Morning all. Time for the midweek prompt. Man is this week skating by. Hope you are having a good one. Timers set and lets jump into the morning prompt. Fifteen minutes of writing, no stopping until the timer dings.
It took me a while to get into this one. I fumbled a bit but I think I kind of know what I would do with this story line now. I’ll make a few notes before letting it go to the files.
Wednesday. April 8th: It was becoming clear.
It was becoming clear. He had been used. He slammed the papers down on the desk. The noise made him feel marginally better. He sighed and ran a hand over his face. He hated the situation. He had been maneuvered well though, he couldn’t argue that.
His votes were the last ones needed for the company to change course. The others, he found out after the fact, were told tales of riches the change would bring. That the change would be beneficial to them all.
No such promises of extra wealth were made for him. He suspected the ruse used with the others was not viewed as viable for him. He agreed to the exploratory study. The others pressuring him for more. They approved the results of the study. It showed them what they wanted.
He called for the study instead of dismissing the notion out of hand. It had been a stopgap measure for him. A way not to cave in to the pressure of the others. It had been exactly what Ferris wanted.
He had been used.
Samuel slapped his hand down on the desk next to the stack of papers venting his frustration. He tried today to talk them out of it, seeing the details of the exploratory study they glossed over.
‘Wanted to gloss over.’ He thought. Samuel sank into his desk chair. They didn’t want to see the details. They wanted to see the enormous profits.
“And there will be at the beginning,’ he said. “Then the bottom will drop out.”
He leaned back in the chair. The profit would be nice but as he already had more than enough, it wasn’t his driving factor. He tried to decide if he was mercenary enough to stay until the profits were as high as they could go and then slip out. He thought about the devastation the company would cause once that initial bubble was over.
He decided he wanted to be a part of that less than he wanted the profits. He reached for the phone, his decision made.
A few calls later and his bank account was substantially fatter, his shares in the business sold to the others. He was told by James when he sold his final shares that he was no longer needed. He would not be required to attend any other business related meetings. He was cut loose.
Samuel smiled darkly to himself. “They don’t want me raining on their parade.”
He nodded to himself and felt quite a good deal lighter. He took a deep breath and realized he was free. He was actually free of the business. He didn’t much care for the way it happened, but by using him they cut him free.
Samuel steepled his hands and thought about his next moves. He decided that he didn’t want to be here. Not when they gloated about the profits they were raking in and not when things started to turn.
‘A trip,’ he decided. ‘Maybe a series of trips.’
The idea appealed to him. It would take a little more preparation but he estimated he needed a week or two to get his affairs in order here. Then he could take all the time he wanted. The Empire was a vast place and there were many parts of it he wouldn’t mind seeing.
“Yes, a series of trips,” he decided. Samuel reached for his phone. This time he wasn’t severing his business connections but taking a break from his life. There were things that needed to be done before he stepped out. For the first time in weeks, Samuel felt the dim light of optimism grow inside of him.
Ten til Midnight 