Love, Sweat and Tears by Zelie Bullen

Author:Zelie Bullen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: NAT001000, BIO000000
ISBN: 9781742698779
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2013-04-07T21:00:00+00:00

While I was waiting for the new film job that Chino had told me about, Freda called me one morning and told me Mum had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I think it was a Sunday, because there weren’t many people around. Still, for privacy I walked around the side of a horse truck, sat down on the ground with my back against the tyre, and began to cry.

Fred had told me the situation wasn’t critical and I didn’t have to come home. But I knew I wanted to go home. I was thinking, ‘What if Mum dies?’

Then I heard someone coming. Mario walked briskly past me. He looked at me briefly and kept going, then slowed, turned around and said, ‘Ça va? Are you OK?’

‘Oui, ça va,’ I said, but he saw straight through me.

‘Noooo.’ And this man, who had treated me so coldly and rudely for so long, came and sat down next to me on the cobblestones. ‘Tell me what’s happened.’

Reluctantly, I told him about Freda’s phone call.

‘Ahh, my darling.’ He held me to his chest and I cried and cried.

‘Come! Come, get up!’ he said at last.

We both stood up and he held my hands. ‘Now, medicine is very good,’ he said, trying to reassure me. ‘Breast cancer is nothing—they chop the boob off, everything fine. I will pay for your flight home.’

‘I have a return ticket for my flight home—Mark has already paid for it.’

‘Fine, you come to the office now and I will explain to Fadila. She book your flight. You go. When you want—tomorrow?’

‘Yes, please. But sorry—what about the job with the train?’

‘Oooh, leave it—it’s just a movie. It is not important like your mother. I just get one of the men and put boobs on—don’t worry about it.’

He was so kind; you could not have asked for more. Once Fadila had booked my flight, Mario told me, ‘When your mother is all better, you come back. It is coming into the winter now—it is cold, it snows, there are not many movies coming up. After winter, you come back and finish your apprenticeship. When you want to return, you just call and we pay for you to come back.’

I felt so much lighter, so relieved—it was as if an angel had just picked me up. I was no longer alone.

I called in to see Mark Boyden and told him what was happening and he said, ‘Go, just go! We can look after the horses, no problem.’

The hardest thing for me was leaving my kitten, but Mark assured me he would get one of the grooms to look after him. That night I packed my bags, and the next morning one of the stuntmen, Cedric, drove me to the airport and I was gone. It was as quick as that. As things turned out, I didn’t see Mario again for many years.

Working with Mario is fantastic for the experience, but you need to have skin like rhino hide! I learnt a lot in

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