MORE OF SOMETHING MORE,
a story about a salesman trying to establish himself,
a CEO scheming to buy out his father's influence
and the woman important to each
16
Atom Green was on the cusp of sleep
but something kept pulling him back, and he lay searching the dark ceiling when
eventually it peeked through the fog: the time to move had come. He
shut his eyes; they blinked open again. Reflection did not come easily. He would set a
course, devote his energies in pursuit and when the body shut down to re-energize, sleep would come.
He did know the value of
planning, which after all had brought him from restaurant management to sales,
and then from sales job to sales job selling A to Z before settling on
financial products. At Slade Insurance he soared to the top and
believed he'd realize his potential, but circumstances were telling him otherwise.
Earlier, he had his first look at
his new sales territory: mostly light industrial with pockets of trendy
boutiques in gentrifying areas, small businesses that had to be
courted individually for premiums a single bad claim might dwarf. The wax on
his wings was melting.
A confounding image twisted his
mind. Flying in blue sky toward the sun weighty mountains around him spring and
on the peaks the sales staff are smiling and waving. He fills in the thought
bubble: “We’re equal.” He tried to
shake it off, unwilling to accept the idea, not with the work he’d put in, not
with his talent and aspirations.
True, the changes affected everyone,
who now had to think about improving productivity of the new sales teams. Though he’d be near the top, the challenge was to be prominent individually.
Elimination of the Top Ten chart worked against that.
The nagging image flashed again. This time he feels the quaking rumble of mountains growing and the pull of gravity sucking him down. What if the rules changed again? A company might effect change to align goals to overall objectives, but if the objectives were coming unhinged the goals might keep changing too. His energies would be sapped pursuing someone else’s concept of gold.
The nagging image flashed again. This time he feels the quaking rumble of mountains growing and the pull of gravity sucking him down. What if the rules changed again? A company might effect change to align goals to overall objectives, but if the objectives were coming unhinged the goals might keep changing too. His energies would be sapped pursuing someone else’s concept of gold.
Stephen Slade wanted to take the
company public for a cash infusion. Then the company might grow by expanding lines
of coverage or buying other companies, or the cash could be a boon for
investors looking for a payoff. Through Helen Roy he knew that the CEO had been
aggressively enlisting short-term investors, holding before them the prospect of
the golden IPO. The condo figured into that scheme.
His pulse quickened thinking about
Helen. Her fresh face and unaffected manner charmed him, and her optimism was
an inspiration. The idea of increasing the distance between them was painful, but
it didn’t have to be. He reached for his cell phone and texted a message, “Get
together later?” So late at night, he didn’t expect a quick reply but the clock
was ticking for that and more. If he left, he wanted to take her with him. Resolved, the sleep overtook him.
The characters and events in this story are fictitious and do not represent any living person or real event.
