Characters Wanted!

"Looks like a request for a centaur for an upcoming fantasy epic."

"No," said Mr. Merryweather with a sigh.

"Preferably one with jet black fur, chiseled abs, and fluency in three languages."

"No."

"Not even for fifty grand?"

"Not even for a million. If I've told them once, I've told them a thousand times, I don't do the weird shit."

Edith’s shoulders slumped. The centaur sounded like good fun. She opened the next envelope. After a few seconds, and without a word, she crumpled the page up and tossed it at the waste basket. She missed.

"Personal?" asked Mr. Merryweather.

"Vampire."

"Ah. Well done. Thank you." Edith had gone ahead and started reading through the third and final brief. She frowned.

"Two teenagers. One male, one female. Requested for use as romantic leads for impending teen angst series."

"Any other details?"

"Not really. Just says, 'more melodramatic and cliché ridden the better'."

"It always does. How much are we talking?"

"Fifteen hundred." Mr. Merryweather pinched the bridge of his nose and squinted.

"Hardly glorious, but I suppose it buys the bread. Fine, tell the Guild I'm on it. They should expect two ready for textualizing by tomorrow evening."

"Yes, sir. Anything else?"

"Not tonight. I'm off to bed. Goodnight, Edith." Mr. Merryweather passed through the door at the back of the office, toward his room. Behind him, he heard Edith call out in her best cheery voice.

"Goodnight, sir. Chin up! You can't bag a Heathcliff or a Huck Finn every day."

Morning brought the sun and chased off the gloom of the previous day. Edith, up before the dawn, prepared Mr. Merryweather's coffee the way he liked it― cream, no sugar, three squeezes of honey―  and brought it to him.

Wearing a maroon, velvet robe, he drank it as he reviewed the short brief from last night. Edith hadn't been kidding when she said there wasn't much else to it. It was amateur work really, but then it would be easy money. Mentally he bemoaned the waste of his, in his humble opinion, considerable talents. He had Edith call a rental company about procuring a white van for the day while he went back to his room to get dressed. From his closet, he selected a dark gray jumpsuit with the name 'Larry' embroidered over the left breast pocket. A pair of ratty old tennis shoes and a dirty ball cap completed the ensemble.