I could barely remember even filming the commercial. We went back to my Mom's. Without Macy I felt like we had no reason to be at our apartment. We were all concerned about her. Jerry knew my Mom and came over a lot while we waited for the editing to finish. He said the commercial was going to be huge. Anne and I speculated about what had happened to Macy when she was detained, and Jerry didn't seem comfortable talking about it. I understood because he was both trying to protect her as drug user and personally. It wasn't his place to talk about things.
When the weekend at Mom’s was over, we went to work like any other day but filing was exceedingly boring. Daniel said he was very pleased with what he had seen so far and that Anne and I should be prepared for agents storming the firm after the broadcast of our work. We were getting raises, and hiring extra artists. But that wouldn't happen until the next calendar month, so we had two weeks for a client search. If we landed another good contract, we would have to lead the new employees responsibly. Were we up to the task? He added that the biggest challenge would be mine in managing the attention from the commercial. He asked if I was ready.
I thought of what Jerry had said. "I shouldn't try so hard, or get nervous, and I'll be okay," I said.
The media storm hadn't hit yet, but the video was edited. Jerry gave us the call and said his team had finished the effects on the spaceship and encoded the video for television broadcasting. I was putting the pieces together about the archetypes. I realized Jerry, Macy, and Mika's efforts to make me famous were as successful as they could have hoped.. I was still confused about exactly what they had done. Two months ago, I thought I might never see Macy again. Now, I thought, I almost didn't want to. I hoped she was okay but everything was a fog. What was in store?
We were at the firm when the commercial ran. My face looked entirely different from what I expected. The sound was edited to make my voice like an actual alien. Trippy. The spaceship was like a neon swirl in daylight. It was ephemeral and levitating over a beautiful mountain range. Jerry's team had also enhanced my costume to be more colorful and vibrant. They were masters at this sort of thing, and we received a congratulatory call from the pharmaceutical representative soon after the spot was over. That wasn't the only call we received that day.
The first one came about an hour after the commercial ran, which I suppose is the amount of time it took for a person to track us down.
"Cat Lady Marketing, this is Daniel," he said. "Who is this? Slow down. You've seen the commercial. Yes, if you want to speak with the distributors of debian I can give you their number. You do very much? Just give me a moment," he mumbled and put his hand over the mouthpiece. He told us he was flabbergasted. "Weird guy wants to talk to the client."
Anne and I shook our heads and stared at each other.
"Alright, did you get that number? Thank you and if you have any questions you can," he said but was interrupted. He waited. "You know Arthesces?" He gave us the same odd look we were giving each other. "You're what now?"
Another call was on the line. "Hold for just a moment,” he said. "Can you do that for me? It will be just one moment. Cat Lady Marketing, this is Daniel?"
It was another weird guy. He was shouting. We could hear it over the phone speaker. Anne walked over to her desk phone and opened the first line. She told him we were very busy and that he could call back later in the afternoon. He was shouting also. She hung up on him and Daniel managed to get off the phone with his caller.
"I guess so far the commercial is getting attention at least," Daniel mumbled. He wasn't as alarmed as I was. Was I going to have to deal with people who didn't like the commercial? "He said he was an, ah, abductee," he struggled with the words. "We had to know something that he already knew. Something about debian being a real ship."
I thought, ‘this could be some kind of scandal. Maybe the pharmaceutical house had written the script as a strange way to harass people who were against medication. Maybe I was caught up in something much bigger than I had even imagined, with all my doubts.’ I remembered what Macy said about the firm being a think tank. ‘Had we been taken advantage of to further a scheme to ruin peoples' lives?’ But I rested my faith on Daniel and Jerry's team. I certainly didn't understand marketing.
I stepped outside to smoke and call Jerry. "Do you know what's happening at the firm right now?" I asked. He told me I should take off early and come speak with him at the house. Daniel wouldn't mind, he insisted.
He had Chem 2 in the form of kind bud and insisted I take some, but he meant right now. I told him I could only do the strong stuff by myself otherwise I would shut down socially. He told me immediately that the whole team expected a lot of backlash from the commercial. Had I actually thought about the contents of the commercial?
"I guess not. I was happy that it was based off of mine and Anne's work," I said.
He said he had something very important to tell me and I should take some kind. I said no again. "I don't really like that stuff." He seemed a little offended.
"You are Iris after all," he said, then added, "Arthesces' archetype." He brushed the comment off by looking in the kitchen for his weed.
"You mean I play an alien in the commercial? Is that important somehow?" I said. He returned to the living room with his pipe.
"No, I mean you represent the angel Arthesces as Iris, his archetype. Your role is pretty huge." He smiled. "You're probably one of the strongest archetypes I've ever seen," then he stopped. "I'll only tell you more if you hit it."
I was disconcerted. This was hardly the time for his kind. I actually missed Macy more than ever at this moment. I said I'd take one puff if he told me what the hell was going on. The weed hit me like a deep sorrow, and I thought immediately that I had no idea what was going on or why I was there. He waited for me to regain composure.
"You and Macy are partners. Macy works for the, ahem," he said, "Government, you could say. Did you at least know that?"
I said it wasn't surprising. I had seen her in the police car after all. “Is she an officer? Why is she in custody if she is an officer?”
"She isn't. She never has been. And that's all I'll tell you tonight but I must insist you stay here. I wouldn't want you to get another injury," he smiled again. "Which, I don't think would be so lucky for us this time."
I tried to get him to explain but could barely speak because of the high. He turned on some relaxing music and I gave up trying to figure anything out. A woman came over and I don't remember the conversation, but for a split second I thought I was actually enjoying myself, despite all that was going on. I awoke in the middle of the night more sober, and left. Anne was at the apartment but asleep. I laid down next to her and went to sleep again. The grim memory of what Jerry had told me the night before persuaded me to stay in bed long after Anne went to work. When she woke up at the normal time, I told her I was sick and to tell Daniel I would be missing work. I didn't care if he wanted to fire me.