Spencer was a man in demand. He knew how to stack those greenbacks for his clients. Trading was like a game to him. He treated the money as if it was monopoly money, after all it was not his own. This carefree nonchalant outlook allowed him to take risks and somehow he was never burned.

He worked long hours, but it paid for his lavish lifestyle. At thirty four he owned four properties, two in New York City, one in San Diego and another down in Miami. He wined and dined clients across the three cities and lived a life that he could only have dreamed about when he started his business major back in Harvard.

Colleen was his PA in the investment bank and she booked his diary meticulously every week. Many of the high rolling clients wanted to meet the mercurial young man to try and understand his tact, his luck, his intrigue or whatever it was that allowed him to beat the markets with apparent ease.

Mr. O'Neill took a second look at his watch at 8:44am and glanced at the others around the table. The meeting was supposed to start at 8:40am. Nobody left Mr. O'Neill waiting and his agitation was clear to see. His rotund face reddening by the second. The meeting with Spencer would soon be the least of his troubles.

Spencer was around 6 miles North at the wrong office. For the first time since starting with the firm eight years ago Colleen had made a typo and Spencer shook his head.

A few blocks downtown, the first tower was struck at 8:45am by an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel, and 18 minutes later the South Tower was hit by another Boeing 767.

Spencer missed his appointment with his maker that day, and lived to tell the tale.

God bless everybody who died on that tragic day in September 2001 in New York City.

Five Minute Free Writes

Back this time after just one week away, hopefully you like my little mini story.

So, do you know about Free writes? When I first arrived on Hive or the previous chain, I would often struggle for ideas on what to write about, and there were two writing initiatives that really helped - one was called #fiftywords where you could use only fifty words to tell a story about a prompt word and the other was #freewrite which basically sets a challenge of writing a mini story within 5 minutes. I regularly took part in both, and people like @mariannewest and @felt.buzz and loads of other brilliant people, so every now and then I see a post from @mariannewest and think to myself, go and do a freewrite. I hope to continue to pop in every now and then to say hello.

Sometimes I go a little over the five minutes and this one was closer to seven minutes.

Maybe you've never heard of the freewrites yourself, and if that is the case, I'd encourage you to have a go, read about todays prompt and how to enter below and above all else mind yourself and have a great day - smile, rub a dog, help a stranger and just be a nice human.

https://pixabay.com/photos/man-computer-stock-trading-finance-5782415/

The photo used is not my own and was sourced on https://pixabay.com

Thanks a million for stopping by

Peace out.