Canapes Rochelais

In a small office downtown, a woman was talking on the phone while furiously typing away on her laptop.

“Yeah Dick, I know they only take guild talent, what sort of operation do you think I’m running here? Yeah, yeah listen if I send people your way I’m not gonna waste your time with pity hires, only real talent. Hah ok, thanks I’ll talk to you later.”

The woman hung up and set her phone down on the desk next to her as she refocused on her list of talents. Mira Gayen was a vocal agent, and she was a smaller name but damn well connected. She took pride in the fact that some of her talents had moved on to take roles dubbing films, audiobooks, and animation, they were everywhere. Even those doing bit commercial work were working consistently it was a demand she put on herself as well as her clients.

The woman held herself with poise, she was only thirty-five but often over the phone her gravelly voice would make those think she was older. Not that there was anything the Bengali woman could do about that.

It was nearing the end of the day, and the agent was dressed as she always was: fine suit, pencil skirt, stockinged legs, and her hair up. She had to hold herself professionally at all times even if no one could see her, she reasons that if she didn’t do so, there was no way she could demand it from her clients. The outfits didn’t hide her figure, her wide hips or her prominent chest, but she saw no reason to be ashamed of her body. If people were distracted by it, that was their problem especially if she could exploit it.

She was scrolling through the list of Talents to pick who she might contact about this potential gig. Dick was with Sunimation Studios and with the new season of shows approaching from Japan, he was looking into possibly getting some new talent. Mira had known this and reached out, and now she had an in for her clients, if they could capitalize on it.

As she was looking through names she saw she had just received an email from one of her clients Mr. Ward. The man was always so quick and professional. She opened the recordings and gave them a quick listen as she scrolled to his name on the list.

Caleb Ward, 26 years old, voice profile: Strong and youthful, sound is confident and expressive, makes solid pitch and inflection choices which effectively engage the audience. Next to the column that included his voice profile was a caveat section that just read “refuses to leave home”.

She sighed, Caleb was a promising talent but the bastard had no drive. She knew the man had agoraphobia but that didn’t explain why he never reached out about roles himself, or why he refused any accommodations or programs that she sent his way to assist. That was what really drove her insane.

If his work hadn’t been as consistent or high quality she would have threatened to cut him off of her services, but she was legitimately afraid that he might just seek alternatives in that case and she didn’t want that.

“I don’t even know if he would be voice acting if he could find another job that allowed him to work from home,” Mira thought ruefully.

She closed her laptop, she could think more about who she was sending over to Dick once she was home. But for now, she needed a shower, some Chinese food, and maybe a date with her personal massager.

Crossing the room she stopped to gaze at the one photo on display by the entrance. She never knew if she regretted placing it in her office at all, could never decide if it would be better to take it down or if that would be the equivalent of running away.

The picture in question depicted a young Mira wearing a gown in front of the Sydney Opera House. She was smiling and holding a bouquet of flowers with her parents on either side of her. The longer that Mira stared at it the more she considered adding wine to tonight's itinerary. She gathered her stuff up and then exited the room. Then the world faded around her.

When she came to, she was standing on stage, a spotlight shining down on her as she looked out to empty rows of seats.

“Oh, it’s this dream again…” She thought and opened her mouth to sing but as her voice cracked she knew that this was no dream and looked around again.

She now saw the suited man grinning over at her, a woman in a bowler hat beaming in her direction and gesturing enthusiastically at her. She saw two figures in the audience, one was a small woman she did not recognize; and the other took her a moment of thinking, she had only ever spoken with the individual on Zoom before and it made it hard.

“Caleb? What is going on here?” Her voice was sharp and demanding and as Caleb opened his mouth he was interrupted by the man next to her.

“Why, you’ve been chosen as our second contestant for Harem Hotel. As his current closest female acquaintance and his constant support we could think of no one better than his vocal agent Mira Gayen, but don’t let me take the honors, please introduce yourself” Lucian waved the Slapstick and Mira went rigid and spoke out to the Audience.

“My name is Mira Gayen, I’m 35 years old and my parents are originally from Bangladesh but I’ve lived in the United States most of my life. I trained from a young age to be an opera singer, but had to stop eight years ago when an injury caused my vocal cords to give out, now I use the connections I made in the entertainment industry to help aspiring vocal talents. Which is how I met Mr. Ward. I am not a virgin, but I am not married, I didn’t have time for romance when I was younger and now I can’t imagine anyone wanting to listen to my voice for the rest of their life.” Her eyes widened as she looked taken aback by the words leaving her own mouth.

Caleb himself was surprised, he hadn’t known that Mira had been a singer. They rarely spoke about their personal lives and now he felt like he had just gotten a view into a part of her that she had intentionally been trying to hide.

From her own seat, Lily watched with morbid fascination. Having experienced it herself she knew how the compulsion to introduce herself had felt but she almost felt she had gotten off easily compared to the older woman. However she also found herself looking at Mira’s figure and growing self-conscious. If this was a competitive romance show, how could she be expected to compete with a full-bodied woman like that?

Mira coughed to clear her throat and looked defiantly at the host “You called me a contestant, this is some sort of competition? Also how did you make me speak against my will? Who are you?”

The host pinched his temples and with a twitching smile just waved his slapstick “Yes this is a competition to win the affections of the Master, young Caleb over there” he gestured with the stick “I made you talk using Magic, you’re not getting a more detailed explanation than that, and I am the host Lucian Medici”

The small woman on the other side of Mira jumped up “And I’m the assistant Reyna”

Under his breath Lucian mumbled “Am I going to have to explain this for every single one of these nitwits?” he then piped up in a jovial tone “More explanations will be coming after the rest of the guests have arrived, but for now please have yourself a seat.”

Mira looked like she wanted to say more, but seemed to think better of it and crossed the stage to go down to the front row. Whatever this situation was that she found herself in, it was clear that there were powers at play that she didn’t understand. Until she had more information she couldn’t turn the situation to her advantage. So she would wait.

She sat next to the small woman in the front row and gave her a nod of acknowledgment. Lily, for her part, envied how calm the agent appeared to be given the circumstances. It was all she could do to keep from shaking out of her skin.

Once Mira was seated the host continued “Moving right along, we got six more of these women to bring in so let’s keep up the pace! Time to bring in one of the biggest influences in young Caleb's life-”

With that lead-up, Caleb felt a panic rising in his gullet, the host couldn’t mean who he thought.

“His Philosophy Professor, Eliza Dawson!”