Morning all. Lets see what the last prompt of the week brings shall we? Timers set and off we go.
Can’t lie, not my favorite this week, but I have to say, over all, it has been a very good week from me in regards to prompts. Not so much with feral cats but you can’t have everything I suppose.
Friday, May 10th: The microphone was on.
The microphone was on. Harry looked at it in growing horror, the little green light on the battery pack seeming to mock him. How long had it been on? He couldn’t recall. Did he have it on when he was talking to Shiela? What abut Michelle. Was he wearing it when he talked to Machelle?
‘That would be bad,’ he thought.
He looked around. The hallway was empty. ‘Maybe no one heard anything.’
Just because he was wearing a microphone didn’t mean that anyone was necessarily in range of the sound. He slipped a hand to the battery pack and switched the microphone off. Surely no one heard anything. ‘I’ll just go about as though nothing happened.’ He thought.
Harry walked down the hall and not the studio. There were people milling abut. A couple of them were from the sound department but none of them looked at him. No one said anything to him. He moved to his normal position and the makeup girl came by. She showed little expression as she patted off the shine and stepped away.
‘If she heard anything she would have reacted,’ Harry thought. ‘Right?’
She moved away before he was certain of anything. The sound guy came over and adjusted his battery pack turning his microphone back on. Not a word was said. ‘Was that normal?’
He couldn’t remember. Harry had never been one for chit chat, especially with the crew. He was the talent and they were just background players. He couldn’t remember any of their names and had probably only exchanged a few words here and there with any of them. He often asked people not to approach him or talk to him. He was working and had a job to do. He knew the others didn’t maintain the same level of distance but he also knew they too were lesser talents.
He glanced over to Amelia. Surely if she knew something it would show. She wasn’t looking in his direction but standing still as her makeup was touched up. When the makeup was finished, he tried to catch her eye but was unsuccessful. ‘She doesn’t look like she is avoiding me though,’ he thought.
‘Maybe it is just incidental.’
He couldn’t think of a way to get her to turn towards him that seemed natural. He didn’t usually talk to her a they didn’t really get along or have anything in common. He never had anything to say to her and couldn’t think of anything now.
He hadn’t worked it out when the set quieted and they began the show. As they progressed, Harry relaxed. Everything seemed normal. No one seemed upset, angry, worried or even slightly concerned. Everything flowed normally and he saw no discrepancies in behavior. Nothing appeared to have changed.
‘Maybe I was out of range,’ Harry thought. He nearly sagged with relief. That had to be it. Even though his microphone was on, he was out of range and the equipment couldn’t pick it up. He was safe.
Then the taping ended. The cameras stopped rolling and Elliot walked into the studio. “Harry, a word,” Elliot said. He did not look happy. Harry nodded and stood, a growing unease rising inside him.
Ten til Midnight 