High Midnight

It was cold without my coat, so I huddled back among the horses. One of them tried to nuzzle me. I’ve got nothing against animals as long as they leave me alone. I think human responsibilities are too much and I never understood why anyone would choose to take on responsibility for an animal. Unfortunately, all animals love me. Maybe I just smell from salty sweat. A factory worker with a bottle of Nehi and a sandwich came up to me and asked what we were shooting.

“A Hoot Gibson movie,” I said. “Hoot’s not in this shot.”

Gelhorn had backed off with Hugo and the camera and waved wildly for the factory worker to get out of the shot. The factory worker, a stocky guy with black curly hair, raised his fist at Gelhorn and laughed before backing away.

“No sound in this shot,” shouted Gelhorn over the music from the hot-dog stand and the laughs and conversation of factory workers. “Remember, Mickey, you’ve set a dynamite charge in the shack, and you want to get away fast. You come out of the door, go for your horse, get shot and tumble down. Then you look back at the shack in fear. You know it is going to blow any second and you’re not sure you can get away. You with the horses,” Gelhorn shouted, seemingly forgetting who I was in the heat of shooting, “get in the shot.” I moved forward.

“Okay,” shouted Gelhorn, his voice cracking. “We have to shoot this tight, Mickey, one take, not much room up and down. Do it right the first time.”

Mickey nodded, went over to check his horse and waddled to the shack.

“Camera ready,” shouted Gelhorn.

“Ready,” grunted Hugo.

“Camera rolling,” shouted Gelhorn.

“Rolling,” said Hugo.

“Action,” said Gelhorn. “Doris, action, get the damn sticks in there.”

Doris ran out in front of the camera with the clapboards.

“You don’t have to clap them,” Gelhorn screamed. “We’re not rolling sound. Just get out of there.” Doris looked hurt as she scrambled behind the camera with the crew and other extras.

“All right, Mickey, for God’s sake,” screamed Gelhorn, “get your ass out there! We’re wasting film.”

Fargo came scurrying out of the cabin, looked back at it with fear worthy of Emil Jannings and went for his horse. It took him two tries to make it onto the horse. Then Gelhorn shouted, “Now, Mickey, now. You’ve been shot.” And the sound of a gunshot cut through the music and noise. Mickey went down off the horse with a grunt and the horse next to me also went down, almost toppling over on me. I jumped out of the way and saw the spot of blood on the horse’s shoulder. Then a second shot came and dug dirt a foot away from me. The shots were coming from the top of the hill. No one else seemed to notice them, but then everyone was watching Mickey Fargo try to lift his fallen girth for a look at the shack.

I thought I saw the glint of something metal on the hilltop. My choices weren’t many. I could stand still and watch the guy with the gun pick off me and the remaining horses. I could run across the open field and hope to survive, or I could do the stupid thing I did. Maybe it was the costume or the scene or the audience. I got on the nearest horse, remembering vaguely that you mount on the left, and urged the animal forward by whacking its rump. It laughed at me, or made a sound like laughter, and took off running right in front of the camera.

Gelhorn screamed, “Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.”

I tugged the reins to the left toward the hill, and the horse, much to my surprise, turned left. The crowd of factory workers cheered. In about thirty yards I pulled back on the reins and the horse came to an abrupt stop. My arms grabbed the saddle, and I eased myself down as quickly as I could, tossing the cowboy hat away as I scrambled for the cover of bushes and trees. Another shot hit behind me. I went up the hill slowly without looking back, but I could hear Gelhorn’s crazed voice behind me coming closer, shouting “Madman.”

No more shots came as I worked my way up slowly. From behind a tree I estimated where the rifleman had been and worked behind the spot. A car started not far away, and I jumped from behind the tree to see a Ford coupe pull away with a screech. I barely caught the square shape in the driver’s seat. With less caution I went to the spot from where the gun had been fired.

Gelhorn had scrambled up the hill behind me and was advancing, ready to beat me with the clapboard he had probably ripped from the hand of timid Doris.

“You crazy son of a bitch,” he screamed. “You know what you cost me? You ruined the shot.”

“At least the one someone took at me,” I said, kneeling down to pick up some still warm, spent cartridges. I held one up for him to see.

“Bull,” he said, moving clapboard-armed on me.

“Go tell the horse that got shot,” I said.

Gelhorn stopped. “Horse, shot?” He groaned. “Is it dead?”

“I don’t think so. It looked as if the shot barely caught him on the shoulder.” I put the shells in my pocket.

“Do you know what I had to do to get those horses?” Gelhorn wailed. “I can’t afford to pay for a goddamn horse. It’s either horses or cars no matter what you do.”

“I appreciate your sympathy,” I said, moving back toward the slope of the hill.

“Sympathy?” asked Gelhorn.

“Someone tried to kill me, not ruin your shot,” I reminded him.

“Oh, yes,” he said, tucking the clapboard under his arm. “I’m sorry about…. Maybe we can put a piece of tape over the horse’s wound and paint over it. What color is the horse?”

“Black, I think.”

“We have black paint,” Gelhorn mused to himself.

I outdistanced Gelhorn down the hill and made directly for Mickey Fargo. Tall Mickey, who was now Fat Mickey, had managed with some help to get off the ground.

“Maybe we can match it,” he was telling Doris. “Then I won’t have to take that fall again. Goddamn horse.”

“Mr. Fargo,” I said, looking back over my shoulder to see how far Gelhorn was behind me. “Sorry about that. Max will explain when he gets here. I’m a great fan of yours, and I’d like to talk to you at your place later about the Gary Cooper movie.”

He turned his chunky bulldog face to me suspiciously. “I don’t have …” he began.

“I work for Mr. Cooper,” I said quickly.

His rheumy eyes opened as wide as his heavy lids would allow, and a grin appeared, revealing remarkably perfect teeth, almost certainly false. “Right,” he said. “Catch me later.”

I was at my car before Gelhorn could reach me, but I didn’t have to hurry. He had zipped past Fargo and his crew and was in a dead run for the fallen horse. He was already calling for a bandage and water colors.

Since I was close, I headed for the Big Bear Bar in Burbank. Maybe I could convince Lola Farmer to change her name to Barbara Banks, then I could say I had seen Barbara Banks at the Big Bear Bar in Burbank. Maybe I could pass the joke on to my nephews. But maybe at twelve and ten, Nate and Dave were already too old for it.

The squat man who was trying to pressure Cooper into making High Midnight was obviously not fooling around. Not even Sergeant York could shoot from that range and purposely miss me by a foot. No, no, my friends, this was a fresh message from Lombardi or a new player that I should keep what remained of my nose outside of the business of Gary Cooper. I should have been scared, and I was, but just a little. Another part of me was happy as a dung beetle with a fresh find. This was it. This was the tingling feeling that made me drunk and powerful. I had to ride it while I felt it or fear would take over, but right now I was immortal.

I had a wife once. It was seeing me in moments like this that sent her looking for saner pastures. There were other reasons, but this was a big one. Toby Peters, king of the hill, was ready.

I stopped at a drive-in on Buena Vista and munched a burger with fries and a Pepsi.

“Peters,” came a voice near my ear.

Costello was leaning into my window on the left. On the right I could see Marco’s belly. His head and shoulders were above the car.

“I thought Mr. Lombardi told you that Cooper is making that movie,” Costello said. “That’s what he told him, isn’t it, Marco?”

“Assuredly,” came Marco’s voice from above.