Nailed It!. Mel Campbell

way up to follow it.

      She broke the surface and gasped for breath. Floating next to her was the starfish, with a bedraggled Snuggles still tied to it, yipping angrily. That was the first thing Rose heard; the second was the cheers of the crowd, like the rush of a mighty ocean.

      ‘That was amazing, the way you just dived right in,’ said Leary Barker.

      ‘Thank you,’ Rose said. Wrapped in a towel and clutching a cup of coffee to which Bernie had clearly added a substantial nip of booze, she’d just walked into the site office inside the warehouse.

      The crowd had gone wild as Rose climbed the ladder back up to the dock, with Snuggles tucked under her arm. Beverley was in absolute hysterics – Rose thought the contestant had thanked her, but her voice was so incoherent it was hard to be sure. Thor had given her a grateful hug, and by the way he wrapped his arms around her as tears rolled down his cheeks, Rose suspected it was more than just a reality-TV ritual gesture.

      Fortunately, the boat sinking had been at the end of the episode, so all they still had to film was Thor wrapping things up. ‘Amazing scenes here tonight on The Dock – Poseidon himself would salute this girl’s valour.’

      ‘Poseidon’s not a Norse god!’ someone had yelled out.

      ‘We’ll edit that part out,’ Thor had replied.

      While the contestants and audience were being separately shepherded off the dock, Rose had been led to a folding chair behind some camera equipment. Someone found a white fluffy towel in the warehouse and draped it over her shoulders. It was almost the size of a bedsheet. The police had been called, but the officers had left after speaking briefly to Rose.

      An hour had passed since then, and apart from a few crew members packing up the gear, the dock was deserted. Rose wondered what was going to happen now. Was she in trouble? Should she just go home? Then a production assistant asked Rose to follow her to the site office inside the warehouse. Wrapping the towel around her, Rose got up and went inside.

      Sitting at one of the desks in the admin space was a figure who stood up as she approached. As he complimented her, she realised she was speaking to Leary Barker, her boss’s boss.

      ‘Hi,’ he said as they both sat down. ‘My name’s Leary Barker, I’m the Executive Producer at Endeavour Productions.’

      Rose smiled. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘We’ve met. Twice.’

      ‘I never forget a face,’ Leary said, not looking at Rose’s face.

      ‘The second time was three hours ago.’

      ‘Well, I’m definitely going to remember you after that little stunt you pulled outside.’

      ‘Am I in trouble?’ Rose said.

      Leary laughed. ‘Didn’t you hear that crowd? They loved you! They’re loving you online right now, and they’re gonna love you even more on TV. The network wants that footage for the news tonight. You’re a natural!’

      ‘Well, I was on the diving team in year eight …’

      ‘Yeah, you made sure we got it from all three camera positions,’ Leary enthused. ‘And you knew how to give us that kind of coverage without any training. Like I said: you were born for this stuff!’ His gaze drifted. ‘You looked pretty good coming out of the water, too.’

      Rose narrowed her eyes and tugged the folds of the towel closer together. ‘I just wanted to make sure the dog was okay. It would have been bad for the show if he’d drowned.’

      ‘What are you talking about?’ Leary said. ‘It would’ve been great! Of course, if it’d been the dog-on-your-boat challenge and the dog died, that would’ve been bad for us. But when contestants screw up, it’s always good television.’

      He saw the expression on Rose’s face. ‘But what you did was even better.’

      ‘Because the dog … lived?’

      ‘Yeah, that too,’ Leary said. ‘Don’t worry, Beverley will be fine. Snuggles has already got a recurring role lined up on Deep Sea Dog. Anyway, I’ll get right to the point. Bernie tells me you work for us. You’re a tradie on The Dock.’

      Rose nodded.

      ‘We want to bring you over to Mansions in the Sky.’ He paused, dramatically.

      ‘Okay?’ Rose said.

      ‘This season’s already been in production for a month, but luckily we’re still in the blue sky phase,’ said Leary, ‘so we can slot you in easily. It’d be a shame to waste someone with your abilities on The Dock. There are a lot more on-camera opportunities on Mansions.’ He broke off, considering. ‘It’s early days, but maybe we can even consider a segment on How’s It Goin’ Australia.’

      ‘Segment doing what?’ Rose said.

      ‘You know. Handy … work … fixing … stuff?’ Leary looked at her. ‘The kind of stuff you know how to do.’

      ‘And is that what I’m going to be doing on Mansions in the Sky?’

      ‘This is a great opportunity,’ Leary said. ‘For me in particular, but also for you. You’ll be a fool to pass it up and languish here on The Dock.’

      ‘Look,’ Rose said, ‘Thanks for the offer, but I’m really not sure –’