Unexpected-unwanted

A HAPPENING !

 

It's Hollywood, exciting, promising Hollywood and I have a job, more nicely called 'a position' as a publicist at MGM and I know I am experienced enough to do a wham bang up job for them. My private date calendar isn't filled yet but I figure it will be once I really dig into my work. It's 5 p.m., quitting time but I don't budge until 6. My work load is in a fine leather brief case I bought from Gucci, the height of status and the epitome of class. 

 

The handsome bar in the studio's recreation area awaits me. Only one soft, luxurious bar stool remains open. I step faster towards it and get it just as someone else reaches for its stainless steel back. The prize is mine. A young and upcoming agent I met recently is to my left. We chat and he picks up my tab. His aqua blue eyes are intriguing, almost hypnotizing. There is some sort of electric current between us, but I am not ready to get involved—yet.

 

In the morning I find lovely red roses on my desk from Jim Massey. His engraved card lets me know in embossed letters that he is  not only the executive manager of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, but he is one of the partners of this one of the coolest restaurants in L.A. and

Doug Hebbing and David Copperfield are regulars here.

 

My desk phone jingles before I settle at my desk in the morning and I can sense Jimmy's big smile already aglow. Before I can even thank him for the roses, he invites me to have a lot of fun at HIS Magic Castle.  I can't refuse such an important man, can I? And who knows?  Maybe I can convince him that I should be the senior publicist at the Castle.  Jimmy gives me clear directions and I am there at the proposed 8 p.m. time. He is waiting in the lobby, gives me his arm and escorts me inside. Eyes are on us both.

 

First stop, the Glass Bar. The entire huge room seems to sparkle with glass. Even the bar stools are transparent and I giggle at the thought that maybe I am too. My Mai Tai is in my hands before I watch it being mixed. I take just a sip and quickly get very dizzy. Did Jimmy wink to Louie the bartender to put a few Ecstasy drops in my drink? I try to get off the stool and feel myself spinning, rising. This must be the Magical chair. It is going higher and higher, suddenly tilts over.

 

Other laughing faces turn gray with fright. The entire building begins  to

shake. Screams are coming from every direction...mine too. The lights go  

out. The elevators don't work. The screeching loud sound of fire engines

fly past the Magic Castle. Panic explodes at the door. Pushing, shoving,

kicking is everywhere. 

 

The noise, the rumbling, stops as quickly as it began. A loudspeaker that    surely reaches all floors announces over and over a 6.1 earthquake just hit L.A. Leave the building at once. Stay in the streets, as far away from glass and tall buildings as you can. Somehow this isn't quite the LA I signed up for.

 

What happened to the magic???