Description
“Where’s your good news ?”
Mari cleared her throat for effect “Sally liked your shoot. We’re supposed to make arrangements with Erik to for an outdoor shoot.”
Tanya gave out a yip and pogoed a bit. “When?”
“A-S-A-P” she spelled out for effect.
“Did she say what she wants? How is it different from what we did?”
“That list of clothes you gave her..”
She nodded.
“Some of the pieces are current.. She wants you in one of them so she can take it to the maker.”
“Which one?”
“I wrote it down.. too much is going on… that black furry top and a skirt maybe?”
“The fuzzy fake one?”
“Don’t quote me..”
“I think it goes with that blue film shirt.” she said trying to remember how it was marketed.. “Where? It has to be around here.”
“Outside somewhere and she wants buildings… maybe here?”
Tanya needed to work off some excitement.
“Race ya back..”
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Kari closed the car door and lifted out his travel bag. This was the final stop. The same train would make the trip back to the city. She made her way up on the platform.. all those suits and half asleep people. She looked down his travel bag. He was almost asleep when she picked him up. It must be so weird. Everyone’s head turned to the left at the railroad crossings closed and the train’s horn sounded.
It squealed to a stop and the few East-bound passengers made their way through the waiting throng. Kari’s height gave her an advantage as she scanned the platform looking for a likely candiate. There! - that had to be her -blonde, thin, young - maybe five ten or eleven. Model material.
She waved. “Caitlin?”
“Is he with you?” the model asked hesitantly.
He could hear them. Austin was still half asleep, but the uneven swinging of the trip kept him from dozing off. This was the fourth bag. Each was an improvement over the last, but it wasn’t the best way to travel. Maybe Jolene could work with him on the next one.
Kari nodded towards the travel bag.
“It’s so small..”
“‘ big enough. ‘has all of his things in it. He’ll ask for help if he needs any.” She handed the bag to Caitlin “Try not to bounce him too much. He was really tired this morning. And don’t take him out in public.” Caitlin nodded “We’ll be back tonight.”
“And call me rather than Mari.” she said as she started back towards her car “She’ll be working late - and thanks for coming out.”
Caitlin made her way in and spotted a seat. The car was packed - there wouldn’t be any way to let him out away. “Excuse me” she said to the heavyset woman sitting partly in the last remaining seat. The woman pulled herself over to the window and Caitlin sat down with him on her lap. The woman had gone back to playing something on her phone. Caitlin pulled back the zipper and tilted the bag slightly. “Full train today.”
Austin had a glimpse of part of her face and the ceiling of the car before the zipper closed sealing off his view. Something garbled over a speaker, the sound of closing doors and then a bump and then a steady acceleration as they started westward.
These long trips in a bag were mostly boring punctuated by sudden movements that would catch him off balance. The best strategy was to be sitting or lying in the handkerchiefs stuffed inside. At first the swinging brought on motion sickness, but now he had his ‘bag legs’, so to speak. If it wasn’t so damn boring. Kari had packed a breakfast but he quickly fell in and out of sleep as the car swayed a bit accompanied by the clickity-clack of it’s motion.
The brakes squealed as they pulled into New York Penn and she pulled the bag closer as she began to stand up. Everyone else with an aisle seat was doing the same and it would be a crush getting out. It was good Kari had used to hard case bag rather than one with softer sides.
The sudden starts and stops kept Austin sitting holding some of the handkerchief and being held by the rest. He tried to suppress the image of the hoard of giants, but the noise of the commotion was too much. The thought of her bag being stolen or, worse, falling to the floor, ran through his mind. All he could do was trust her.
A minute later she was on the platform and then up the stairs. He thought he heard her say something, but it was too noisy to tell. She made her way over to the downtown subway. She joined the rush hour commute stuffing herself into an A train clutching his bag tightly to her chest with her left arm and and steadying herself against a steel pole with her right. ‘ It must be really weird in there’ she thought.
The studio had been open for over an hour and she waited for a dressing room. At least it was quiet, but three other girls were waiting for their shoots and the dressing rooms were full. At least she’d give him some fresh air.
Light flooded him as the huge zipper moved across the top of the bag. Her mouth appear with her index finger to her lips. Standing up with the opening still ten feet above his head he stretched. A couple of girls started talking about some singer he’d never heard of. Their conversation switched to what was probably modeling work. A few months ago he’d given a lot to have been in a waiting room with even one model, but these were giants taller than ten story buildings with feet the size of cars. That changes a lot. He walked over to the twenty or thirty pound piece of peanut butter and jelly sandwich Kari had packed and pulled off a section of bread with some peanut butter on it. Kari was better at this than the others. The pieces she made were closer to his size and not and smooshed.
“Caitlin?” an effeminate male voice asked.
“I’m here” she said, standing up giving him enough warning to sit down or something..
“Let’s see honey - it says two looks. Both will have your name.. room three and studio B. The combination's three and then one and four at the same time."
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Caitlin set his bag down on the little table. The room smelled of stale cigarettes. “We’re here.. I’ll turn the bag on it’s side for you” She knew he preferred walking out by himself plus she hadn’t handled him that much.
Austin held on as the bag rotated towards the right. Fortunately this one didn’t have the five hundred pound lipsticks and one ton antiperspirants and skin creams that lived inside the other bags. He really needed to talk to Jolene about design.
Moving from the bag to a huge open space like this room was always a bit disorienting. He gazed up at the walls as walked towards the center of the table.
“This is really disgusting”
“Yeah… most of the models I know smoke.” she said bending to his level. ‘ kills your appetite.”
“Do you?”
She shook her head no and he watched as she moved the ceramic ash tray and cigarette lighter. The ash tray must have weighed four or five tons. He still couldn't get over that. Then she raised his bag like a barrier to the smoking paraphernalia.
“I’ve got a good metabolism. I guess I'm just lucky.” She had seen him before, but his size was startling. She hoped she could hide that. He seemed even cuter than last time.
She rose to full height and looked towards the hanging clothes. “I better get dressed.”
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The full size, more detailed 3500 pixel render goes out to donors.