wide eyes she was sure to annunciate each word as she spoke. “My name is Eliza.”

“Great, can you just hold this Mountain Who, and talk about how it makes you feel for a few minutes.”

They set the Mountain Who in her hand and she stood there dumbstruck. The bros waited for a few minutes, before James jumped in, “okay, so it’s green and smooth, does that make you feel anything?”

“Um, well I like the way it tastes when it’s hot out.” She said, uncapping the tiny jug and taking a big swig of the lemony sweet beverage. The cold fizz tickled down her throat as she leaned her head back and emptied the bottle.

“Ahh,” she exclaimed with relief throwing the bottle into a plastic bag. “I can create lava lamps with these.”

“Okay, and what do you think is going to help you win this competition?”

“That’s an easy one,” she boasted grabbing her bicep and flexing, “I haven’t even used my secret weapon.”

“Haha,” Ronny laughed and signaled to cut. “Well there is a 30 minutes left, let’s see how it goes.”

To their surprise in the last minutes the woman wrapped her head up and pulled out a secret weapon, crutches. The sign flipped around to suddenly read disabled vet down on her luck. Anything Helps.

The cash became a river of dollar bills, change, and sympathetic faces. Eventually she ended up pulling it out big time earning almost $75 in the last hour alone.

“Alright, we’ll take everything from you to be counted,” the bros insisted to everyone. With a flick they snatched the cash out of each of their hands.

“Hm,” they seemed uncertain, looking it over and flipping it through.

Then they had the final count, and on camera they declared the little kid the winner. “And what was his secret power?” they prompted. “Mountain Who,” the group answered back. Congratulations went back and forth between the bros, patting each other on the back. The cameras were quickly packed away after that, and in an instant the sidewalk was empty. The homeless youth looked around in confusion, “wait, are they taking our money?” The question assaulted her with a wave of exhaustion. Just as quickly they were across the street, surrounding the bros car.

“Oh hey guys,” James greeted them looking up with his hand outstretched on the handle of the door.

“Hey, what happened to our money?”

“Oh right, did I forget to pay you?”

“Yeah we are supposed to get paid.”

“Whoa I’m so sorry about that, I had no idea, it was an accident,”he announced reaching into his pocket. A slimy wad of cash slipped out of his pocket, “here is your cut,” and got slapped into the homeless man’s hand. He continued, “a word of advice, I wouldn’t give people that kind of attitude in the future it really makes people not wanna work with you.”

“Okay,” he said clutching the wrinkled green bills in his palm. Before he even had a chance to look up the group of bros was skidding past the corner.  It wasn’t but a few moments later and sirens appeared around the same turn. A loud voice commanded through the loudspeakers, “stay where you are. Hands in the air.”

As she was pushed into the back of a cop car, the homeless woman began to laugh hysterically. Her cackle and gasps becoming such a discomfort for the men around that the little kid pulled at her shirt pleading, “what is so funny, you’re starting to scare me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said readjusting herself and pulling out a small black disk.

“Where did you get that?” the kid asked.

“I just can’t stop thinking of their dumb faces, when they find out.” She giggled and tossed the card on the floor, where it was crushed by the soles of her feet. “It came from their camera.”

“oh,” the boy smirked.

“Funny how blind ambition leaves men blind,” she mused as the cop car pulled onto the street into traffic.