a character named Bob Altemyer
By Moristotle
Your challenge is to continue the narrative begun below, developing the character of Bob Altemyer in an engaging way and coming to a satisfying – and hopefully a surprising – ending, yet one that a careful reader might have foreseen. Go wherever your story (and your muse) may lead you.
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Here’s that beginning:
Bob Altemyer was receiving at least a call a day (some days two or three) from someone or other wanting to buy his home. “Hello, Robert Altemyer?”To see other Story Challenge columns for their challenging beginnings, go to this column’s Story Challenge tag.
“First, who are you?”
“Mr. Altemyer?”
“No, who are you?”
“I’m Anthony, with Home Buyers.”
Bob politely bade Anthony not to continue his pitch, he was not interested. “And please remove my number from your call list.”
Were most of the homes in America going to end up owned by huge real estate companies?
Bob knew he was going to have to work up a plan. He would either get rich from this or have some fun trying.
| Copyright © 2022 by Moristotle |
In retrospect, this beginning might better serve a novel, but maybe a contemporary Ernest Hemingway can wrap it up in short order. (I refer to Lisa Austin’s quoting his two-sentence story: “For sale. Baby shoes, never worn.”)
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