The End Starts Here (<--- tentative title)
“Does
the line form here, do you know?”
“Yeppers.”
“Ok,
good. Thank you.”
“Excited
to meet Avia Walker? I heard her speak at a literary summit in Boulder last
spring. It was such a treat.”
“Wait, I
thought this line was for Anthony Spencer.”
“Oh that
was yesterday, hon.” She crinkled her nose a bit. “I didn’t much care for him, though. He kept looking down my
shirt.”
“Yesterday?!?
I could have sworn the notice said today.” He exhaled a mixture of coffee and
bran. “Now what am I going to do?” He held up manuscript. “I brought my novel.
I knew Spencer would appreciate it.”
“Oh, Yeah?
That’s kind of rude, don’t you think?” She gave him that look like his Mother
used to, a mixture of ‘really, that was your decision?’ and ‘why am I not
surprised.’ It felt wrong for a complete stranger to seem so familair. “To
bring your own stuff to a book signing? I mean, it’s all so very, ‘Hey look at
me everyone, I’m a writer too. I’ll just set up my table next to yours, Avia.
Scoot over, honey, your hogging the masses.” She looked at him again, and
repeated her thesis, “A little rude, don’t you think…ah…”
She held
out the ‘ah’ inviting him to proffer his name. He obliged, “Roman. My name is
Roman.” Clearly she wasn’t a writer; she had used the word ‘stuff’ and the
wrong ‘your’, but she did use the correct ‘too’ so she had potential to be a literary agent. Roman scanned the scene. This line is at least three hundred people long
and that means I will be stuck next to this beneficiary of public education for at
LEAST 2 hours. If that happens I’ll snap, plain and simple.
“Roman,
huh? What a manly name.” She actually looked impressed, and that made her instantly
more attractive in Roman’s eyes. “So, Rrrrroman…” Rolling the ‘r’ in his name made
Roman have impure thoughts, “…my name is Ahshleigh. The first ‘h’ and the ‘gh’ are
silent.”
Roman had
to think about that for a minute……………………, “Do you mean to say that your name is
spelled in a non-traditional fashion?”
“Yeppers.
My Momma wanted her little girl to stand out in a crowd.”
“How is
that possible? Unless everyone were to wear name tags all the time…” Roman
stopped because he thought there was short story in there somewhere. Something
allegorical about social status relative to how non-traditionally the name was
spelled, perhaps?…He instantly named his protagonist ‘Roman’ and the antagonist ‘Grrrrtrood’,
then mentally filed it away.
“Hello? Anybody
home?” She waved her hand in front of Roman’s face and the saccharin sweet smell of cucumber
and melon made him simultaneously hungry and nauseous.
“What!?”
He snapped.
“Don’t
be snappy, you zoned out there for – like – 30 seconds. Anyways, you aren’t
seriously going to hand over that stuff to Avia Walker, right Roman? I mean,
that’s just rude, don’t you think?
I cannot be around this repetitive
negativity…also, she’ll probably tip off Walker that I’ve got a manuscript and
then I’ll get tossed, or worse, Walker will take my work and dump it off to her assistant. He shuddered at the thought.
I need to buy some time…He caught another whiff of puke-cumber melon...and some space. What to do, what to do…(!)…Fake Phone Call. Brilliant! He jumped a little and reached
into his pocket, “Excuse me, I need to get this.” Then, in a further flash of
genius, he gave her a ‘what can you do’ look, “I’m expecting my Doctor. The lab
results were coming back today and I’m waiting to hear if it’s contagious or not. Save my
spot?”
The look
on her face made his morning. He stepped out of line and slowly walked
further down the concourse with the phone by his ear saying just loud enough
over his shoulder, “But Doctor that can’t be right. How can a person be
expected to not breathe on someone else? Well, yeah…I guess I could quarantine
myself for a month.”
He took
a seat at a Café around the corner from the bookstore and motioned to the
female employee who was clearing off cups and saucers. When she approached Roman didn’t
look at her, “I’ll take a large tap water with a lot of ice.” Then he deigned
to glance at her name-tag, “Thank you…uhhh… Krystaphania?”
He looked at her and was about to say ‘Seriously?!?’, but then thought better of it
as ‘Krystaphania’ was once upon a time probably known as ‘Christopher’. Instead
he quickly looked down and muttered, “Thank you.”
When
(s)he brought the beverage, Roman didn’t touch it.
The plan
was to wait about 20-30 minutes until Ahshle-whats-her-face was sufficiently further up
the line before trying again. The plan also included a couple of quick re-writes
so as to make it more palatable for Avia Walker. Roman had not read much of her
work, but knew she was no fan of strong male leads and he had made a point of
portraying his hero, ‘Roman’, as both virile and commanding, something Anthony
Spencer’s leads all had in common. What
to do…what to do…
Part 2 coming soon...I welcome your thoughts/suggestions. If you are having trouble leaving comments, just email them to me at: highspeed81@hotmail.com. Thanks!
