No Name Tag

“Shoot, I’m out of visitor name tags” said the impressively large security officer at the desk that Tim was standing at. “You know what, Tim, just head on inside without one. The lead actor is your brother, people will know who you are. If anyone gives you any trouble just tell them to take it up with me.”

“Um, ok, if you say so. Thank you” Tim replied hesitantly. The security guard just nodded and pointed towards the door, so Tim walked through without a name tag and looked around the busy movie studio.

There were hundreds of people running around, talking, yelling, dancing, working out, eating, and doing a variety of other random things. Tim was immediately overwhelmed and fought the urge to back out the door he had just come through. Thankfully, his brother had given him detailed information on where to meet him though, so he fought his fear of the crowds of people and started walking towards the right, looking for his brother.

After walking for a minute he saw an empty chair with his brother’s name on it, James Carlson. Tim frowned, James told him he’d meet him right here. Well, James had to come back sooner or later, so Tim sat down in his chair to wait.

Sitting in the chair, Tim thought about his relationship with his brother. James was his twin brother, and although Tim was technically six minutes older, he had always felt like he was the younger brother. Their physical features were identical, but their personalities couldn’t be more different. James was talented, extraverted and outgoing, while Tim was shy, introverted and timid. 

James had always been Tim’s best friend, and had always taken him under his wing. Even now, James was the busy one with a big acting career and a new movie, but he took the time to invite Tim to come hang out for the afternoon, and he was going to take him out for dinner too. He had even taken the time to explain how the whole afternoon would go, knowing that a lack of schedule made Tim nervous.

Thinking about the schedule brought Tim back to the present. Where was James? He wasn’t here, even though he said he would be. What was going on? Tim’s stress levels started to rise, and he started to look around at the crowds of people to find his brother.

“James!!!” He heard a woman’s voice yell. That was good, if someone was yelling for him then surely he’d be there soon.

“James! Get out of your stupid chair and get over here! We have a scene to shoot!”

Tim looked up and saw the woman who was yelling. She was a slightly bigger lady who was holding a clipboard with several papers on it. She was staring right at Tim, and she looked mad.

“Get over here now!” She yelled again, prompting Tim to get out of the chair and walk over to her. He didn’t want to yell and draw more attention than he currently had, so he figured he’d explain the mistake once he got up to her.

“James, what on earth are you doing, you need to be…. AAUGH!!! Have you not been to costume and makeup yet!? You need to go now!”

Tim tried to talk to the now fuming woman. “Um, I’m sorry, ma’am, but, um, there’s been a mistake…” She didn’t hear him, she was too busy calling over help.

Before he knew it he was being shoved to a different room by a handful of new people, all of them yelling about costumes and makeup and props and other things that Tim couldn’t keep track of.

“Sit down!” “Turn here!” “Go there!” “Take that off!” “Put this on!” Tim couldn’t keep up with the speed of the yelling and the directions. He was too afraid to raise his voice and cut anyone off, so he ended up just following their instructions, whispering protests too quietly for anyone to hear.

Suddenly he was pushed out of the room again, back towards the lady who had originally pulled him into this mess. She looked him up and down and said, “Good, that’s much better, James. Are you finally ready?”

“Um, well, I’m not James…” Tim finally got in.

“That’s the spirit! Of course you’re not James, you’re Dr. Fillembottom, the famous cave explorer! I’m glad to see you’re really getting into character today! Now get into the pit!”

“Wait, um, that’s not what I meant…” Tim muttered as he was shoved down a ladder into a large circular pit in a corner of the studio. The walls of the pit were at least 10 feet high, and they pulled the ladder up once he was in there, leaving him trapped.

The lady yelled down at him again. “Alright James, I mean, Dr. Fillembottom! You are supposed to be deathly afraid of snakes. I want to see some real fear in this scene!” She then turned to a couple of crew men standing nearby. “Ok, boys, release the snakes!”

Tim looked up in absolute horror as the crew men lowered a platform on the other side of the pit that was covered in live snakes. Tim was afraid of most things in life, but snakes were near the very top of that list. He was frozen for several seconds as the snakes slowly started to work their way towards him. That’s when the adrenaline kicked in.

He screamed and started clawing at the walls of the pit. “Help! Somebody help! I need to get out of here! Help!”

He turned and saw the snakes continuing to inch closer, which only increased his panic further. “Please! I’m begging you, I don’t belong in here!!! Let me out! Please help me!”

He gasped when he felt a cold, leathery sensation on his right leg. He looked down and saw one of the bigger snakes slowly starting to wrap its way around him. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he was about to try screaming even louder when he heard a voice.

“I’ll save you, Doctor!” Yelled a beautiful woman who swung into the pit on a rope. She shot a gun in the air a few times, startling the snakes and causing them to immediately slither away from Tim. The woman then tossed the rope to him and said “climb on out, I’m right behind you.”

Tim had never been known for having much upper body strength, but fear can do amazing things to a man. He climbed that rope faster than he had done anything in his life, and fell to the ground at the top of the pit in tears of fear and adrenaline and gratitude.

The beautiful woman who saved him came up a few seconds later, and helped Tim to his feet. “Thank you for saving me! Thank you!” He said to her, and gave her a big hug.

She smiled and said “Don’t worry, Doctor, I’d never let anything happen to you. You’re much too important to me for that.”

She then gave Tim a big kiss on the cheek.

“CUT!!!” Yelled the woman with the clipboard, who then walked from her seat to Tim and the woman who saved him.

“Wow! And I mean, WOW! James, that was incredible! I’ve never seen such beautiful acting! If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were actually scared for your life down there! Wow! Great job! Everyone, give James a hand!” She started clapping, and everyone else in the studio joined in.

Tim didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything at all. He just stood there and looked around at everyone clapping. Even though he knew they were all confused, he kind of liked the positive attention. He couldn’t help but feel especially happy that the beautiful woman who had saved him from the pit was also clapping and smiling at him.

Once the clapping died down, the woman with the clipboard continued to talk to everyone. “To be honest, folks, I thought this scene would take all afternoon, but we got it perfect after one take! You’re all free to go home early today!”

Everyone cheered again, and the crowds started to disperse, with the occasional person patting Tim on the back and telling him what a good job he did. Tim slowly wandered back to his brother’s chair, where he saw a note that hadn’t been there before.

Opening the note, he read the following words: “Hey Tim. Sorry for the delay. I’ll meet you by your car in the guest parking out back. - James”

Not wanting to stay in the studio any longer, Tim quickly hurried to his car, excited to finally see a safe and familiar face.

As Tim approached his car he saw James standing there in sunglasses and a baseball cap, trying to be discreet. James soon saw Tim, and he ran over and gave him a huge hug. “Tim!” He said excitedly. “It’s so good to see you! How are you?”

“Where were you!?” Tim shot back, with an uncharacteristic amount of boldness.

James nodded, recognizing that he was at fault. “I’m so sorry Tim, let me explain. I had the idea about 15 minutes before you were supposed to arrive to go get you some milk duds you could snack on while we shot the scene. I know you love those. So I jumped in my car and sped to the store to buy you some. On the way back from the store I was speeding way too much in an effort to get back before you arrived, and I got pulled over. I had been going 35 over the limit, and the police officer was not happy with me one bit. He took his sweet time processing everything, so I wasn’t able to get back here until about 10 minutes ago. I walked in right when I saw you getting into the snake pit.”

Tim looked at his brother in shock, the adrenaline still flowing. “You saw me get into the pit, and you didn’t stop it! Why didn’t you say anything?”

James looked down sheepishly. “Well, to be honest, Tim, I was afraid of what would happen to me. In fact, you very likely saved my career today.”

Tim’s expression changed from anger to confusion. He’d never heard of his brother being afraid of anything before. And he didn’t understand how any of that related to saving James’s career. “What do you mean?” He asked.

“I’ve been late to the set two other times this month. Barbara, the lady with the clipboard, has not been happy with that. She’s the boss, and she gave me hints that if I showed up late once more there would be serious consequences. I might have been fired if you hadn’t done that shot for me. Not to mention you killed it! That’s gonna be the most impressive scene in the whole movie now!” 

James paused for a moment, and then put his hand on Tim’s shoulder and looked him right in the eye. “Thank you, Tim. Thank you for facing your fears to help me out, whether you meant to or not. You’re the best twin brother a guy could ask for.

Tim smiled and gave his brother a hug. “Well, I’m glad today worked out for one of us then. Now where are those milk duds you got for me?”

***

A few hours later Tim and James were sitting at a nice restaurant eating and talking and laughing with each other. Tim froze though when he saw a familiar face walk in the front door.

James looked around to see what Tim was looking at, and smiled when he saw who it was. “Alisha!” He yelled to the woman who had just walked in. “Come over here for a minute!”

Alisha, the beautiful woman who had saved Tim from the snake pit, smiled when she saw them and came over to their table. “Hey James! Great job earlier today! Also, who’s this doppelganger you’re with? Are you going to introduce us?

James laughed. “Oh, you’ve already met him! This is my brother Tim, and he’s the one you filmed the snake pit scene with!”

Alisha’s jaw dropped, and James spent the next several minutes going into detail on everything that happened. He made a special effort to describe Tim’s courage in facing his fears to save his brother’s job. Alisha listened in stunned silence, and Tim listened in nervous silence. He was comfortable around his brother, but many of his fears and anxieties resurfaced with this beautiful woman sitting at their table now.

Once James was done with the story, Alisha turned to Tim. “That was quite the impressive thing you did for James today.”

Tim tried, and failed, to smile naturally. “Um, th-thanks… th-thank you.”

Alisha leaned in closer to him. “Earlier today I was acting, but this time, it’s for real.” She then gave him a kiss on the cheek, smiled at both of them again, and then walked away.

“Well well well, Tim, it looks like you made quite the impression on her!” James said, nudging Tim’s arm playfully. “I’m guessing you’ll want to come visit the set again soon?”

Tim chuckled, thinking about his crazy day, and his quick connection with Alisha. “Yeah, I think I’ll come back. But next time, I want a name tag!”