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The crash was spectacular. A car crossed to another lane, clipped an SUV, spun around, and hit a young woman in the crosswalk. Cursing colorfully, Viggo Mortensen slammed on his brakes, yanking the wheel to avoid the carnage in front of him. Wasting no time, he slipped his seatbelt off, throwing the door open at the same time. Within seconds he was out of the car running toward the young woman. He yelled at a bystander to call 911, pointing to a pay telephone on the corner from whence the girl had come.
Looking at the girl, he couldn’t figure out how she was still alive. Her left arm was twisted and at an angle, the back of her hand resting on the blacktop. Her right arm was bent at the elbow, her hand up near her head, which was turned to the right. Her left leg was straight, the right one bent at the knee. If she’d been wearing longer pants, he might’ve thought her legs were relatively uninjured. But her short pants revealed an open fracture, where part of the bone had come through the skin. She should’ve been dead, by his estimation, but she was alive, her gasping, ragged, breathing evidence of that.
He dropped to his knees when she moaned and appeared to be trying to move. Taking her hand in his, he cupped her cheek, gently holding her head still.
‘Ssshhhh, don’t move. You're hurt pretty badly.’
She moaned, and tried to speak. ‘. . . not . . . accident. . .’
‘What? Not an accident?’
‘. . . Tried . . . kill me. . .’
The ambulance and police arrived then, and Viggo was brushed aside by rescue personnel focussed on saving the girl. Confusion on his face, he watched them load her into the ambulance. He started back to his car, intent on following the ambulance to the hospital.
He was stopped in his tracks by a shouted command.
‘Cut! Beautiful!’
With those words, the mood of the scene changed. Worried bystanders and rescue personnel turned jovial, chatting and joking about. The girl hopped out of the back of the ambulance, the prosthetic bone still appearing to break gruesomely through her skin.
With a grin she ran to Viggo and jumped on his back, wrapping her arms and legs about him, piggy-back style. He turned his head and kissed her lips.
‘Nice job for your first scene baby,’ he whispered. ‘I actually thought you were hurt.’
She grinned happily, resting her head on his shoulder, as he carried her over to makeup, so they both could get cleaned up and head home for the night.