Page 33 of Child of Mine

Laura shakes her head. “Too babyish.”

“An animated character?” Tim suggests. “That’d be cool.”

“Too expensive.” James shakes his head. “And it’d take over a year to create.”

“A disembodied voice?” Henry asks.

Keeley makes a face. “That’s kind of scary.”

“A computer?” Laura offers.

“Ha! We could name it Hal,” James says with a smirk.

“Why is that funny?” she asks.

“Like the movie?2001? Where the computer takes over?” James says.

“Never heard of it,” Tim says.

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea anyway,” Carol says.

“What if it’s a female voice instead?” I suggest.

“Less threatening, right? We could set it up so that the computer ‘randomly,’” Henry says with air quotes, “chooses from the letters that are sent in.”

“The computer could dialogue with the Boomerangs, either using typed text or a human voiceover,” I add, which was our idea in the first place.

“I don’t know.” Carol sits back in her chair and crosses her arms. “Kids deal with so much judgement and competition as it is.”

“But if they’re working together to complete, like, missions—” Keeley says.

“That gives the audience a way to root for them,” Laura finishes, “against the authority figure of the computer.”

Henry shoots me a grin, and I know exactly what he’s thinking. The younger APs are making our argument for us.

“But what about what the viewers send in?” James asks. “We haven’t asked for anything like that.”

“First off”—Henry holds up the list I typed for him—“like Bella said, so many of these beg to be shot outside the studio, and most of them have an inherent challenge. We can also change what we’re asking for—or add to it,” he adds before Carol can object. “We can ask kids something like, ‘What do you wonder about? What do you want to know more about?’ Or ‘What do you want to see the Boomerangs tackle?’ We could use the team-building retreat to shoot footage that we cut into a couple of promos that ask those questions.”

James shakes his head. “I still don’t know if we have time to make these changes.”

Henry’s practically bouncing in his chair. I can just picture the kid that had to run around the house before his mom let him inside. “I can get this done quickly, cut together a quick commercial that’ll give you a taste of what I’m talking about.”

“And the new asks from our audience?” Carol cuts in. “We’ve already sent out thousands of appeals through the schools.”

“Like Henry said, we use what we get, we just change how we use them,” I say.

“All right,” Carol says, rubbing her temple. “You’re starting to convince me. I’ll see if I can find room in the budget for filming the retreat?—”

“I’ve got prices on equipment rentals right here.” Henry sifts through his briefcase. “I can shoot it myself and—”

“No.” Carol stops him short, making a stop sign with her hand. “That’s where I won’t budge. We’ll have to bring in someone from the outside. If we’re doing team-building, we all have to join in. I want the Boomerangs to feel like we are all working together.” She circles the table with her finger. “That includes you, Henry.”

Backing off, he nods. “Got it.”

Pointing at him and drawing a line to me and the other APs, she continues, “Someone needs to take the lead on the computer. That would require an additional set piece, someone to voice it, and I don’t know what else…”

“And I need to have a shot list for the first episode by the end of the week,” James adds. “I was hoping to finalize it today, but?—”

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