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"Where is that music coming from?"

"What's that Sparky?"

"Do you hear that?"

Walter Chase, a middle-aged wealthy banker accustomed to Sparky's undivided attention, was getting annoyed. His ever present assistant Giles Crawford sat in the vacant chair next to Chase watching every move made by Sparky as he polished Chase's shoes. It was his job this afternoon to hold Chase's half-empty cup of coffee.

Abruptly folding his newspaper and placing it on his lap, Chase announced; "Sparky, you're getting old...you should think about retirement...how old are you?"

Giles, like a good lackey, chuckled uproariously.

"I'm fifty-four Mister Chase."

Walter was silent for a moment. Giles was silent as well. Chase thought that Sparky was at least sixty-five or older. He was a bald black man, his back was hunched over and he usually looked exhausted. Chase felt that it would be impolite to continue the conversation.

However, Mister Chase was in no way polite.

"Fifty-four? You have to take better care of yourself! Look at me, I'm fifty-eight and most women think that I'm forty!!"

"Exactly!" Giles chided in.

Chase glared at Giles. Giles was trained to speak only when he was ordered to do so by Mister Chase.

Sparky replied; "Yes sir, you do look young for your age..."

"Yep Sparky, I'm a self-made millionaire!! When my father released my trust fund to me I made it a point to make it grow!! I think the bible even says something about that...so it must be good, right?"

"Amen!"

"Giles!"

"Sorry sir."

Sparky replied; "Yes sir, you earn everything that you get!"

"Precisely! Are you almost through?"

Sparky struggled to stand and regarded Mister Chase's shiny shoes quickly and answered; "Yes sir that should do it!"

"How much do I owe you?"

"That'll be..."

Sparky could hear that music again...

"What is that sound?"

Mister Chase crushed a bill into Giles' hand and Giles stuffed it into Sparky's shirt pocket. Chase grabbed his paper and walked away with Giles trailing behind.

Giles stopped following, folded his arms around a notebook pressed against his chest and called out;"Keep the change!"

Chase entered the elevator and pressed the floor number quickly and the doors slammed shut, causing a splash of cold coffee to splash on the front of Giles' grey Armani suit. Giles attempted to stop the elevator by pounding on the call button but it was too late.

Sparky chuckled softly and shook his head. Chase made it a point to strand Giles on the other side of the elevator door whenever possible. Giles glared at Sparky and stormed off towards the stairwell splashing coffee on the floor in the process.

Sparky examined the bill and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

"Wow, ten dollars - a whole fifty cent tip..."

Sparky thought about his sarcastic tone and said; "forgive me Father, I appreciate anything that you see fit to place in my hands!"

***

Giles sprinted to the tenth floor intent on making it there before the elevator. He reasoned that he'd get some type of satisfaction if Chase opened the elevator and saw him standing there. As he crawled up the last flight of stairs, he stopped outside of the door to regain his composure.

He entered Chase's office and placed the coffee on his desk. Chase sat in his oversized chair with his back to Giles. He was peering across the tops of buildings dwarfed by his tower.

Without turning around he asked; "Any calls?"

Giles thought for a second and replied; "No sir, the phone has not rung!"

However, that was not true. Giles began to pat the pockets of his stained jacket. Giles realized that he misplaced the phone and he had to find it or be fired.

Giles announced; "Excuse me sir, I'll be right back, I seem to have spilled..."

Without even bothering to turn around, Chase motioned for Giles to leave with a wave of his hand. Giles ran towards the stairs. He didn't realize that spilled coffee was all over the top of the landing. However, when he did, it was too late.

***

Sparky looked up at the large clock on the building across the street. He heard a loud thump on the other side of the stairwell door but it was not his concern.

"Three fifty eight! I need to pack up!"

Sparky flipped open his shoe-shine kit and pulled out the small wad of bills that was wedged under several cans of black shoe polish. Being that his chairs were in the lobby of a well lit and secure building, he felt safe. He counted silently and thanked God for the fifty-dollars that he earned that day. He continued to pack until he heard that music again. He was kneeling by his shoe-shine kit and he could see a small blue cell phone vibrating on the ground behind the foot-rests of his third chair.

He reached under the chair and pulled the phone out. The screen read "3 new messages." He placed the phone in his box. After cleaning his chairs and looking across the lobby at the Security Officer, he waved and he was on his way. He figured that he would hold on to the phone until the next morning to see if anyone would claim it.

Sparky's real name was Stephen Sparks. His clients started calling him Sparky because of the small cigarette lighter that he tried to use, sometimes unsuccessfully, to light his clients' cigarettes and cigars.

FLICK...FLICK...FLICK...SPARK...FLICK...SPARK...LIGHT

That lighter was so predictable...just like the old car that he used to own that wouldn't start until you invested at least twenty minutes of your time into waiting for it to turn over. Just when you were minutes away from giving up - it would turn over.

His clients enjoyed his lighter for some strange reason. It was so..."human". It was usually unreliable, made excuses often, would sometimes offer a flicker of hope but in most cases it would always come through in the end.

Before selling his restaurant and setting up his Shoe Shining business, he worked 7 days of the week from 6am to 9pm. He would come home exhausted and then plop down in front of his computer checking the "penny-stocks" that he invested in often. He used to see his wife at bedtime and rarely when the sun was up. That's why she left him.

However, in spite of it all he pushed forward believing that the next day would be the day that would change all of his past failures.

This evening, during supper, the cell phone was ringing continuously. At one point in time he placed the phone on vibrate just to have some peace of mind. However, the phone would vibrate and move across the table as it went unanswered.

After supper he entered his apartment, placed the cell phone on his desk and turned on his PC. He sat there with his head resting on his hand, struggling to stay awake. Minutes later he drifted off the sleep until he was awakened by the vibrating cell phone. He picked it up with the intention of shutting it off, but an interesting message was displayed on the small screen.

"BUY XSAVR SELL AT $1"

Sparky was confused, but very curious. He checked his trading account and punched in XSAVR, it was selling at $.0001 per share.

He thought; "What could I lose, I'll be adventurous and buy about ten million shares at $1,000. God willing, it'll go up to about $.001 a share and I'll get back $10,000! You never know!"

The next morning Sparky continued his daily routine. However, when he returned to his apartment that evening and checked on his small portfolio, he noticed a modest gain. He was up almost $.0004 - he made $4,000!!

He began to make phone calls to his Pastor and other church members and friends. He even placed a few calls to his hometown and suggested that his other family members give XSAVR a try. He lost track of all of the calls that he made during the week, but he continued to make them and the stock continued to climb. He was still shining shoes during the day and watching his portfolio grow by night.

***

Meanwhile, Walter Chase sat in his office brooding and drinking massive quantities of scotch and soda. He was not a happy man.

The plan was simple - buy a prepaid telephone registered to an alias. Pump massive quantities of money into a small unknown company based out of New Jersey that just went public. Pull other investors in, allow smaller inexperienced investors to buy massive shares, and then sell at $1. That was the plan, and he waited for one text message from his broker to put this plan into action. To have a sense of "plausible deniability" he was not told the name of the company. Once he received that name he had plans to buy up all of the available shares for himself and to gain a profit.

That was over a week ago, but the text never came in. He gave the prepaid telephone to Giles for safekeeping with instructions to tell him when the call came in and what it said. However, Giles took a nasty fall down ten flights of stairs over a week ago and was not able to speak.

This was eating Chase alive! He wanted to call the broker to check the status but he was told to refrain from this, so that the phone records could not be used against him.

***

At Exxavier International (XSAVR) Headquarters, the CEO was impressed by the public's response to the offered shares. He watched the stock accumulate excessive gains during the first week and actually thought that it was due to his company's marketing attempts and innovative methods. His broker promised him that he'd be a millionaire in just months and he believed it. He didn't ask any questions and he just looked the other way, as long as the money continued to roll in his direction.

***

Three weeks had passed and XSAVR was approaching the $1 mark. Sparky, his friends and family determined that enough was enough and they agreed to sell at $.99 per share as opposed to the tip that specified $1.00.

***

Chase's broker called one afternoon with a coded message. He simply stated; "The guys at Exxavier International look forward to meeting you! They want to do business with you!! If I had a dollar for every time that they mentioned your name I'd be a millionaire!!"

Chase called his new assistant and stated; "Buy one-million shares of XSAVR right away!"

The assistant answered; "But sir, right now it's trading at..."

Chase shouted; "Just do it!"

The assistant asked; "What account..."

"I don't care, use my expense account if you have to...just do it! I didn't become a millionaire by making brash decisions - get it done!"

Chase slammed the phone down and poured another drink.

One week later the broker called back.

Chase answered; "Is it safe to talk?"

Chase turned and wheeled his chair to the window and peered out. He didn't notice that his assistant walked in and stood silently waiting for acknowledgement.

Chase shouted; "Of course I bought XSAVR when you told me to! What!! How is that possible? You said that this plan was fool-proof! I purchased one million dollars of that stock? I don't know what it was at, I trusted you! You mean to tell me that I paid one million dollars for XSAVR and now I only have one hundred dollars? Can't you check yourself and see that the order went through? You don't want to get involved? You are involved! You've ruined me! You're fired!!"

Chase slammed the phone down and stood in front of the large window. For a fleeting moment he envisioned his lifeless body crashing through the window and plummeting ten stories down onto the pavement.

"Mister Chase?”

Chase turned quickly to his assistant and shouted; "What do you want?"

"Sir..."

"Spit it out you imbecile!"

"Sir, do you remember that day when you told me to buy one million shares of XSAVR?"

"Of course I do, and like an idiot you did it without asking any questions? They're going to have your hide boy?"

"Well sir, I kind of made a slight error."

"A slight error, you call losing over a million dollars a slight error?"

"Sir, I didn't do what you said...I knew that you weren't thinking straight and you were slightly intoxicated."

Chase's tone softened; "So you didn't place the order?"

"No sir, I did not."

"Uh...mister...?"

"My name is Chuck, sir...Chuck Wilson..."

"Chuck, you've got the job!"

"What job sir?"

"Wilson, you're my new permanent assistant! I've worked with over twenty assistants in the last year and you’re the only one with a backbone! Welcome to the company!"

With that statement Chase began to shake the young man's hand before giving him a gold key. He pointed to a door to his right. Wilson walked over to what he thought was a closet, but upon opening the door he was amazed. His new office was everything that he could have imagined and more!

***

In the afternoon, Chase and Wilson headed towards the elevator. Once they were in the elevator, Chase announced; "Where to?"

"Well sir..."

"Call me Chase, you've earned it Wilson..."

"Chase, we have a new portfolio that we have been chosen to manage..."

"I love new accounts! Where are they from?"

"Well sir, you've heard of Exxavier of course..."

"Of course! That company is a has been! The investors sucked that company dry!"

"However, a few investors profited from that venture and the company has changed hands recently. The CEO allowed the investors to purchase a controlling stake in the company and the investor with the most shares has become the new CEO."

"What's his name?"

Wilson checked his PDA for a moment and sighed; "That would be one Stephen Sparks!"

Chase laughed and responded; "I like the sound of his name! He must be one Savvy investor! Where's his office?"

Wilson responded; "He's about three floors above your office in the penthouse."

"Excellent! What is his portfolio worth?"

Wilson checked and answered; "He's at about 10 million right now...he bought and sold and then bought other shares in a few local companies...he made all of the right moves!"

"Sounds great...let's go down stairs for a shine before the meeting."

"Do we have time for that sir?"

"Wilson, this client has enough money to buy more than three quarters of my company and my building! We want to look our best! Also, I still get a bit of guilty pleasure in telling Ol' Sparky about my adventures. That man's almost sixty and he's shining shoes in the lobby! I need to motivate him to do better!"

"Chase, that's not really nice..."

As the elevator doors slid open, Chase smiled and stated, "I know...that's why I do it!"

As they walked towards the shoeshine stand they noticed that it was closed for lunch. Chase walked over to the security guard.

"Where's Sparky?"

The guard replied; "He was here this morning and then he went upstairs. Maybe he's on lunch?"

"That man can’t afford to buy lunch in this building!"

The guard smiled and nodded politely.

"Alright then, come on Wilson, let's go and meet our new client!"

Chase and Wilson re-entered the elevator and headed up to the penthouse. They approached a large door just as the maintenance guy was polishing the new plaque on the door.

Wilson read the plaque; “Sparks International…sounds catchy!”

They walked over to the receptionist and she led them to a large office at the end of a long corridor. As they walked in, there was someone sitting in a large chair with his back turned to the door. He was looking out of the window.

The receptionist announced; "Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Mr. Stephen Sparks!"

The chair spun around and a tall African-American gentleman wearing a tailor-made suit and shirt extended his hand to the two executives.

Chase was speechless, but he managed to say; "Sparky...is that you?"

Impressum

Widmung:
Dedicated to God.

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