The New Hartford Job Fair at the Marriot on Main
Vee looked at his nails, bouncing the tip of a green GloboPlanet pen off his cuticles. He leaned on the desk and let out a sigh. Dozens of work-hungry visitors rushed through the aisles of the job fair, lining up for booths and leaving business cards. He finished talking to his last interview forty minutes ago, and could tell halfway through the man had mistaken the company for GloboDoxy. He didn't leave a resume.
Strewn throughout the crowd of suits, ties, and collared shirts, were people in plush animal costumes, cartoon-looking foxes and wolves and rabbits standing five feet tall. Vee sneered his eyes when one of them walked by.
"So they scheduled us the same day as some furry convention," said Rachel, Vee's booth partner. "So what? It's two ballrooms down."
"Yeah, but they keep coming in here," he said. "It's fucking weird."
"Everyone needs a job," she said. "The fair ends in an hour anyway. Maybe they didn't have time to change."
"I hear it's a fetish thing," he said.
Rachel shrugged her shoulders.
A shadow loomed over the table, and Vee looked up from his hands. A ballooning figure stood in front of the booth in a blue plush dragon suit. Purple felt spikes ran down the back of the costume and onto a tail that slid to the floor. The dragon put out a fur covered claw. Vee hesitated. Rachel shook his hand.
"Scooter Tims," he said.
"Don't dragons normally have scales?" Vee asked.
"It's an aesthetic choice," he said. "Most scientists believe dinosaurs had feathers now, so I figure, why not a dragon with fur."
"Ri-i-ight," said Vee.
"You guys doing interviews for GloboPlanet?" he asked.
"Yes indeed," said Rachael. "If you're interested, my associate here could sit down with you for a few minutes.
"That'd be great," said Scooter.
Vee took Rachel aside.
"I don't know what you're trying to do here," he whispered, "but if you think this is going to be one of those stories where I look past my assumptions, broaden my horizons, open myself up to people's differences, and come to understand how the world is a much better place when we're less quick to judge each other, I can guarantee you that is not going to happen."
But it totally fucking did.
THE END.
[I'm sorry. I ran out of time on my break.]