BAD ACTING

RICH GIRL

        Andrew didn't work a steady job and didn't need one. His parents paid for everything. The modeling and acting work provided him play money he added to the mix. Andrew needed to be active so he was always occupying his time with random activities. One of these activities included walking this really fat dog for a TV Screenwriter. The dog, Hugo, lived cooped up alone every day in the writers' house on Mulholland Drive. I accompanied Andrew and Hugo from time to time on their workouts. We usually drove him to Runyon Canyon to give the dog some much-needed exercise.

        Andrew and I pulled up to the house Friday morning, he stopped the car and sat there not speaking. After a very long pause, he started to talk.

        "I need to show you something."

        We exited the car and walked towards the house owned by Hugo's master. Andrew had a key and we walked into the house together to get the dog.

        The house appeared messy, but not hoarder messy. I looked around thoughtfully, curious as to what Andrew wanted me to see. Andrew directed me downstairs, into a large office, and finally through a door leading into an extra guest room. With no windows, we stood in the dark until Andrew pulled a string dangling from the ceiling.

        The walls of the room stared back at us.

        Newspaper ads and flyers about missing children. Wall to wall covered. Have you seen me?-face on milk carton type ads. We stood in silence for a long moment.

        I finally exhaled, "What the hell?"

        Andrew agreed, " I know, look," he opened up a set of drawers containing hundreds of pictures of children. We didn't find anything super disturbing like nudes. Just snapshots and polaroids of young kids. It was beyond weird.

        Andrew dropped me off at my apartment two hours later.

        "Are you going to continue walking that dude's dog?" I asked, stepping out of the car.

        "Yeah, why not? The dog is super fat."

        "He really is."

*

        The remainder of the afternoon I unloaded all the boxes from the shoots and piled the clothes in my bedroom. I broke down the boxes and carried them out to the dumpster behind my building. The living room finally empty again I prepared for Leah's Tarot reading. I laid the cards in the center of the room and slowly created a large circle with sea salt. I lit candles and smoked weed, waiting for my client. I applied the black eyeliner thick and smeared it around my eyes. I wet my hair and teased it dramatically.

        Leah, Julia, and I sat in the salt circle silently as I laid out the cards.

        "Five of wands, the Magician, and the Tower.", breaking the silence I waved my hands over Leah's cards.

        "Is that good?"

        "Am I going to get the role?"

        "I have no idea!"

        "Do what you did for Carrie!" Leah pleaded, not happy with my performance.

        Annoyed, I looked into Leah's eyes. Rich girl, not satisfied with her resume including every TV show from 1994 to 2002. Spoiled and needing not only to land a role in the next horror franchise but forcing me to pretend to see this plush future in her cards.

        With a bored tone, I defined the cards, " The five of wands is a challenge, I would say the audition. Look at the people fighting using the wands. Fighting over your role. The Magician is either you or Sean. A person of power who controls the outcome. The Tower is a major card. Big change. Good or bad."