All her life, Mindy wanted to make people smile. As a child, she would dance and jump and juggle and tumble and put on skits with her collection of stuffed animals. Every Sunday night, her parents hosted "The Mindy Variety Hour" and people from miles around gathered to see Mindy perform. She made people laugh and life was good.
Her mother called her a "born actress".
Mindy had a problem, however, on her way to Hollywood. As much as she tried, she could not memorize lines. No matter how small the role or how few words she had to say, she could not act in a scripted performance.
By the time she was in high school, Mindy had given up her dreams of entertaining. Instead she focused her life on Library Studies and the intricacies of the Dewey Decimal System. She knew 023 as Personnel Management, 412 as Etymology, 624 as Civil Engineering, 999 as Extraterrestrial Worlds, and everything in between.
Despite graduating with honors, and being called the "The Future Star of 21st Century Librarians" by Librarian's Quarterly, Mindy hated her career decision.
She still wanted to entertain. The desire was still alive.
Then, a month before she was to start her job with the Library of Congress, Mindy saw a Craig's List ad for baseball mascots. Every team in baseball was looking for a performer to entertain their crowd.
It was Mindy's dream job.
Unfortunately, the ad was a week old
Frantically, Mindy emailed the person who posted the ad. She nearly cried joyful tears when she received a reply stating there was one position left.
The response failed to mention the only opening was for the Chicago Cubs.
Never one to follow sports, Mindy took the role, not knowing the depressing history of the franchise. With hope and optimism, Mindy took to being a mascot like a fish to water, running through the stadium every game, trying in vain to excite the crowd. Within weeks however, the pessimism of the Cubbie faithful and the losing ways of the players destroyed Mindy's enthusiasm. She quickly knew no matter how hard she tried, the woeful, pathetic players negated even her best attempts at cheerleading.
Her dreams crushed, she knew her life as a performer was done forever.
Melvil Dewey and his Decimal System were her future.
813, American Fiction.
