Colonel Muviro of the first security directorate was at his desk reading a file when his secretary,miss Busuli buzzed him on the intercom. "Colonel there's a mister Brock Fletcher here to see you" closing the file Muviro thought ,Fletcher? yes the American film director, "what does he want Amandia? ". " Well sir it seems there has been a mishap at the location and he is here to report it". "Right send him in then " the colonel stood to greet him , " good morning mr Fletcher what can I do for you? " "Im not really sure colonel ,one of my people seems to have met a tragic end and I wanted to report it the consulate refered me to you". What happened ? "in a word quicksand colonel", a young woman,Sharon Carmody' she was one of the cast ,seems to have been claimed by a pool of the stuff the other night ". " I see ,well then we will send a team to retrieve her body,we have done extensive surveys of the area and none of the quicksand is very deep ". Please tell me what you know about the incident ", queried Muviro " not much Im afraid apparently she got up to go to the privvy or some-such and stumbled into it,lost her way I imagine". "And no one heard anything?" no sir ,why? " quicksand is neither sand nor quick ,it would be the same as if she had fallen into the water and drowned she would surely have cried out for help". Oh now that you mention it that's right we were all quite upset about it " replied fletcher," (or most of us anyway" he thought ) when she didnt appear that morning we searched and found her robe on top of the stuff and well............you dont suppose it was foul play do you colonel? she didnt seem at all suicidal ". Wasn't the area roped off?" Muviro asked," no sir we didn't even realize it was there it was off the beaten path a bit ,perhaps she was sleepwalking ? I dont know ,its the damnedest thing. "Yes" Muviro said " rest assured there will be an investigation".
Otherwise ,how are you enjoying your time here? " fine and dandy colonel yours is a most modern and prosperous nation ". Compared to the rest of the continent ?" asked Muviro. " Oh I didnt mean"................."dont worry mister Fletcher we aren't caught up with political correctness here ,may i call you Brock?" relaxing visibly the director sighed with relief," certainly,thats refreshing ,you have no idea how bad it gets in hollywood well were not isolated here either , Brock thanks to the internet sometimes we are bemused by your people like when your president toured the continent a few years ago, apologising for your nation's history of slavery, of all the foolish things,in countries where the institution still exists. Whereas we have never tolerated it , my people,the Waziri had suffered the depredations of slavers toward the beginning of the last century but with the help of viscount Greystoke , we taught the bastards a lesson and that was the end of it for us we have had zero tolerance for that sort of thing ever since and we were inspired by lady Jane to to adopt a system like your own at the founding of our republic ",she was an American you know" . "Yes" replied Brock the statue in the square ,his lordship,was he really?" "Raised by apes ?" laughed Muviro "thats the legend ,anyway that was all long before my time ". That Burroughs chap exaggerated considerably in his books ,and the younger generation doesn't believe any of it .Whatever you do dont even mention those awful movies to some of the older citizens,the ones who remember the Greystokes weren't amused by them". Especially the one with the Derek woman ,simply ghastly really the snake scene was ridiculous. I am no cineaste but my people do know snakes and believe me they arent so easily discouraged as that one was". Well, replied Brock "everybody knows they dont really eat people anyway ,though that story a couple of years ago of the boy in South Africa seemed legit enough but then that snake got away so we will never really know for sure". "Let me warn you Mister Fletcher " the colonel said,turning serious again, " the rock python is as vicious a wild animal as any,perhaps moreso and we have other legends to the contrary and we know better than most that even the most outrageous ones have some basis in fact.
Filming resumed in spite of the loss of three more of the cast and crew while Fletcher was in New Opar and continued for some months
By Histah