Read Write On Press Presents: The Ultimate Collection of Original Short Fiction, Volume II Page 2

  ~*~

  Jim went to his desk where he found one of the millennials, Allen Reinberg, waiting for him.

  “Man, what did Fred say after we left? Is this shit real? I just got this job and I don’t know if I can pull it off! I need this job. I don’t know what I will do if I don’t find something,” he squeaked as he munched nervously on pretzels.

  “It will be fine Al. This scenario comes up every 5 years. To survive all you need to do is evaluate your completion timeframes and be sure you stay ahead of them.”

  Jim was able to convey this message convincingly, putting the young man at ease, although in his heart he knew this was serious. Never in all his years had he seen Fred this stressed. It was so important to Fred to remain relevant in the show biz industry, and for the most part he had done so. The directors and producers called him “Find ‘em Fred.”

  His lore was quite grandiose, far larger than his actual feats, but Fred never bothered with the corrections. What started it all? In the 90’s he was able to find an emaciated child in 24 hours for a major part in a movie that eventually was an academy award winner for best picture. That director credited Fred for finding their big star in his acceptance speech. The phones rang off the hook for years after that. It was great for a while, but with success comes higher expectations and higher stress. Fred’s management style was to increase boots on the ground finding talent, which ultimately placed the firm into a high overhead that cannibalized profits. Simply put, more money was being spent on finding talent than the revenue the talent brought in.

  Jim was able to get the firm to go into a different direction by finding musical talent. His greatest find was a young kid out of Memphis whose soul wrenching melodies quickly rose to the top of the charts. The revenue generated by him alone gave the firm life. His next big find was Maggie Brown better known as “Mags,” whose R&B songs ripped the charts up for a decade. She was so talented she won multiple Grammys which again bought Jim cushion.

  Fred was happy, yet he began to go down the path of bottom line thinking. If a recruiter wasn’t performing, he would drop them quickly. A few would make some noise, but overall it became a revolving door of recruiters with the exception of Jim. The only one to stick was Megan. She had a unique talent of finding young performers both acting and singing. She rounded out the rest of the top ten clients for the firm and was a staple to the organization. Likewise she was also a thorn in Jim’s side. Fred tolerated her feistiness because she always produced results. Her attitude changed the culture of the organization and Jim saw her as a predatory bully.

  Any recruiter who had hopes and dreams of an artist was quickly discouraged by Megan. She would point out flaws of the artists, and because of her company tenure, a lot of the recruits would flat out give up on the talent. Jim told Fred about her tactics, but he couldn’t argue her ability to bring in revenue. With Fred in a bottom line mindset, there was nothing Jim could do.