I’m trying something new this week. Reedsy has a weekly creative writing prompt. This week the theme is Heard it Through the Grapevine. There are five ways to write something and I chose; Your main character has a secret superpower; the gossip they spread always comes true.
Bryan Murphy – Writer on Reedsy Prompts
Let me know if this is at all interesting.
The Rumor is that Trump will Win
It is 2016 and the one person who knows about Benedict’s (Ben) superpower is pushing him to use it.
“Miles, I’m not going to do anything dangerous.”
“I’m not asking you to. We can have some fun with this without hurting anyone. You know if we did this right your ability to whisper a rumor to me and have it happen can be very lucrative. You say a specific stock will go up and we invest. When it happens, we make money.”
“No Miles.”
“Let’s try something that won’t have a big impact. Just try it. How about you create a rumor that Bitcoin will hit some crazy price, like $700 by election day? No one cares about Bitcoin.”
“That is crazy. How would some digital thing with no inherent value get to $700.”
“That is how we prove your superpower. That sounds ridiculous, but if you whisper a rumor to me it will happen. Let’s try it.”
Ben leans toward Miles and says, “I heard a rumor that Bitcoin will hit $700 this year, by election day. Can you believe that?”
Miles smiles saying, “Now we see what happens. Oh, and I’m totally going to put $1000 into Bitcoin. That will double when it is $700 and I’ll buy you a steak dinner.”
“It is March right now so that is months away.”
The next day Ben promptly forgets about the whole thing and goes back to being careful about any information he passes to someone. If it is fact-based, it is okay, opinions are dangerous. Anything that is a rumor can get him in trouble. The last time he didn’t realize it was a rumor. The person expressed it like a fact. When they said Edward was getting a promotion no one thought it was possible. Edward was the most incompetent person in the group. Benedict was asked in a conversation, “What do you think?”
Ben casually replied, “Edward gets a promotion, and then so does our boss.”
A month later Edward and their boss both had promotions announced. After that Ben is quiet in most work gossip conversations. That is when he talked to Miles and told him. Miles immediately said, “Use it for us.”
Ben replied, “That is totally not the right thing to do. I don’t want to get into trouble. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Ben, I never said anything like that. If you have this superpower who says it is wrong to use it.”
Benedict refused and they argued and then didn’t talk for days.
Two weeks after Edward’s promotion Benedict is told Edward will be his new boss. Two weeks after that Edward put Benedict on a performance improvement plan.
“Miles this is the kind of shit I’m talking about. Now Edward is going to fire me and probably several other people he hates in the group. This is not a superpower, this is an insidious, evil trap.”
“Ben, fix it. You just say a rumor that Edward gets fired and wait.”
Ben spent the next day fuming. Fuming at Edward, Miles, this stupid power that is now controlling his life. That evening he searches online for anything to help. Multiple searches with Google and Bing, most of the answers are focused on stating a superpower for a job interview. What would you choose and what it says about you? Ben is more frustrated. He can’t say his real superpower and none of the information helps him control this power or curse.
Feeling depressed late in the evening he sees a bird land on the balcony and says, “I heard a rumor that Edward will be fired within a week.”
Three days later, on Friday, Edward is fired. He calls Miles that evening to talk. Miles asks, “Whom did you tell the rumor?”
“A bird on my balcony. Seriously, that is the only time I said anything.”
“Ben, this is crazy, awesome, and you need to be careful. By the way Bitcoin is past $500 now. That one is happening too.”
“Miles, what am I going to do?”
“We are going to start training. Just like every superhero we read about, there is a sidekick or support person helping. I’m going to help you.”
Ben looks at Miles squinting, “What does that mean.”
“Look, Ben, you can’t say anything, however, you can write it. We need to study and practice so the rumor you say is worded correctly so there are no bad situations. We can then practice a few things that won’t hurt anybody. It won’t get better if you don’t exercise it to get better.”
“How do we start?”
“Ben, I have no idea. We are going to try some things and see what starts to work.”
“I like the thought, but I don’t know if I want to try random shit.”
“You’re right, not random. How about we start by writing down the results we want? Then we look at how to create something to get there. It will take some work to make sure we cover every angle, but we can try a few simple ones.”
“I’m okay with that approach. We have to keep it small. Nothing big. The bigger the result the more potential problems.”
“Totally. Let’s start with something that lots of people will benefit from, has few potential issues, and is easy to see happen. Let’s pick a stock and say it will go up.”
“Miles we can’t just buy a stock, I say something, the stock goes up and we make a million dollars. They look at that kind of stuff. We could go to jail.”
“Ben, stop talking and listen. We pick and stock and do this test. Yes, we can make money, but that isn’t the point. I agree we can’t make this a business model. This is practice. We need to look at what could happen if a stock goes up. We do this and then look at what else happens. It could be great, or it could be we didn’t think of something. At the end of the day a stock going up or down is not going to destroy anything.”
“We write it down first and check.”
“Yes, that is what we said and agreed to. I want you to pick a stock.”
Ben spends a day looking for a small stock that won’t make a difference if something changes. He writes down the outcome of an increase of 10% in the stock price. After all this, he reviews it with Miles.
“Ben, I think this is a good test. Now I’m going to look at the industry, and the situation to see if this could be a problem. We need to be careful with small stocks. They could be in a niche industry and the impact could affect others.”
Two days later they are meeting with a rumor written down. “Ben, are you good with the wording?”
“Yes, I’m ready to try this.”
“Okay, Cliffs Natural Resource Inc. stock price will exceed $4.50 by the end of June.”
Ben whispers this back to Miles and they sit back. Miles says, “One try down. We have to wait two weeks and it is not a huge jump in price that will cause anyone to wonder. Now let’s start writing down the next thing.”
CLF stock goes above $4.50 before the end of June and they don’t see any issues. Miles says to Ben, “See, relax. We can focus and make things happen.”
That Friday they are meeting with friends for dinner and drinks. They start at happy hour and proceed from there. Amy, who Ben really likes is there and Miles knows Amy likes Ben, but they won’t actually take a step.
Amy says, “Ben, it was a shock to hear that Edward got promoted and then a few weeks later fired. That must have been a big deal in your group.”
“It was, I had a lot to deal with during that whole time.”
“Miles says, “He was getting depressed with all the politics in the office. To distract him I started asking him what results you want to see. You know like who wins the world series, when do we go to Mars? Simple and crazy stuff. I would ask and then talk about problems to fix. Going to Mars we need a spaceship that doesn’t exist.”
Ben is looking at Miles and shifts his glass saying, “That was not shared. He helped me focus on something else while the Edward thing was happening.”
Amy is looking at Ben interested. “When do we go to Mars?”
Ben blushes and says, “I didn’t pick a date. I said we need to make a commitment. At a national level, we need to agree, commit and start working toward that goal. That was all.”
Amy smiles, “Was that you being cautious or simply stating the first, most important step.”
Ben replies, “The most important step is to agree and commit to the program. That kind of program will take years.”
Amy replies, “I like it. What about other crazy shit. I mean it is all just us talking. How about a crazy result for the election? What would you say?”
After several drinks and Miles not realizing what is happening Ben leans forward and says, “The rumor is that Trump will get fewer votes than Clinton but somehow win the election.”
Miles says, “NO!”
Amy laughs saying, “That would be crazy.”
