My immediate thought was, “Why am I being taken off The Littles?” But I remembered my brother’s story about my dad keeping his mouth shut.

Lori was waiting for a reaction. Then she picked up a manilla envelope and handed it to me with, “This is the Series Bible for The Get Along Gang.”

I’d heard of the DIC series -- a cutesy show about critters in the fictional town of Green Meadow.

“Jean and Andy want you to write an episode for the show.” She added, “Just one episode, then go back to The Littles.”

I knew she was expecting me to ask, “Why just one episode?” Instead, I said, “Okay. Thanks for the assignment.”

She nodded, her eyes still on me. I couldn’t help but think that my stock was continuing to edge up. I stared to leave and Lori added, “Andy wants you to really study the Series Bible, and not just how it’s written for The Get Along Gang. He wants you to learn how a series bible is written and why it’s written a certain way.”

I nodded. As I started to walk away again, Lori said, “It’s eating you up, isn’t it?”

I turned back to her. She was looking down at something she’d been working on, but said, “The Get Along Gang’s owned by Those Characters from Cleveland, which is owned by American Greetings.” I clutched the Series Bible a little tighter. Lori looked up, grinned and said, “Now scat.”

And I did.