I was in my favorite place to read, stretched out in bed when the knock came at the door. This time of night I would normally be downstairs working on my computer but this night I had lots of visitors. My son was in town shooting some footage as the Second Unit Director for a movie he was working on and he along with several of the crew were staying with me. It was one of the few ways we had to visit. It wasn't that there wasn't plenty of room as I had found a run down Victorian house that I was able to purchase cheap due to its condition. I was nearly finished refurbishing the floors, walls and so on inside after first putting on a new roof. The first floor was finished, new, modern kitchen and bath there. Now I was working on the second and third floors, the bedroom floors. It was just that with all those people sleeping in the different rooms I didn't want to disturb any of them while I was in pounding the keys.

"Come in," I called out, "the door's open."

Rika opened the door and entered. She was wearing a thick terry cloth robe and looked like she had just gotten up.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you," she said. It was easy to see that something was bothering her.

"Not at all, I was just reading. What can I do for you?" I asked.

"Everyone else is sleeping and I couldn't so I thought I would see if you were still up. Walt said you seldom sleep at night. He laughs and calls you are a Vampire-in-training."

I chuckled as it was true. Most of my life I had worked at night and now I continued. I did most of my writing at night as there were less people to disturb you, knocking on the door or phoning you.

"What's the problem? Worried about your lines for tomorrow? If so then practice them with me, I'll listen."

"No, that's not it. I have been having trouble with my boyfriend and lots of other things and they are slowly mounting up. I just need to get my mind off of them so I can go to sleep. Right now everything is buzzing around in my head and keeping me awake."

"I know what will help. Go get dressed again, bring your jacket and meet me in the kitchen."

After she left I dressed and was putting water on the stove when she entered the kitchen.

Grabbing a large umbrella in case it started to rain again I hooked her arm through mine and out the door we went.

"I find that when things are buzzing in my head I need to go for a walk. It gives me a chance to think about them, put them into their proper perspective and then deal with them. I do the same thing when I run into a problem writing. This is a nice area for walking as there aren't many people around to bother you plus there is an all night Coffee Shop just a few blocks down the way there. Now if you want to talk about some of the things that are bothering you I'll be happy to listen, might even be able to make a suggestion or two." I laughed.

You have to understand that Rika is a model that is just breaking into movies. She has long black hair that glistens as it moves. Not large busted but legs that go on forever! Before I met her I never thought of models as real people. They were always just a bit TOO perfect to be real, eye candy. This was the third or fourth time that Rika had been to the house so I had gotten to know her a bit. Well enough at least to flirt with, exchange quips with and pull jokes on. She took it all in the light hearted manner it was intended and returned it that same way. She was a good person as well as being attractive.

I didn't say anything, I just joined her in the walk. Slowly she started to tell me about the things that were bothering her. She had reached a crossroads in her career. Did she continue on as a Model where she was very successful or did she attempt something all together different with a movie career. It was a change that had been successful for a few models but disastrous for many others. Her agent was starting to pressure her to make a decision.

My suggestion was to try to schedule her modeling assignments around her movie assignments. She should be up front with the casting director and tell him that she only had so long before she had to leave for another assignment. Could they work around that? This way until her movie career took off she still had her modeling assignments, just not as many as before.