4

"God," said Jody, "Wizard Star, Wizard Star! I'm getting a little tired of Wizard Star."

The woman at the concession stand chuckled. "It's big business, though."

"Grrr," Jody growled. "I don't care -- it sucks! I wish it was off the air. The parts for kids are totally inappropriate and the parts for adults are just juvenile."

The woman nodded. "Can I get you something?

"Um, yes, Green Tea ice cream please." It was overpriced here, but she was tired and hot. The woman handed her a paper cup of Green Tea ice cream and she sat down on a nearby folding chair to eat it.

"Excuse me," a pretty blonde woman asked Jody.

Jody nodded.

"Is that Green Tea?"

"Yes."

"Where did it come from?"

"Um, right over there," Jody said.

"Thanks."

Why does she sound so familiar, Jody wondered. Hmm.

"Hey!" she hollered loudly before the woman vanished altogether. The woman turned around and walked back over.

"Sorry," Jody said. "I don't really like it. Do you want this one? It's still cold - I just bought it a second ago. I didn't take any bites or anything."

The blonde woman, whoever she was, whyever she sounded familiar, was cute. She did extremely nice things for a gray "Sloan City, Oh Yeah!" sweatshirt with a metal zipper down the front. In fact, Jody, who had broken up with her girlfriend a month ago, suddenly felt a desire to test the zipper out and make sure it worked.

"Oh!" said the blonde woman. "Gosh! Thank you!"

"My name is Jody," Jody said.

"I'm Chris."

Jody slapped her forehead. "God! I just realized why you sound so familiar! Didn't you do the voices for one of the films that they just--"

"Hee hee," said Chris. "Yep, that's me. I was the kitten."

"Really!" said Jody. "So you do voices for Wizard Star."

"Only sometimes," Chris said. "It's been really slow for about the last six months. I learned to do voices at voice school."

"Oh, did you go to school here in Sloan?"

"Yep," said Chris. "I got a degree in voices, with an emphasis on kitty cats. Mew! Meow! Mrowr!"

Jody's mouth opened and she tipped her head to a 45-degree angle. Adorable!

"Mrowr! Mrowr!" Chris hadn't stopped. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

Oo, I'm not letting you out of my sight, Jody thought. "I'm going to get some air. Do you want to come outside with me?"

"Okay," said Chris. "Yeah, it's too hot in here. It's melting my ice cream!"

Sheesh, thought Jody. I'm not being condescending. I'm not! She's so cute...

They sat on a low stone wall. Chris ate ice cream and Jody enjoyed looking at her. Jody rubbed her hair in a feeble-minded grin.

"So," Jody asked, "Is that why you came to this Syndication Con? To work?"

"Uh huh. But I'm on a break right now. I have another show in a few hours. It's for Wizard Star - they take us here to do a live appearance and that way, the TV show will become more popular and more people will like it!"

"Ha ha," said Jody. "I thought usually the person who did a certain kind of voice should be the exact opposite in real life. I never met anyone who did a cute kitten voice who actually was a cute kitten."

"Awww!" Chris said. "Thank you!"

"So is David Deet here too?" Deet was the big name, the only person from Wizard Star whose name she knew.

"No, David's not here. But Rodney Polk is here!"

Jody nodded and remembered seeing his name advertised. I guess to a big Wizard Star fan, that's a big deal.

"Are you a voice actor too?" Chris asked.

Jody shook her head. "No, actually I was just bored earlier today and read about this tradeshow in the paper. I don't know. I like the pretzels they have here."

"Pretzels?"

"Yeah, you know, even though there's a different kind of show at different times," She pointed towards the convention center walls. "The refreshments are always done by the same company. Their prices are way too high, but the pretzels, I don't know anywhere else to get the New York style ones around here."

"Oh, so did you get one?"

"Not yet. I got too hot and wasn't feeling like a lot of salt."

"Oo!" said Chris. "Let me run and get one for you now!"

"Oh, no ..."

"But, you gave me your ice cream! I insist!"

She disappeared back through the glass doors of the convention center. Jody admired her as she walked, then turned to look at a fountain full of ducks and swans, little children and their parents feeding them. Peering past the reflections in the glass convention center walls, Jody saw Chris holding a soft pretzel in waxed paper and talking to a man.

Grr, Jody thought. He looks sneaky, dangerous. She felt protective. Ah, what am I saying! That's probably her boyfriend!

Chris gestured out the door, waved goodbye to the man and came back outside.

"Here you go," Chris said. "One pretzel."

"Wow! Thank you!" Jody said.

"Um," said Chris. "So you saw our show. Do you like Wizard Star?"

"Yes," Jody lied. "I like it." She had followed the pack, from the convention floor to a grid of folding chairs inside a plastic blow-up tent decorated with phony painted-on depth to make it look like bricks. The crowd was mostly kids, kids and nerdy fanboys.

So I'm the only nonaligned country, she thought. It happens at the grocery store or at the gas station, it might as well happen at a Wizard Star show too.

"So, um, times are tight, you said," Jody asked Chris, snapping back to the present.

"Yeah," Chris said. "It's no fun. There's nothing, everyone's cut back their schedules to a crawl. Even Wizard Star made some cutbacks, but I think they must have some private money or something because they're definitely the biggest. But the cats just don't have very much to do in the scripts right now."

"Too bad," Jody said. "Well, if I hear of anything, I'll let you know."

"Thank you," Chris said warmly.

"What kind of work do you do?" Chris asked.

"Oh ... a little of everything," Jody said. "I've been having trouble finding it too. Sometimes I do stuff that only lasts a couple days."

Chris nodded.

"If I heard of something that had nothing to do with acting, would you be interested?"

"Mm hmm. It's getting to that point, where I just need to be working again. Pretty quickly as a matter of fact."

I'm really reaching, Jody thought. Why am I feeling so brave today?

"Because I got something for next Monday. I think if you wanted to do it too, they would probably say okay. We just have to go to a plumbing showroom and find something."

"Really?"

"Mm hmm."

"Okay! Yes, please! I can use the money."

"Do you want to, um, do you have a cel? You wanna trade numbers?"

"Yay!" said Chris. They fiddled with their phones, telling each other their numbers.

"Um," Jody said. Something about how her enthusiasm worked was catching up with her now. She would often go out on a wild limb, feeling like something was so wonderful, and then just as abruptly shut down, recede and pull into her shell, exhausted, and that was what happened now.

Whaat! She pounded herself with doubts. Why are you accosting this poor girl! She probably has a boyfriend or a girlfriend! She's being really nice to you and you're practically accosting her! Ughhh!

Jody's enthusiasm swung 180 degrees in about ten seconds and she prepared to go home quickly, and go to bed.

She sighed. "Well, I've seen the whole place, I think."

"Did you go to the dealers' tables?"

"Mm hmm. But it all just looked like a bunch of crap."

"Oh," Chris said.

"I guess I'll take off pretty soon."

"Ohhh," Chris said sadly.

She likes me, Jody thought. As a friend!

"Well," Chris said. "I guess I better go get ready for my next show. Tell me more, um, can you call me tomorrow about Monday?"

"Mm hmm."

"It was really nice meeting you." Chris said. They both stood up, and Chris hugged Jody. Jody hugged back.

"Mmm," Jody said, not wanting to let go. Then they broke off, and Jody walked to her car. Damnation, she thought. I blew it.