We managed to get the scene in the can despite Tommy offering his expert directions and assistance as I did the reading. He had me wandering around as I tried to appear feminine in front of the camera. His sense of how to direct was to point at one place or another indicating that I was to walk here or there. It wasn’t all that easy to do. I had to do the reading while imparting some emotion to what I was saying, as well as remember how to act feminine and all while attempting not to trip over one of the multitude of cables he had strung all over the place. After nearly guillotining myself on some heavy duty fishing line he had strung across the path he had me walking I forced myself to become much more aware of everything around me sacrificing some of the feminine movements. Once we had half the scene on disk, Tommy told me to wait and he would have the disks ready for Jacob in about ten minutes so I could take them back with me. He was off a bit, it was closer to twenty.

“Sorry, got involved with something else for a few minutes. Here you go. Tell him I cut five, the sixth one is for you if you want it.”

“Cool, thanks. My girlfriend will likely want to see it.”

“Don’t mention it. I’ve got to admit, you looked pretty good. There’s something not quite right about the way you handle yourself some of the time and you slip up completely every now and then but when you’re really trying you could fool me.”

“Tommy, I’m not trying to fool anyone. This is just for a part.”

“Well, it’s a part that you’re becoming pretty good at, Dennis. I can tell you’ve been practicing. What’s your girlfriend think?”

“She’s the one who started me practicing and has been helping me at it, giving me tips and critiquing my efforts. God, I never dreamed it could be so difficult to be a girl. There’s so much to do and to take into account. They think and act so differently that it isn’t easy.”

“Well. You make it look a lot easier than you say it is. Break a leg, kid.... er.... kiddette.”

I grimaced, giving him a scowl just as I exited the death trap he laughingly called his studios. I heard his phone starting to ring even as I went out the door. Probably Alice asking him what was holding me up.

A few minutes later I was back at Jacob’s office where Alice greeted me with, “About time you got back. Don’t bother to sit down, he wants to see you. – Denise is back,” she piped into the intercom as I again grimaced at the use of a feminine name.

“Tell her to get her cute little tush in here.” growled out of the intercom.

“You heard him,” she said to me as she pointed to the door of his office. “And take these with you. Give them to him.” She handed back the five video disks I just given to her only seconds before.

“About time you got back.” Jacob muttered at me without looking up from whatever he was doing.

“Tommy had to cut the disks and that took fifteen minutes.”

"So? You’ve been gone forty.”

“Five minutes of set up, twenty to do two runs. He took the best cuts out of the two to make the disks.”

Jacob just grunted at that. He did that a lot and not for the first time I wondered if he had been a doctor in a previous life. Possibly during the Spanish Inquisition.

“You got a better outfit than that one? I mean like a skirt suit or something. Maybe something like what Alice is wearing?”

“Uh.... I think that’s a little too much of an older style for me. But no, I don’t.” as I looked down at my levis and wondered what he had on his mind.

He stopped mid-stream and I could tell he was doing a lot of thinking, the invisible smoke was getting pretty thick in here. I was about to make the comment that his thinking was hazardous to people’s health, or at least to mine, when he popped the intercom again.

“Alice, could you get Brooke for me? I need her to do a fast make over on Dennis – er – Denise here.” I voiced a protest even as he ignored me and continued to talk with Alice, “Tell her we only have sixty minutes so it has to be something fast and needs to include something like a ‘first contact with a production company’ skirt suit or whatever, plus all the necessary accessories. We can be at the mall in ten minutes if she can meet us there. I’ll pay her usual rush rate as well as the cost of the clothes and accessories. We’ll decide on style and color when she sees the client.”

“Got it. I’m dialing now.” I guessed she said the last so he would leave her alone to do her job instead of continuing his comments which would only serve to slow her down.

I was going to say something but one look at Jacob and I could tell the gears were going around again. I was about to ask what this was all about when he began talking again.

“They want to see you. I bought us a couple of hours but it’ll take nearly one just to get there if traffic’s a bitch. Bring four of those disks with us and leave one on my desk. No make that two and three. You wearing forms?”

His rapid change of direction caught me off guard, “Huh? Forms?... What do you.... oh! No, this is just some birdseed stuff.”

The intercom became his object of attention again, “Alice, tell her we will need breast forms too. Good ones.”

“I’m talking with her now.” A minute later she got back on the com and told us, “She can meet you there in fifteen. She wants to see you both at the Nieman Marcus end of the mall. She’ll meet you inside the mall but outside the store.”

“Thanks. You can reach me on my cell for the next couple of hours. Come on Dennis.... er.... Denise.”

I voiced another protest even as Alice’s voice came out of the intercom.

“Got it. Good luck.” Alice replied to him, as I continued to throw a scowl his way for calling me Denise again. Either he didn’t see it or he ignored it right along with my vocal protest, the second choice probably being the correct one. It’s one of his more effective contract strategies. Ignore what you don’t want to acknowledge and continue stating your own position; eventually the other item will fade away from lack of attention or the negotiators will give up and let whatever it was drop.

Jacob rushed me out his back door and over to his car where he forgot himself, holding the door open for me so I could get in. After I was seated he closed the door then went around the front of the car to enter his side just like nothing weird had happened. Shortly after I had my seat belt buckled we were off. Just under fifteen minutes later we were parked and rushing into the mall even as Brooke came hurrying up.

She took a look at us, “Is this her? Come on, follow me,” then she took off like a shot on into the mall and away from Nieman Marcus before entering one of the other stores situated about halfway down the interior strip. If she’d been wearing sneakers I could have understood her speed but she was on five centimeter stilts just like myself. There was no way I was going to be able to match her speed. As we arrived she rapidly cornered a sales person before taking me by the hand to a fitting room where she began stripping my blouse off preparatory to my receiving a couple of ice cold breast forms in my bra.

“Haven’t you ever heard of cruel and unusual punishment?”

“Sorry, we don’t have time to warm them.” She turned to the saleswoman, “That set isn’t going to work. You have something closer in color which is still in a ‘C’?”

The saleswoman hurried off to return a couple of minutes later with another set of ice cubes which they exchanged for the set I had nearly warmed up.

“Is this going to be a repeat offensive or are you just getting back at an ex vicariously through me?”

“Hush, Denise. Good, those look much better. We’ll take them. Fasten them on her while I go talk with Jacob. Okay Denise, when she finishes put on your blouse and come out front while Jacob and I decide what we’re going to get for you to wear. We’ll need to make tracks as soon as I get Jacob to limber up his company credit card and pay for these.”

~~~~

The saleswoman was just handing Jacob his receipt as Brooke dragged me out of the store and back into the mall. Two, roughly two kilogram weights were swinging from my chest making me thankful for the bra.

“Why do these weigh so much more than the one’s they use when I’m doing stunt work?”

“These are imitating real life. The others were just for show.”

“It’s difficult to balance with these things on here.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

We rushed back through the mall to Nieman Marcus. I don’t understand why we had to purchase the clothes there but Brooke quickly explained it all to me.

“They have everything we need here, from the ground up or from the inside out. You’ve got to look prosperous and Walmart or Target aren’t going to do that for you. The stuff you get there might look good if you were working nine to five but you need to look like you’ve been a prosperous actress for years and this is one of the places you can do that. Unless, of course, you’re into one of a kind items? You could get your lounging around and casual stuff at Wally World though.”

By the time my make over hour had ended; I had a new set of earrings in my freshly abused ears, my own make up case with a full set of make up in my colors, as determined by both Brooke and the store’s resident makeup consultant, a new skirt suit with all the trimmings including a blouse, shoes, handbag, undies, etc. and I couldn’t recognize myself in the woman I saw in the mirror. In fact I wasn’t certain I was still me if you know what I mean. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.... right? This was getting to be a little scary.

“Uh. They DO know I’m not a girl, don’t they?” I whispered to Jacob.

“I told them several times. They looked at the photos I faxed to them and a couple of them remembered the TV-movies. They wanted to talk with you in person before they considered a contract. Remember to leave any contract negotiations to me.”

“I think I want the fact I’m really a male to be in the contract. I don’t want to be sued just because they mistakenly thought I’m a female.”

“Hmm. Good idea. We might need that protection for a number of reasons. I’ll make certain it’s in the contract before we sign. Remind me again later. Turn around, let me get an overall look at you.”

I did a slow spin and Jacob gave me his stamp of approval. “You did it again Brooke. Hang on to her measurements and sizing info. If they decide to sign her then I’ll want at least four more outfits and a gown for her.”

My eyes opened a bit wider at that comment but the two of them continued talking like I wasn’t even here. The gown probably wouldn’t be too bad since I had to wear one for that Awards gig but - to have one of my own?

“Got it. Anything else before I get back to my other clients?” she added as she made some notes on that little pad of paper she always carried in her purse.

“Not unless there’s something you think is missing.”

“Just one thing. Perfume. But that is pretty much a woman’s personal choice so she should actually go over to the perfume counter and smell the different fragrances. Once she finds one she likes then she can get a small container and put some on.”
She turned to me, “do you know how to apply perfume?”

“My girl friend showed me where and how.”

“Uh huh.” She did one of those double think things before she continued, “Good – Okay, I’m done here. I’ll send you my bill for this one, Jacob. Oh! I’ll want to know which perfume she picks. For the record.” she held up that pad again.

“Good deal, Brooke. And thanks.”

“So long as you’re paying, any time. See you, Denise.” She walked out, her heels clicking as she swayed down the tiled walkway between the carpeted areas. Jacob and I turned to head for the perfume counter. I heard similar clicking but it was from my heels as we made our way over to find something which would smell nice without making my nose trip out before we could finish our meeting at the studios.

Once there I quickly found a sample of one which I liked but when I checked the price of a bottle it scared me half to death so I spent another fifteen minutes looking through the others while Jacob nervously counted off the seconds at me. None of the other perfumes came even close to being quite as nice, nor as non-obtrusive as far as my nose was concerned, so I asked Jacob how much he was willing to pay for my perfume.

“Don’t worry about it. That skirt suit was nine, that blouse nearly two, and the purse just over one and a half, so one or two for perfume won’t bother me.”

“It isn’t one or two it’s.... oh, you’ve got to be kidding. Nine hundred just for this suit?”

I was suddenly very conscious of what I was wearing and the thought of possibly getting something on it sent chills down my spine. I tried to total up what he spent today coming up with something in the neighborhood of three grand including the jewelry but not the perfume. Hell, the blouse alone was well over a hundred.

“They better appreciate this.”

Jacob had a positive mental attitude, “They will. Get that perfume. You can put some on while we are in the car and on our way. We have just over fifty minutes.”

“Yes, Daddy Warbucks.”

He gave me a raised eyebrow, “Don’t start that, young lady. You don’t even want to go there. Not if you want to be able to sit down any time during the next week.”

I gave him my best chastised daughter look while the salesgirl watched the byplay between a father and his daughter as she pulled out an unopened package containing a brand new miniaturized bottle of the perfume. How can they charge so much for so little?
Jacob handed her his business’ credit card to be swiped it’s one last time during this afternoon’s little excursion before she handed me the package with the perfume in it. His card probably saw more use in the past sixty minutes than it had seen all year. Fine, so sue me – seventy three minutes. Yes, I know that’s how long it took because Jacob’s been nervously counting every fricking second.

We rushed back out to his car where I got in trying to be as feminine as possible while not letting either the world nor Jacob to see up my skirt. He had held my door once again closing it as soon as I was settled before going around to enter his own. I buckled myself in and had begun fighting the perfume packaging as he was getting in. He started the car and nearly had a wreck with another motorist while he was trying to back out of the parking place so we could ‘get a move on’.

After he finished swearing at the other driver he turned back to me, “When we get there, don’t get out. I’ll come around to open your door and help you out. And for God’s sake don’t flash everybody while you’re getting out.”

“Flash.... oh. No, I won’t. Candy taught me how to get out while wearing a skirt.”

By the time we found our way into the studio lot and parked so we could make our way up to the offices it was just a few minutes after three. We entered a waiting room which had a half dozen people sitting in it where Jacob told me, “Sit” as he pointed at a chair. Like the good puppy I was, I carefully sat in the chair while he went up to let the receptionist know he was here. She dutifully reported that to someone else before she went back to her typing.

A minute later her phone buzzed. After she hung up she called out, “Mr. Liebermann? Mr. Corey will see you now in Conference four. Do you remember how to get there?”

“Yes, thank you.” Jacob gave me his hand to help me up before we walked out turning down the hall. As we exited the room everyone else stared at us until we were out of sight past the door frame. They were probably envious we were in and out in less than a couple of minutes. A few seconds later Jacob opened another door for me and we entered Conference room four. He went over to shake hands with them while they looked around him at me much in the way I would check the meat racks for a good sirloin at the local market. You know, nice and lean with very little gristle? When they asked us to take our seats, Jacob held my chair for me before seating himself. I thought he was going a little overboard treating me like a woman but he might have been trying to instill the impression that I was as female as they’re going to find, yet still be capable of the stunts. So far it seemed to be working.

I guess part of the difficulty in finding someone was the little fact they wanted the actress to do the stunts. That wasn’t the normal way things were done but for some reason that was what they wanted. I didn’t care since I would get paid for the normal stuff as well as the stunts. It also meant they could save money since there would be no shut down or divisions in the roll to allow for the transition from the acting talent to the stunt person talent. During the introductions I tried very hard to be demure and ladylike. When they shook hands with me I gave them as limp a handshake as I thought they would expect and I’d like to say my every move screamed female but I knew that wasn’t true. I still had a lot of lessons to go. So saith Candy.

We spent some time on a question and answer session which lasted twenty to thirty minutes before they asked if I could give them a reading. Jacob never liked these spur of the moment reading things but he always allowed them. Still he hemmed and hawed a bit on general principles. Our entire group left Con four riding in two little four seat golf carts down a few blocks then over until we reached one of their studios. There they handed me a script to study.

“Just the first ten or twelve pages will probably do it, if you would. We would like to get an idea of how you do portraying the emotions, general movement and emphasis during the conversations.”

As I read the pages they were getting some people in to read against me. Since they weren’t ready immediately I seized the opportunity to scan as much of the part of the script I was holding as I could. By the time I skimmed most of the ninety or so pages they allowed me to hold in my hand (wow, seven whole scenes) there were a half dozen people in the place turning on lights and moving some small television cameras into place. I imagined there were likely a few more behind the scenes somewhere who were about to tape my reading. Two other guys wandered up holding scripts and a couple of women showed up seconds behind them followed by a third and then a fourth guy. I didn’t see any microphones so I guess they were going to record through the mics which were built into the cameras. Normally those wouldn’t be used because presence would be lacking but I guess they were okay for a screen test. Of course there were those microphones hanging from the grid overhead so maybe they were going to use those.

This whole thing was a little unnerving. I’d never had a screen test like this before, but then again that pair of TV-movies was mostly stunt oriented so there wasn’t a lot of dialogue to worry about. Judging from my quick perusal of the script, I’d say this first show was about nine parts dialogue and one part stunt as far as these first scenes went anyway. They obviously didn’t make up a significant part of this portion of the show. Mostly creating the setting for the rest I guess.

Now usually stunt people didn’t have dialogue or if they did it was very minimal, but I had quite a bit of it when I was studying Performing Arts and there was some dialogue in those TV-movies so dialogue and I were old friends. It would be kind of nice to get reacquainted. One of the men walked up and gave us his take on how he wanted the scene read and whenever the natural breaks occurred he would provide the cue to begin the next portion. I didn’t imagine it would go very long since we were only going to be reading a dozen or so pages.

As instructed, we took our first cue from the tally lights on the cameras which all came on at the same time so I guessed they were ISO-ing the three cameras (that’s recording every camera at the same time on separate tapes). We were off and running and our “director” cued us through the few points in the script which demanded a slight pause. By the time he cued us into the sixteenth page we were still going along full steam ahead. I guess they were trying to shake me to see how I would react. Well guys, I may have read the first five pages but I skimmed most of the rest so I was ready, willing, and able to continue on just as though we had intended to do more than the first dozen. No biggie, let’s keep going. We stopped just shy of the fiftieth page I had skimmed. Surprise people, I flicked through nearly three quarters of this portion of the script they handed to me but paid closer attention to the first fifty pages, so there.

“Good reading. Okay. Thank you, everyone. Wrap it up, and Phil?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you dump the recordings to the computer in four and scrub the rest? We’ll look at them there in about ten minutes. Bill....?” he called out at a guy who was about halfway out one of the doors.

“Whad’ya need?”

“If you’ve got a half hour could you come to Con four with us?”

“In about fifteen. That work for you?”

“That’s fine. We have a bit of negotiating to do so you could even make it thirty before you show.”

“That works for me. See you in twenty five to thirty. I’d like to take a closer look at that reading as well.”

“Okay. Then we’ll hold off on that part until you arrive. Okay Jacob, let’s you and the young lady head on back to Con four. Oh Jack, could you bring a couple of contracts to Con four? We’ll probably need to make some changes, if I know Jacob; then legal will need to take a look at them.”

“I’ll have them delivered in a couple of minutes; standard, open?”

The gentleman gave that a little thought before he replied, “I think we’ll make this a closed one. Then if the pilot goes well and is accepted for syndication we’ll talk about negotiating an open contract. This first one we will limit to the pilot.”

“Gotcha covered.”

Contract? Pilot? I’ve got the job? Holy shit. Maybe a series? I think I need to sit down.

I had just completed the process of trying to find any kind of a chair and was halfway down into it when Jacob took me by the arm, raised me up again and half led/ half dragged me out to the golf cart where I finally got to sit. A minute later our two cart procession was tearing it’s way through the back lots, eventually arriving back at the building which held Conference room four. One of the guys began to connect the carts to a set of chargers, not that they would need it from the short trip we made, as the rest of us traipsed back into the building then on to Con four. We were joined seconds later by the fellow who had been putting the carts on charge.

Eventually ‘Bill’ arrived and the contract paperwork wasn’t too far ahead of him. They didn’t let us look at the papers other than to note they were sitting there on the table in front of Mr, whoever Jacob had said he was. I was still too stunned from all this to be thinking clearly. As a stunt person I didn’t go through all this. I would usually arrive after being preceded by my credentials, IE. shows and stunts I’ve done, and as a part of a group of stunt people.

During our time waiting for “Bill” we spent much of it discussing my participation in the shows where I provided a stunt body for the celluloid mill. The two TV-movies interested them a bit though since this was to be a series also for TV except shot in special kind of High Def instead of film. How that made any difference to my work I didn’t know, except in film there was generally only one, sometimes two or three cameras but they were saying they sometime used as many as eight to twelve at the same time for this TV stuff. Therefore, my TV efforts since I was playing one of the three leading roles even if I didn’t have much dialogue, were of interest to them. Actually, I explained I was more of a sidekick than a lead. Fortunately someone else played the comic relief. Those TV movies came and went much like a small hiccup in my list of accomplishments, I didn’t pay them much attention.

Anyway.... Bill finally arrived and they ‘rolled’ the reading on the plasma screen at the end of the room showing all three cameras simultaneously. The screen was a little difficult to miss since it had to be maybe five or six meters on it’s diagonal. It covered the entire wall. I wondered how much it cost? One like that’d be so cool in my living room – a wall screen. Watching the reading I saw a lot of outright goofs in my actions and I didn’t look particularly feminine except in appearance. I guess I was looking at it with a more critical eye since they seemed to like it. I think it could have used a lot more polish and I could tell I needed to spend a lot more time as a female so it would all become second nature. Gotta’ practice more, a lot more. Candy was right, as usual.

They all went into a ‘feeding frenzy’ once the reading halted. I was still miffed that they went over forty pages into the portion I wasn’t supposed to have read, and didn’t even use the rest of the parts which I did read. They obviously didn’t know about my ability to glance at a page and recall the whole thing days, weeks, or even months later. Yes, I could forget things but it took a couple of years of ignoring the memories. I actually skimmed nearly three quarters of the portion of the script they had handed to me. “Last of the Fey” looked like it might be a fun flick in a ‘fractured fairy tales’ kind of way. I used to like watching that show when I was a kid. The other cartoon I liked was ‘Mr. Peabody and His Way-back Machine’. You can’t get Saturday morning cartoons like that any more.

I heard the mumbling dying down so I brought my mind back into the conference room. They were beginning to look at me with drool on their lips. I’m not certain if that meant they wanted me for the show or if they just wanted me. Okay on the show, nix on anything else.

“Okay Jacob. We’re going to give her a try. You know the drill. Here’s the contract, make your changes and get it back to us by Thursday, if you can. We need to run it by Legal afterward then we’ll all get together next week sometime to sign it.” He turned to me, “Congratulations. Great reading. Even the parts we sprung on you without warning. We need to polish your movements a bit but otherwise – good. Television is a bit different than theater or the movies. Don’t try to play to the camera because we will be changing the scene perspective on the fly so you just play the scene out like you’re living it. If we need you to make a particular move during the take then you will be told in advance.”

He got up and came around the table as we were preparing to leave, “Welcome aboard young lady. I can’t continue to call you ‘young lady’ What name do you prefer for us to use?”

Jacob piped up immediately, “Denise Francine Parker.”

“Well, Denise Francine; welcome to Magical Lensmasters Productions, Ltd.”

“Thank you.”

He shook my hand limply like he was afraid he was going to crush it. He probably could have since my hand felt like it was half the size of his during the time he was holding it. I was careful not to bear down at all so he wouldn’t be tempted to retaliate.
I felt like being a bit funny and was going to ask him, ‘Is payroll the part of the productions that is limited?’ but Jacob grabbed my hand and nearly towed me out of the conference room, contract in his other hand. I had visions of that cartoon where the one person is being towed by the hand, flying through the air behind someone else who is rushing pell mell through the halls and across the parking lot. I’m lucky my shoes stayed on. Where’s my purse? Oh, shoulder, okay. My glasses fell off.... oh, yeah.... I wasn’t wearing my glasses, they’re in the purse. I’m lucky I wasn’t wearing a wig.

The whole way back to Jacob’s office I was listening to him babble. He kept saying weird stuff like ‘household word’, ‘hot commodity’, and other inane things with which I won’t bore you. I couldn’t even get a word in edgewise. At his office he was still going strong but at least he slowed a little, taking a breath once in a while and greatly reduced from that new land speed record he had been establishing twenty minutes ago both verbally as well as with his car.

As he paused to take another breath, which I swear he hadn’t done for the past ten minutes, I managed to slip my two cents into the conversation, “Remember to put the part in there that I’m not female. I still don’t want to be sued and they acted like they didn’t remember anything you told them about me being a male.”

Jacob paused for a moment in his soliloquy, “Good point. I’ll do that now.”

He took his pen and in the space between paragraphs on the very first page he wrote, ‘The signers below hereby acknowledge that the individual, whose stage name is Denise Francine Parker, and who is signing this contract as same, is not a girl.’

“That should do it.” he said proudly as he pointed it out to me.

I looked at the sentence with some relief as well as trepidation. ‘Denise Francine Parker’ was just a little too close to my real name for me to be comfortable. Of course it was really easy to remember for the same reason. My male name was Dennis Francis Parkerson. Dennis and Denise sounded enough alike that I probably wouldn’t have much difficulty if someone called to me across a room. “OH CRAP. I forgot.”

Jacob became instantly concerned, “Forgot what?”

“I wanted to know more about those wings. How heavy are they? How do they work? Will they get in the way of a wire? I mean, it’s all great for the show but what if they are a stunt nightmare? I could get seriously hurt.”

“Didn’t that happen once already? Before I became your agent, right?”

“Yeah. It was enough that I don’t want to engage in a repeat performance. That brings up another question. Who’s doing the stunt coordination for the show? I mean there are a couple of teams out there that do good work but I wouldn’t want to trust my life to them since they don’t have enough experience.”

“Who would you like to see doing them? Harry?”

I paused to consider this for a moment, “Yeah, Harry; or maybe Charlie. She’s pretty good and she takes the woman’s point of view when coordinating a stunt. Balance and a few other things are a bit different for a woman than they are for a man. It doesn’t matter all that often but when it does it can be important.”

“Except you aren’t a woman.”

“No. But my body has more of a woman’s balance than it does that of a man. Especially when I’m wearing these and longer hair.” I pointed toward the weights which, if it wasn’t for the bra holding them in place, would be trying to peel my skin off my chest.
Jacob nodded his head knowingly before growling at me, “Okay, get out of here. Go home and come back about two tomorrow to go over the contract and the changes. Once we approve them then I’ll send it back for them to tear apart.”

I got.

I made it about ten meters outside his offices when I suddenly realized I wasn’t in my jeans, blouse and sneakers that I had been wearing when I first arrived at Jacob’s offices. Now I’ve was in a skirt suit, frilly blouse, new five centimeter pumps, not to forget there were a couple of small weights hanging from my chest, as well as perfume and makeup. Well, more makeup. I also had a plastic bag with the afore mentioned jeans, etc. in it as well as a makeup case and a couple of bags prominently labeled Nieman Marcus. My other obvious accessories were earrings, a purse and a fashionable watch strapped to my wrist. In other words, now instead of looking androgynous I looked decidedly female. Before, if a cop stopped me, I could pull my male ID and maybe get away with looking a bit feminine. This is the movie capital after all and they’re used to seeing just about everything. Now my appearance was most definitely female. I hoped.

I rethought my strategy before I reluctantly bit the bullet. I had about thirty bucks in my purse so, although I winced at the expense, I pulled out my cell to call for a cab. I think I was dressed a bit over the top to be taking the bus. Not to mention, the Nieman Marcus bags practically screamed assault me to any gangland types that might have been around.

All characters and businesses in this work have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no intentional relationship whatsoever to anyone or anything bearing the same name or names. The characters and business names contained herein are not even distantly inspired by any individuals or businesses known or unknown to the author, and all incidents described or alluded to within this work are pure invention. No affiliations, involvements or gender assignations due to the use of any images contained within this work are to be implied, intended or inferred.

Cover image under extended X license - The Green Pixie - © Atelier Sommerland/ fotolia. (See title page)

The Last of the Fey Copyright © 2012 USA, Earth by D. A. Trask.

A Tortanalia e-book JKOL: CC8D-AR-LL-0013XJ8-3

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