“Mr. Whitehall.”
When his name was called, Mark stood up, straightened his light-blue shirt, tightened his tie our of slight nervousness and adjusted his spectacles. He followed the curly-haired assistant into a meeting room with no windows, and only two people inside.
One of them was a man smoking a cigarette, while the other was a man with curly hair. However, it was the second man that caused Mark’s heart to jump a beat. Greeting the two men while suppressing his excitement, Mark waited for them to pleasantly ask for him to sit on the seat that was in the middle of the room.
“So, Mr… Whitehall, why do you want the job?” The man smoking a cigarette flipped through a stack of papers before finding Mark’s resume and placing it on the table, squarely between Mr. Lucas and himself.
“I heard the company was going to make a movie in the science fiction genre. Since I was little, I have been enthralled by the science fiction, futuristic, and high-fantasy genres that are essentially not rooted in our current reality. I definitely wanted to be a part of such a project, no matter what.”
“Hmm… and why should we take you over the other aspirants. You do know that despite its title, the pay is good, and as long as your performance is good, you will be shifted to becoming a permanent employee of the company.”
“… You’ve read my resume. I’ve got no work under my name. I’m a fresh graduate, as a matter of fact, I graduated just yesterday and have yet to receive all my documentation. But I have one thing, that is important as a creator of anything, be it art, literature, print media, or even movies. It’s not skill or talent. Skills can be learned and talent is subjective… many times its just the luck of being in the right place at the right time, and many times it hides the rigorous efforts of the individual to reach where they are. What I have, is creativity. I can see things before I write them. I can imagine plots play out before coming up with the scenes. I wish to be a part of something like LucasFilms, and if you give me this chance, I will prove to you that I am worth it.”
…
Leaving the audition room with Lucas’ personal card, Mark grinned as he recalled the man ask him to speak out some of his visions. He spoke about Star Trek in as vague terms as possible, only describing the world and not the plot. He also talked about the Lord of the Rings universe, as well as the Warhammer 40k universe. Of course, he was being really vague about everything, so as not to give them man any ideas to create those works and potentially take it away from him.
Ultimately, after a 30 minute interview, compared to the 5 minutes the others got, Mark got the internship, and the personal card of Lucas who saw potential in him. Work would start in 10 days, but he had to shift to the smaller town of San Rafael, which was almost 500 miles away. Commuting that distance everyday was impossible, and uneconomical.
Thankfully, his rent was only paid until the end of the week, so he would stay for the next three days before shifting over to San Rafael, where he would also need to find a place to rent. Hopefully, it would be cheaper than Los Angeles, since it was a smaller town with potentially fewer people and more space.
…
“So, did you get role?”
“Nah. But it’s cool. I still got another free option. What aboutchu?” Eddie asked Mark with a slightly dejected but optimistic tone.
“Heh, you are looking at the new intern for junior screenwriter of LucasFilms! My path to the greatest writer in history had only just begun!”
“Holy Sh*t! Holy Sh*t! That’s amazing!” Eddie pulled Mark into a hug and lifted him off the ground, and began spinning him around out of joy.
“Put me down and listen!” Mark exclaimed while shoving Eddie off him, before continuing, “But I gotta shift to San Rafael permanently if I become a junior screenwriter from my current intern position. Till then, it will be a temporary change in residency.”
“…”
“…”
“Let’s go for a drink,” Eddie frowned.
Unlike the night before, where they were drinking to party and enjoy with the women at the bar, this time, they the mood was sombre, almost depressing, despite the rowdy scene around them caused by the other college graduates.
“Remember when Ma followed us all the way to college to make sure it was safe for me.”
“Yeah, then she saw me and realised how dependable I was, so she allowed you to go to college.”
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“Nah, she saw them other n*gg*s going to the white college and that’s why she let me go. You foo.”
“…And here I thought I was dependable.”
“And here I thought you were.”
“…”
“…”
…
The two continued their conversation for a while before deciding it was best not to get wasted two nights in a row, and walked home around midnight.
“Hey Eddie, remember back in college when we made the comedy monologue?”
“Yeah. I remember, I acted it out and the whole class began laughing their a*ses off.”
“Even Mrs. Green chuckled.”
“First I ever seen her not frown.”
“I later made George act it out only to me. The script was not that great. I barely even smiled at it. Eddie… I think you have a talent for comedy. Perhaps you should try out some roles like that, instead of directly auditioning for supporting roles, try to go for a comedy supporting role. From my understanding, as long as you have acted once before, and it was not terrible, you should get to act again.”
“Plus… you are black… getting a main role will be harder for you, but getting a supporting role will be easier actually. They gotta represent society as a whole somehow, putting in a black cast member should solve any social issues the movie might face.”
“Hah! At first they didn’t want any of us, now they gotta have at least one of us in any movie.”
‘Oh, you don’t know the start of it. First they are at one extreme of the argument, and then the next they do a 180 and go the other way entirely. If I had lived for longer, perhaps I might have gotten to see a black H*tler… or worse yet, Ryan Gosling as Nelson Mandela…’ Mark lampooned about how casting could never just be done properly, and how Hollywood always pivoted to some extreme for some stupid reason.
Meanwhile, they returned home and Mark went to bed.
The next morning, he spend brainstorming his own and Edward’s future. After all, after gaining this body’s memories, it felt like he was less of his own original Mark, and closer to this body’s Mark suddenly gaining all the memories of the original Mark.
He could feel the emotions of both Mark’s memories. Thought and emotions were what made people who they are, not memories; so in a sense, he was both Marks fused into one.
As such, he could feel the deep friendship he had with Edward, and knew he could not bear to just leave him like that. As such, he got together a comprehensive plan, based on which movies were currently in development, and picked the open audition opportunities for him. He also pulled out a lot of his own savings, and put it into an envelope with a letter indicating all the possible opportunities he could audition for in the coming weeks, all requiring African-American actors.
This information had taken some time to collect, but the various magazines and gazettes he had lying around in his rented room had enough information about acting opportunities.
‘Hopefully you get at least one role to get the ball rolling.’
Mark also instructed him to get an agent as soon as he got a role, but not a sign any contract for longer than 2 years. Eddie was technically in the prime of his life, but at the lowest point in his career. He could not be chained by a legal contract for too long. Longer contracts were best for well-established actors.
This process took him two whole days, and he handed Edward the letter just before he entered the bus, and told him to open it when he returned to his apartment.
When Eddie opened the envelope and saw the cash inside, he was confused for a while before he began reading the letter.
“Son of a…”
…
Meanwhile, Mark was enjoying the refreshing spring breeze as the bus did not have any air-conditioning. The bus was on a route to three bus stations within Los Angeles before heading over to San Rafael.
On the last of these stops, as the bus was almost entirely full, a lady walked onto the bus, and Mark just stared at her in absolute shock.
Not because he recognised her, but because she was simply too beautiful.
The original Mark had lived all his life in his sister’s shadow, not even bringing up enough courage to make a life-partner. Still, he did have a few flings and one-night stands and was definitely not inexperienced.
One the other hand, this body’s Mark had also slept with a few women in college, but none were willing to take it a step further considering they were all in college still, and neither did Mark.
But compared to all the women the two bodies of Mark had seen, she seemed to be the most beautiful.
She had medium-length brunette hair, with a slim body and decent assets. However, the most appealing thing about her were her eyes. They were somewhere between bright blue and a shiny silver, and seemed to be almost radiating light as she looked around the bus for a seat.
There were two seats, one next to a fat lady who occupied half of the second seat, and one next to Mark.
After only a moment of thought, she bent down to Mark and asked if the seat next to him was taken.
Being snapped out of his revery, Mark apologised for staring, then shifted inside to allow her to sit on the outside. Sitting with a stranger, one would naturally feel more at ease if they were not blocked in by the stranger, so he did this for her mental comfort.
Smiling at the gesture, she sat down while giving Mark a soft, “Thanks,” and a sweet smile that made Mark’s heart beat a little faster.
The journey to San Rafael was a long one, so the two settled down into a comfortable silence for a while until they left Los Angeles and the noise around them reduced considerably.