I've been reading this book called Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook, and I have to say it is one of the most helpful things I have read in terms of writing tips. I will be referencing it for a few more posts and highly recommend you taking the time to read it if your looking for useful writing tips.
Throughout this book the two authors give you random prompts for you to practice different writing ideas/techniques. One of them was to take two people you admire, write down one thing you admire from each person, and use those qualities to make one character. Then they give you a situation to have that character respond to. So I wanted to share my short story stemming from this prompt.
The two people I chose were:
Mom- her admirable trait was her perseverance (seriously, she has been through Hell and back and I have never seen her give up or slow down)
Dad- his admirable trait was honesty (he was the kind of guy who would rather tell you I will answer you when you're older, instead of lying to you)
Anyways, here is the story......
The Offer
Lisa was on her way to Grand Central Park to go for a quick jog before work. She pressed the button on the pole at the intersection and began to wait for the light to indicate she could cross the street. Looking around she saw a short bald man with an umbrella hat and beach clothes on moving quickly in her direction. As he got closer, he made eye contact with her and gave her a relieved smile. Then he handed her a small sealed carton she hadn't noticed him carrying a moment before and said, "Don't let anything happen to this!" Before she could say anything to him, the man ran off in the opposite direction.
Looking down at the carton, Lisa's mind raced about what could be inside. The man hadn't really looked dangerous, just strange. After standing there looking dumbfounded, she finally came to a decision. She would give the man one hour to return it before taking it to the police station as a lost and found item. She would be a little late to work if he didn't come back before the hour finished, but the man had decided to trust her for some reason; and she really wanted to ask him what was inside.
She walked across the street and sat at the first bench she found to wait for the man. After 45 minutes passed, Lisa began to think he wouldn't come back; but just as she got up to look around, the man came across the street towards her with a huge grin on his face.
"I knew you would be the one lawyer in New York City I could trust!", he exclaimed. Now she was nervous. Who was this man and how did he know she was a lawyer? And how did he know she ran in Grand Central Park every morning before work? Realizing he had been stalking her or having her followed, she started to back away.
"Don't be afraid! My name is Matt Hamilton from The Prime Ink Corporation and I've been looking for a lawyer to handle my private and business affairs.", he said.
Her interest had peaked upon realizing who he was, but she was still feeling a little unsettled.
"Look, I don't care if you're the owner of a billion dollar company or not, you can't go around stalking people! You could have just as easily called me at my office if you were looking to hire me.", she told him angrily.
"Yes, but I needed to know if I could trust you to look after my affairs. If you open the box, you will see how much I am willing to pay you per month to work full-time for me with benefits.", he replied smugly.
Getting annoyed at how he seemed to think she would just instantly agree, she looked down at the carton Opening it, she glanced inside. Struggling to swallow, she looked back up at him.
"This would be my monthly salary?", she asked in disbelief.
He just smiled, nodded his head, reached into his pocket, and handed her his business card before turning around and walking away. She turned it over and saw he had written her start date and time for two weeks from today; giving her just enough time to give her firm two weeks notice. When she looked back up from the card, Mr. Hamilton was gone.
