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Sandra Ward, Fantasy – First page currently untitled
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Sandra Ward, Fantasy – First page currently untitled
Malcolm could hear soft, urgent conversations on all sides, but none were loud enough to make out. A cart with a squeaky wheel rolled past, and someone dropped something heavy on the concrete floor, which caused him to jump.
“You can open your eyes now, Dr. Huber,” the makeup artist—Linda, according to her name badge, said.
The makeup stations were in a narrow room behind the talk show stage with ceilings so high he couldn’t see them. Malcolm was sitting in a tufted white leather chair with a chrome base and a hydraulic foot pump to raise and lower the seat. Next to him was a rolling cabinet filled with bottles, brushes, and all manner of products he didn’t recognize. Linda spun his chair to face a mirror framed in high-intensity light bulbs. The heat threatened to melt what felt like a pound of cosmetics, but he couldn’t tell the difference from before she started. Maybe fewer wrinkles around his eyes?
“All done, Dr. Huber. Not too much. Just enough to keep the stage lights from causing a glare.”
“Call me Malcolm.” He tried to smile, but it came out as a nervous twitch.
“First time on television?” Linda carefully placed his glasses back on his face to keep him from ruining the job she’d just finished.
“That obvious?”
“Sort of,” she nodded, then pointed to a group of chairs next to a potted ficus. “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. If you want, you can get water from the cooler and sit in one of those chairs until they call you.”
“Sounds good.”
“Oh, don’t go past that tree, or you’ll be on-stage—and don’t touch your face.”
The doctor sat in the chair closest to the huge Ficus and tried to calm himself with sips of cool water and a deep breathing exercise. Branches and leaves blocked his view of the stage, but he could hear the live audience chattering on the other side of the wall, just past the tree.
The musical intro to The Toby Matthews show began just as the host hurried past. A few minutes later, a young man clipped a microphone to his jacket.
“Stand here and wait for your cue.”
“We’re excited to introduce the physician and engineer behind the newest Massively Multi-player On-line Role-Playing Game experience—Full immersion gaming. Welcome, Dr. Malcolm Huber!”
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