‘Says the lady wearing leather boots, a leather belt, and—’
‘Okay, I get it.’
‘Cowhide is a by-product of the meat and dairy industries.Same thing, except it’s the other way around where they raise crocs for their skin and sell crocodile meat as a by-product.’
‘What does crocodile taste like?’She couldn’t imagine it.
‘Like a fish mated with a chicken.I’ll let you try some.You’re not a vegetarian, are you?’
There was that strange connection to poultry again.‘I only eat a little meat when I’m travelling.Although I could never say no to Mum’s Sunday roasts, or Dad’s summer barbecues.I just forget where it comes from when my parents dish up dinner.’Eek, she’d just let spill that she still lived at home with her parents.But why pay rent, when she was rarely home, chasing filmmaking projects.
‘But you eat eggs and cheese?Don’t you?’
She looked down at the cooler holding the wild crocodile eggs.It had her rethinking her diet choices.
‘Don’t look at them like that.Wild crocodiles have been producing eggs for a millennium, and people have been hunting those eggs since their arrival.It’s part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ culture.Today, we’re just keeping their numbers down in the wild, so they don’t overpopulate the waterways, to then have people want to cull them to near extinction—which they nearly did just over fifty years ago.’
‘I didn’t know that.’But she heard Stone’s fierce protectiveness over these creatures, which was strange for a crocodile hunter.‘Hey, which do you prefer—to hunt them or leave them be?When their leather is worth a lot more than their meat.’
‘I prefer them being left in the wild than having them trapped in some chicken cage.But, like I said, they don’t breed well in captivity.’
She tapped some notes into her phone to remind her about researching this topic.
‘Are you making a Disney movie or a documentary?’
‘Are you reading over my shoulder again?’
He shrugged.
‘Eyes back on the road, cowboy.’
Surprisingly, Stone did as he was told.
‘Look, I’m not oblivious to how things work in the world.I’ve filmed wild animals hunting other animals, like dingoes hunting wallabies.’
‘You didn’t drop your camera and shoo away the big bad beasts to save the defenceless underdogs?’
‘I’ve wanted to.But it’s the number one rule to documenting Mother Nature.I’m only there to observe, not interfere.’Who was going to hire her now, after her confrontation with her director?
‘So if you could make a documentary your way, what would you do?’
‘I’d explore a topic in a way that shows both sides of the story.Not one side, like Julian’s vision.’She frowned in the town’s direction.
‘I’m guessing by that glare you didn’t like what Julian was doing?’
‘You were there when I quit, right?’
Stone’s confident grin matched the glimmer in his eyes.‘How about you explain your interpretation of what a documentary is.’
‘Fine.A documentary presents the facts about a person or an event—in this case the wildlife.It shows the good, the bad, and the ugly, to let people make up their own minds on the subject.’Her heart pounded as she spoke with a passion that filled her with fire.Every time.‘If done correctly, documentaries can create conversations as well as educate and entertain people.They have power in them.When really, it’s Mother Nature who puts on the show, and I’m just there playing paparazzo trying to capture those moments for people to see in their living rooms.’
‘Why don’t you do it, then?’
‘Huh?’
‘Make the documentary yourself.’
‘I’d need funding.’
