Presto - Chapter 12
Summer came and went, and with it another successful and unbelievably enjoyable and fulfilling FPLA charity event. They had raised more money, and had more guests than any previous year. Arden had more responsibility and visibility on the steering...
Presto - Chapter 11
The next weekend, David called Arden. To Arden, that week had seemed as interminable as the previous ten months, but the worry and fear disappeared like a puff of magic smoke the minute he heard the fennec's voice. "Hey Arden." The fox sounded...
Presto - Chapter 10
_It was almost a year before I saw him again_. Fresh tears ran down the wolf's muzzle as he shifted on his rickety wooden throne - king of his castle and all the hundred-and-fifty square feet of bachelor's apartment that he surveyed. Pages and pages of...
Presto - Chapter 9
"They don't have a great home life, and nobody really cares about them," David said around a mouthful of sub sandwich. "And so they don't really care about themselves. I met them at a party, and they were..." David's ears fell backward, and his eyes...
Presto - Chapter 8
_All the hidden stuff_. Well, that said everything, didn't it? Arden took another pawful of cereal, dry from the box, munching it as he pondered the progress he had made. Why was this so difficult? Because it had to be perfect? Just like every other...
Presto - Chapter 7
_Perfect little conundrum you laid for yourself, wolf._ Arden berated himself as he turned the desk lamp away from the reflective desktop. It had started to make him feel like one of those suspects in a Pricklee Quillane novel, the hard-boiled...
Presto - Chapter 6
_If they never know for sure, they can't make judgments_. Arden walked to the window to look out of the box he lived in, and as he had for years, saw nothing but the wall of the building next to his. _A fitting metaphor, no_? All boxed in,...
Presto - Chapter 5
Arden poured himself a sparkling water, and glanced back over his writing. It would have been so much faster if he had a computer, but then, if he had the budget for that, he would probably have been able to afford a larger apartment. His heart was...
Presto - Chapter 4
Arden sat back in his small chair, in his small apartment, so many conflicting thoughts running through his head. He had completely lost touch with Dan. Why though? They seemed to get along well, the cat was funny, and smart, and had a nice girlfriend....
Presto - Chapter 3
Arden didn't have much time to ponder the events of that day, however, as the next day he got confirmation that he had indeed been selected for the magic campaign. The next week was a whirlwind of orientation meetings, etiquette instructions, and...
Presto - Chapter 2
Bright and early Saturday morning, Arden pulled his old car up to the curb in a quiet cul-de-sac in the Valley. The heat had abated somewhat in the last couple of days in most of Los Angeles, but evidently the Valley wasn't given the forecast. He...
Presto - Chapter 1
Cattle calls are a fabled phenomenon in Hollywood. They are the great equalizer, where starlet and stevedore alike have an equal shot at stardom. That's what the entertainment magazines like to portray, anyway. In reality, cattle calls...