Creative writing class assignment: Show someone with deep financial problems.
Jefferson moved the cursor down the column of numbers in the spreadsheet, double-checking every one against the paper statements from his banks and brokers. Then he sighed and leaned back in his leather swivel-chair.
There was no mistake. He was even worse off than he had been a month ago. Another two-and-a-half million dollars. That was almost a hundred thousand a day. Stupid stock market.
He looked at the bottom line of the spreadsheet. Fourteen billion and change. He had to get that down somehow, and quick.
Picking up the Bible from his desk, turned with practiced fingers to the passage he had read every day since the doctors had told him he had less than a year to live.
He whispered the verses, barely needing the text before him to recite them word for word:
“And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
“And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
He’d spent his whole life amassing this fortune. There had never been a financial challenge he had not beaten, until now. He only knew how to make money — that was the problem. He needed advice from somebody who knew how to lose money.