I walk alone and wonder “who am I?”

The Rosetta Stone program finally arrived, so now on top of everything else I’m going to spend my evenings learning Dutch. Thanks, Tanner. I was hoping he had been joking when he said he sent for the program.

We spent the early afternoon getting my driver’s license changed while Irina was ‘minding the store’ then we went around in circles trying to change my birth certificate.

 © 2010 by Lilith Langtree & Rénae Dáºmas. This work may not be replicated or presented in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the work’s Owner (copyright holder), with the exception of the private and non-commercial viewing by the reader who is also the end purchaser. ALL Rights Reserved, including but not limited to ownership of Characters, final content decision, and more. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this story are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental. Any and all images which may be shown within this work are taken through license under Corel with the exception of the title image which is Photo Credit to Irina Sheik. No affiliations, involvement or gender assignations through the use of these or any images of the subject or subjects contained within those posted images is to be implied, intended or inferred.
An Aldoennetti & Langtree Original.

It finally took Tanner’s attorney and his sister, the judge, to change the official’s minds. Then they say they’ll send us a revised copy in four to six months. It takes another call with the judge and the threat of the arrival of two Marshals with four John/Jane Doe warrants to convince them they will make the changes now and give us copies immediately. I hope she was kidding about the warrants because if she wasn’t I don’t ever want to be on her bad side.

I think the whole issue was a case of not recognising this was an important and timely concern rather than an attempt at outright defiance of the court. I feel it’s a shame they had to carry it to such an extreme when they could so easily have had one of them spend the twenty minutes accomplishing the job and gone on with other things, instead of three of them spending three hours telling us why it couldn’t be done. Maybe it’s just my math or something but that seems like a difference of 27 to 1 and all waste since they had to do the twenty minutes on top of the arguments anyway. Then again what do I know? I’m not into birth certificates and registrations.

That little delay has now taken us past closing time for the Federal offices so we can’t apply for the passport until Monday since I’m working the show Friday morning through noon Sunday. This modeling business is a lot more demanding than I thought. Waiting until Monday is going to be cutting it extremely fine. Tanner is now much more concerned, enough so that he calls his sister again and asks if she has any pull which could get the passport issued in less than a week. I don’t know what she said but he seems slightly relieved but still apprehensive.

“Tanner, not to change the subject but... how can I model for two different companies in the show? Isn’t that, like, considered a conflict of interest or something?”

He laughs, “Or something should cover it. Ellen designs one of a kind clothing. The styles and products sell for anywhere from eight to fifteen thousand or so and she never makes another of the same design so her clients have one-of-a-kind designer clothing to wear to special functions. The things you wore today are some designs which never sold and she is going to try to market them to people like Pendercot who market to the masses with mass produced copies of original items. Pendercot is the one for whom you will be walking the runway. Probably four, maybe five outfits twice each day of the show. Ellen wants you to spend time in her booth and wandering on the convention floor, showing off some of the same things you did today on the runway. This evening I’m going to be printing poster sized prints of you for her to use in her booth. She was late getting in here this year and normally has the photos taken at least a week or two before the show. That was the reason for the rush. She didn’t have the chance to get in here or to see her normal New York photographer. He doesn’t have any models anyway. We were just lucky that you were immediately available.”

“So she is stuck with me by default.”

“No. She is very impressed with you and with the fact you were willing to come in on such short notice to help her out. I still soaked her eighteen hundred for your fees but...”

“Eighteen Hundred? Dollars?”

“No, peanuts. Of course, dollars.”

“Oh, but that includes your expenses.”

“Katrina, I charged her plenty for my own work and the charge also covers the colour posters I’m printing tonight and which we are delivering to her early tomorrow morning. The eighteen hundred is just the modeling fees. I take twenty percent of each fee you earn and then taxes come out of the balance paid to you so you made roughly a thousand to eleven hundred after taxes today.”

“Holy shit. Oh, sorry. Wow. I made about a thousand for five hours work?”

“Something like that. You have several times you need to be modeling something for her on the convention floor which was included in those fees so probably closer to nine hours work. She especially liked when you changed your hair style for that last gown. She felt you really cared about her creations.”

“I do. I think they’re really nice but I especially like that last one, but at fifteen thousand, that’s a bit steep for me. I’ll wait until the copies come out.”

“Maybe you could ask her if you could wear that one to dinner the first night. It would get her some more publicity and you would have the chance to wear it again.”

I’m a bit excited at that prospect. “I could also get behind the idea of taking it to Europe with me and wearing it there a few times. Do you think she would let me do that?”

“Probably. But if you get anything on it she’ll probably kill you.”

“I’ve had people try to do that before, so what else is new? I can’t ask her to do that. She needs to sell it.”

“She doesn’t really need to sell the gown itself, rather she sells the design. Usually the purchaser wants the gown too but maybe we could convince her to retain it this time so you could wear it once or twice.”

“Tanner, are there dinners at the locations where we will be modeling in Europe?”

“Some of them.”

“Maybe I could wear it there too.”

“You must like it.”

“I do.”

“It isn’t that simple I’m afraid. You’ll be expected to wear something you have modeled for Emerson at the dinners in Europe.”

“Oh.” crestfallen...

“But when you, Irina and I go out to dinners on our own, you could wear it.”

“And if anyone asks then I may tell them about Ellen’s designs?”

“More likely give them a card for her.”

“Does she do business in Europe?”

“I think somewhere around half of it comes from a few European countries. I could ask her.”

“Would you? I’d wear it nearly every night if she would let me.”

“You’re a guy all right. A woman wouldn’t be caught dead wearing the same thing night after night.”

I pout, “She might if it was something as yummy as that gown. Especially when each night is in a different city and the people wouldn’t know she has worn it the night before.”

“Okay, I’ll grant you that. You looked so good in it that I’m adding it into your portfolio, which is becoming pretty impressive. You have a heavyweight under your belt now and after Pendercot you’ll have two.”

“They’re heavyweights?”

“Yep. Ellen is extremely well known in her circles which include some the major political players in the world. Pendercot is also very well known but by the brand name rather than his own. His businesses have a toe-hold in Canada, the US, most of Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He provides fashion for several big name department chains around the world. To model his clothing and get your photos modeling his clothing posted in those department stores could go a long way in making a name for you, young lady. Well, you’ve got some studying to do and I need to spend a number of hours producing the posters for Ellen. We are getting up early tomorrow and leaving by six thirty. Please be ready.”

I look around and discover we are at his house. He lets me into it, disarming the alarm and making certain I have remembered the Rosetta program. He tells me to eat light and to set the alarm after he closes the door, “When I return later tonight, I’ll disarm it when I come in so it won’t wake you. I WILL rearm it after I check everything. Be certain to get to sleep early. ‘Night Katrina.”

He kisses me on the forehead and I don’t protest a blue streak. In fact, I’m thinking about that gown again and didn’t realise he kissed me until he was out the door and down the walk. By then I’m not certain if I’m angry he did it or if I’m secretly pleased. I set the alarm and go fix myself something to eat. It only takes me three attempts to find something in all his TV dinners that isn’t on my prohibited list.

After supper I begin to study the Rosetta Program and two hours later send myself to bed. Sometime during the night I come partially awake as I hear my door open for a moment and then close again. I listen more intently and hear Tanner’s bedroom door close. I try to make out the time on the alarm clock but fall asleep again before I do so.

The next morning I’m awake just moments before my alarm and shut it off just as it begins it’s shrill. I have just over an hour to get ready. I’m not very hungry this morning and find it necessary to force myself to eat some cottage cheese and a peach half. It tastes so good that I have another before we depart for the studio to pick up the posters he produced the night before. We will drive to the show in the RV so he has his equipment and may set up a small photo area at Ellen’s booth. Photo sessions always attract attention at a show. He also brings the one notebook computer and his portable camera with the camera/ lenses case.

We arrive at the show and discover Irina has again beat us and is waiting. Now equipment is carried in and set up at Ellen’s little corner of the world before the three of us move on to the model’s backstage area where all the women dress in the creations and have their makeup corrected as necessary prior to walking the runway. Pendercot meets us and we are guided to his area which has a changing room with four girls, including me, in the room. There is a small area near the room where Irina may touch up our makeup as necessary and he is located next to four others who are doing the same thing. Apparently there are other changing rooms and these are the makeup areas for those other girls who will be showing the apparel of other show participants.

The others are looking through the things on the racks like they know what they’re doing and here I am acting like an illiterate flower girl from the 1840's. Finally one of the girls comes to my assistance.

“First time at a cattle show?”

“Huh?” I do so love to act intelligent.

She smiles, “Have you done runway showings before?”

“Yes — but it was a solitary thing. I was the only one involved and the client had people to help me.”

“You have done private showings?”

“Yes.”

“Well this isn’t much different. Just a lot more hectic. So I take it you have never needed to figure out which item you wear first nor the order in which you wear them?”

“Uh... No, I have not.”

“Did you take any of the clothing off the rack?”

“Yes. I looked at each item.”

“Did you place them back on the rack in the same place where you took them down or did you just put them back anywhere?”

I take a few seconds to think about that and she throws another question at me before I may answer, “Are you having a problem with understanding my questions?”

Well, I’m not stupid honey... “No, I understand.” trying to throw just a bit of accent into it.

“Your first language isn’t English is it?”

By now the other girls have finished their inspection of the things on their racks and are beginning to follow the conversation.

One of them throws something at me, “Parlez-vous Francais?”

The other immediately sounds me out with, “ ¿Habla usted Espaá±ol?”

The first girl just watches me.

I pray to God and take the chance, “Ik spreek Nederlands.”

“What was that? German?”

“I speek...”acting like I’m thinking about words, “Duutch.”

This immediately has a partially desired effect of the three of them reacting with a denial of the ability to speak Dutch to my great relief and the further attempt by all three of them to explain loudly, in English, just how all this works — simultaneously — which almost leaves me more confused than I was when I first came through the door.

“Each of these three days we will be modeling works by the same manufacturer or designer. Each day will be different items and they will be shown in the order in which they have been placed on the rack so it is important none of us remove something and place it back in a different location on the rack. There will be a morning and an afternoon showing since there are not enough seats for everyone to be here at one showing.

I catch this fairly quickly but with all three of them trying to explain, it takes me a couple of attempts to catch the drift. They put it down to language translation problems.

There are seven items on each rack so I take it that I will be wearing seven different outfits and just need to understand the way the whole system works. Fortunately at this point there is a knock on the door and the first girl opens it to allow Tanner to enter.

“Oh, Tan. This girl doesn’t speak English so well and she needs this whole thing explained to her. She needs to be told the order in which to wear the things on her rack and she has taken things off the rack so she needs to tell us if she put them back in the same spot from which she removed them. It looks like she is the third one out in our group of four so she also needs to know her position in this turkey shoot.”

Tanner laughs and looks at me before answering, “Thanks Iris. Girls, this is Katrina; she’s Dutch and has some modeling experience but mostly in private showings and only limited runway experience. The client has expressly asked for her along with a few others so any help you could give her will be appreciated. She’s really pretty smart but as you probably found out the language barrier slows her down a little.”

“No kidding. Okay, Tan. If you could help us out here a bit then we’ll keep her pointed in the right direction.”

The one who asked if I spoke French pipes up, “Oui, we will see she doesn’t trip herself and get her to the party on time. Maybe you could talk with her about her rack and the speed of the show. These things move at a much faster pace than the private showings. She also will need to know where she is to go from this room to have her makeup checked and then our starting position before the runaway and when to begin to walk.”

She looks at the others, “What? Did I switch to French?”

Another answers, “no just a wrong word. It’s runway like an airport, not run away like escaping something.”

“Pas grand chose. Runway ou runaway. Yu understand.”

They hug each other, “Yes we do.”

The girls go back to what they are doing while Tanner begins to explain everything to me and takes me out of the room and down to where Irina will do our makeup checks before allowing us to go on to the starting location. Tanner now leads me through the backstage maze and over to someone with a clipboard where he shows me the spot where I will wait to be given the cue to begin walking. Mister clip board will be sending me out onto the stage shortly after the previous girl has returned to it from the runway. Once out there it will be up to me to walk down the runway, pause for a few seconds with a full turn at about a third and at two thirds of the way then again at the end before walking back down the runway (without any turns) and off the stage to the other side.

Now we go around backstage to that side and proceed from there so I may find my way back to the room where someone will be in the room to help me out of the outfit if I should need assistance. That person will be helping each of us as we go.

“By the way, they said you took things off the rack, did you put them back exactly where you removed them? The order is important.”

“Yes. I still don’t know which item is to be worn first and which is next.”

“They should all be hanging in order. The assistant will tell you which is first.”

“Okay, scat Kat. There’s still a lot of time right now since the program doesn’t begin for...” he checks his watch, “nearly forty minutes but much of that time will be spent preparing for the whole thing. It will be pretty hectic once it gets underway and the assistant will be pushing time at you all. There isn’t any time for restroom breaks or a drink of water or anything else until after this is all over. Figure about twenty minutes off stage max. Nearly all of that will be involved with checking the fit of the outfit, and doing your makeup plus walking from point A to point B. It will all go faster than you expect.” Usually the show goes for about two hours. You okay now?”

“I hope so.”

“You’ll do fine. Just be yourself and everyone will love you. Oh? How did you convince them English wasn’t your forte?”

“They jumped to that conclusion when I was taking a little time trying to understand them. Then they started pushing French or Spanish at me so I said ‘I speak Dutch’ in Dutch.”

“You’re lucky none of them did.”

You’re telling me?”

“You better keep your lessons up.”

“I intend to. It hasn’t been all that hard so far.”

Tanner knocks on the door and one of the girls says “come in” as Tanner acts like he is finishing a sentence, “...and that brings us right back here, Katrina.”

“Dank u wel.”

“You’re welcome. Take good care of her, girls. Ah, hi Sam. These four are your group?”

“Hi Tanner. Yep, I’ve got this group under my wing all three days.”

“Great. Katrina here is a bit new at this. Most of what she has done has been private or single model showings and a lot of static stuff so kind of keep her guided.”

“Sure thing. Is she the one I heard about from Ellen’s shoot yesterday? Pendercot is still babbling about her.”

“She’s the one, but he’s a bit over the top, if you know what I mean.”

She rolls her eyes, “Yeah. Get something right twice in a row and he thinks you’re a pro.”

“Come on, Samantha. Don’t discourage Kat before she’s started.”

“Wouldn’t think of it. Take care of yourself Tanner. You may come claim your little Dutch beauty in a few hours. Now beat it. Go out front and annoy Carl.”

“Carlotta? Is she here today?”

“Oh yeah. Half this collection is her stuff so she’ll be screaming and pulling everyone’s hair out today. Except for the models of course.”

“Tell Kat to watch out for her and why.”

“Gotcha.”

“See you, Sam.”

“Right, catch you later Tanner.”

She didn’t need to tell me, one of the other models did. That’s all I need for three days... a female Emerson.

I was thankful for one thing during the showings today. The house lights were up enough that I could easily see the runway as well as many of the people who were listening to the description of the clothing as we were modeling the various pieces. No one seemed to be aware of my inexperience and nothing was said of it. I hope Pendercot feels he is getting his money’s worth. Occasionally a flash would go off and I saw Tanner take at least two of me in each outfit although girl number four is also one of his and he shot at least two of her each time she was out there.

When I stop to think about it, we have had very little time to change and to have our makeup checked. Each girl is out for about a minute and a half. Couple that with the half minute gap as the girls cross the stage and pose for just a few seconds before beginning the runway and you have about two minutes in the public eye. With sixteen of us altogether that allows me about twenty minutes to change including walking time to depart the stage area and to return to the starting location once again. Rush, Rush. By the time I finish the seventh outfit I am exhausted. I don’t know how they do it. The girls who are sharing the room with me are calm, cool and collected. I’m a nervous wreck by the time I am in my own clothing and Tanner collects me.

He talks with his other girls for a bit and then two of us and Tanner make our way to the convention floor to where the static displays are located. There is a lot more to these shows than just the runway showings. We find Ellen’s booth and Tanner drops me off saying he will return soon. He and the other girl are off to somewhere else.

There in the booth I begin shaking. I don’t know what ever possessed me to think I could do this for a day much less two years. I don’t understand why this seemed so... so... hectic. I’ve seen the news where they show some of the European shows and they seemed so sedate in comparison.

“Schatzi. You were wonderful.” I looked up as I heard Irina’s voice. I didn’t realise he had arrived, trust Irina to always say something positive.

to be continued