Raven Stark angrily cornered Wahoo and his father. “You two think this is funny? Derek could have been maimed!”

Mickey shrugged. “That’s why they’re called snappers, not yawners.”

“You’re the one who gave him that stick!”

“Well, it’s better than using a finger,” said Mickey. “Right, son?”

Wahoo nodded ruefully, displaying the fleshy bump where his right thumb once had been. Behind him Derek was bellowing at the director, ordering him to erase all the video footage of the turtle encounter.

“If I see one minute of that on YouTube, everybody on this crew is fired!” Derek warned as he toweled off. “And I mean everybody!”

Next they tried the python, Beulah.

Wahoo and his father uncoiled the beautiful, multi-hued constrictor and laid her out at full length. The script called for Derek to creep up and seize Beulah behind her head, instigating a fake life-or-death struggle. Mickey Cray didn’t mention that Beulah had tried to eat his foot a few days earlier; the swelling had gone down and his limp was barely noticeable.

Over Derek’s objections, Mickey insisted on conducting a rehearsal so he could demonstrate the safest way to handle the big snake.

Derek barely paid attention. “Piece o’ cake, mate,” he kept saying.

“Sometimes she bites,” Wahoo reminded him.

“Ha! Never show you’re afraid, because animals can sense it,” said Derek. “Do you even know what true primal fear smells like?”

“Not really. Asparagus?”

Derek’s eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out if he’d just been insulted.

As it turned out, Beulah showed no interest in biting anyone during the run-through. She was sleepy and sluggish, her belly still full from the microwaved chickens that Wahoo had fed her after she’d tried to make a meal of his father.