As she exhaled, the smoke curled around her sophisticated lips to join the cloud gathering above her head. The low ceiling pressed the smoke back down to create a veil of fumes that spun and thinned each time another actor passed through the room. She tilted her head and raised a thin eyebrow at her guest, expectantly. Her gold star earrings glinted through the smoke like little balls of fire.

He had made it this far and gained an audience with the matron of the stage. He had left his hometown and all he knew for this opportunity. Without her blessing, he would never be cast as anything but a member of the chorus. And that was not the life he saw for himself. He worked odd jobs every day in order to be here. This was it. This was his chance at stardom.

“I want to be a real actor,” he began when introductions were over. He had presented his letter of recommendation, and she had read it with a face of stone. Now her dark eyes surveyed him with a tired disinterest that made her seem both motherly and intimidating.

“So does everyone who comes to see me. What makes you exceptional?” she breathed and took another puff from her cigarette holder, the golden tube flashing in the foggy light.

“This is my dream,” he said, his words driven with passion. “I love the stage, the pressure of the crowd, and the emotional demands of delivering lines with enough charisma to win the audience without appearing a cheap fool. I work hard, and I am creative.”

“Everyone is creative until rent is due.”

“You have seen me act. You know I can do this.”

She dismissed his statement with a blink. “And why are you doing this?”

“I want to be a star!” he insisted. “I want to change the world.”

“Those are not the same things,” she sighed, “And such vague fantasies are useless in this profession: nothing but empty words.”

Anger blustered in his stomach. “What do you mean?” How could she doubt him? He wasn’t lying. He wanted this more than anything else, and he was willing to work for it. What else mattered?

“Your head is in the clouds, and your heart is hidden behind a curtain of generic desires and unrealistic expectations.” She took another puff to let those words wash over him.

He blinked, the smoke stinging his eyes. He couldn’t understand what she was saying. “What do you mean?”

“You’re focusing too much on something that sounds good instead of examining what you and your heart truly need. The stage doesn’t need anymore people simply trying to fit into a mold.” She exhaled a heavy twisting cloud of smoke towards him.

He lurched back in his seat as the smoke settled directly where his face had been. Fear that the interview was already over flared into annoyance. She wasn’t taking him seriously, and everything he had worked for would be for naught.

He swept the smoke aside with his hand and coughed once. He started to lean forward again, but she blew a second cloud into his face. This time he closed his eyes as tears blurred his vision and coughed repeatedly as the smoke dried out his mouth, singed his nostrils, and stung his lungs.

“Stop fighting it,” she breathed softly. “You say you want to be a star, but that is not enough. You tell me you ran from home, but you have left it in the past. You have buried the lead, and unless you dig it back up, you will fizzle out faster than my cigarette.”

Her words tugged at his mind even as the smoke burned into his senses. He wasn’t used to this kind of atmosphere. It was too much. It hurt: Her words hurt. But something about her words also spoke to him, as if she were trying to hand him the answer wrapped in fog.

He forced his clenched hands to relax and opened his eyes. The room was awash in blurred grays. The clouds circled her head and hid her eyes while the smoke particles spun and danced around her earrings. They glowed as if they had a life of their own, and their sun-shaped tendrils reminded him of something his mother would wear.

He nodded in acceptance of the matron’s words. He felt a surge of something like ecstasy emerge in his mind and his eyes flashed with a new fire. She was right.

He wasn’t here to become a star. He was here to prove his parents wrong. He was here to show his father that tradition wasn’t the only option. He didn’t care about changing the world – not truly; what he wanted was for his father to see him standing on that stage and smile with the kind of pride that puts the moon to shame.

“You’re right. I think I just want my parents to be proud.”

She nodded in acceptance and leaned back contentedly in her chair. “That is a motivation that will last if you are brave enough to confront it. Congratulations.” And she shewed him away with the promise of a bright future.