The ULB

“Dude!”

Jeremy looked up from his monitor and over the cubicle wall where Chad was whispering to him.

He nodded to his right, Jeremy’s left.

“Is that Roger Pelton over there?”

Jeremy glanced in the direction of Chad’s nod. It was him.

Pelton was a living legend at the ULB. Some of the bureau’s most enduring work had been his creation. That President of Procter & Gamble story? That was Pelton. The two dollar Porsche? That was Pelton.

The “story” behind “In The Air Tonight”? The one about the one-night stand followed by the coffin earrings with the “Welcome to the world of AIDS” note? The Mikey Pop Rocks and soda story? All Pelton.

Legend had it he’d started years ago at the Celebrity Gossip desk, where Chad and Jeremy now worked. While there, he wrote the Richard Gere story. It became a sensation, turned him into a star practically overnight, and the rest was history.

“Dude, he’s coming this way–look busy!”

Chad and Jeremy swiveled their chairs back towards their computers and commenced a flurry of keyboard-tapping and mouse-clicking.

Then, Jeremy was startled by a deep voice coming from the edge of his cubicle behind him.

“Hoffman–that Lady Gaga story. That yours?”

He swiveled around. “Oh, uh, yes…sir.”

Without looking up from the papers he was holding, Pelton said, “Nice work, kid”, turned, and walked away.

Jeremy sat there dumbfounded. Then, he saw Chad out of the corner of his eye, hovering at their shared cubicle wall, fist extended.

He turned and fist-bumped Chad, who was beaming, mouthing “Awesome, dude!”, and giving him the thumbs up.

Jeremy nodded to Chad in thanks, then went back to work, that “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” song running through his head.