For two days, the silence from Riverport Film Studios was absolute. Ethan Gray didn't spend the time waiting by the phone. Experience had taught him that the entertainment industry was a beast that moved at its own sluggish pace. He polished his resume, sent out applications to two other production houses, and even attended an interview for a junior copywriter position at an ad agency. They offered him the job on the spot, but the pay was meager and the creative freedom non-existent. He politely declined.
By the third evening, as he closed his laptop, the shadows outside his window were lengthening. The quiet of the Little Red Pony Academy began to give way to the evening's unique rhythm. The children were arriving.
Ethan had been eating out mostly, exploring the cheap noodle stalls of T
