I did do yesterday’s. It was a twitter fiction prompt so I didn’t port it over to here. If you don’t follow me on Twitter then you missed it. Feel free to follow me here: http://twitter.com/adammyhr.

I had trouble getting into this one, but I am very happy with the resulting story. This is another one I feel I should clean up and submit somewhere, but I really don’t know where.

Inspired By Real Events

There’s nothing quite like real life for providing weird and wonderful story ideas.

The prompt

Write a story ripped from the headlines

<– Write Below This Line –>

(Inspired by the first story under The Entrepreneurial Spirit at http://newsoftheweird.com/archive/nw160515.html.)

“We need to do this right Mary. We only get one chance and the results of this decision will reach over 100 years into the future.”

“I know Carl, I just don’t know that this is the right way to do it.”

“We’ve had this discussion every day for the last three years. In all that time neither of us has found a better option. Now that you’re pregnant we’re out of time. Honestly, we should’ve went a month ago.”

Carl grabbed his briefcase from the office and looked around the room. “Do we have everything?”

“I think so. I have all of our financial records. You have our real-estate holdings and household goods inventories for each property?” Mary started going through her day bag.

“Yep, I have those records here. How about employment history?”

“I’ve got it in the folder with our career plans.”

Carl closed the briefcase. “All that’s left is references for them to interview and I know we have those lists.”

Mary reached out to Carl and pulled him in. “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing here?”

Carl looked Mary in the eye and relaxed. “We are. They’re the best in the business and our little one deserves that.” He pulled her in to his embrace. After a moment he gave her a gentle kiss and pulled back. “Let’s go. We don’t want to be late.”

Carl held the car door open for Mary just as he had every day since they met. As they backed out of the driveway they looked at the neighborhood. They had spent the last decade buying houses in all the right neighborhoods and renting them out. They wanted to be ready when this day came. They always agreed that their child would grow up in the best neighborhood when they finally started. Their whole relationship had been building to this.

When they arrived at the downtown office they were shown to an ornate waiting room. They huddled together whispering plans and dreams for the future to each other.

“Mr. And Mrs. Leiman? They’re ready for you now.”

Carl stood up. “Thank you.” He offered his hand to Mary and escorted her back.

They walked into a fancy conference room where a group of 9 men and women in business suits sat around a table. There were two seats open for them to take their place.

“I assume you have all your paperwork?”

“Yes ma’am.” Carl got the briefcase and bag out and started to place papers on the table in front of them.

“Thank you. Everyone, shall we begin?”

For the next three hours the group at the table went over every piece of paper the Leiman’s brought with them. They asked questions of the couple every few minutes. Finally everyone leaned back. The woman who started the meeting put the lat of the papers down and looked at the Leiman’s.

“When do you find out the baby’s gender?”

Mary spoke up. “We have an appointment next Tuesday. We also have reservations every day for three weeks after that in case there are difficulties in obtaining it, all different times of the day.”

“You should have been here four months ago, basically as soon as you knew.”

The group leaned in together and started to confer in whispers. Mary and Carl sat in silence, worried.

After what felt an eternity the lead woman pulled a stack of papers from under the table. “It will be tight but as long as you have all 50 references you provided available until they are contacted we can help you. We have a 30 year contract. Most companies will only run an 18 or 21 year contract and jack the rates up on a renewal at that time. As a result they have – results due to lack of renewals. We find those ten years are very formative and most of our clients renew.”

Mary and Carl exchanged looks. “They’re prepared to talk to you whenever you call. Is this the same contract you sent us last month?”

“For the most part. You’ll want to review addendum’s a-f, the last 23 pages, for items specific to your situation. Finally, we’ll need to know the baby’s gender immediately. We will send an intern with you to the doctor.”

“That’s fine. We’ll need a couple of minutes to go over the addendum’s.” Mary started reading the back of the stack of papers.

“Of course. We’ll wait.”

About 20 minutes later the couple leaned back, exhausted. Carl spoke up. “It looks good. Where do we sign?”

The woman smiled. “At all of the yellow marks. You won’t regret this Mr. Leiman. We’ll meet with you again two days after we know the baby’s gender to go over our proposed name and initial branding plan for your baby.”