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Bob Ellis

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2020

Stories (5)

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Library

4 Followers

1 Following

5 Stories

132 karma pts

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Complaint Letter

Bob Ellis

Don Vito LuchesiThe Sicilian Social ClubJersey City, New Jersey May 14, 2020 Dear Don Vito: It is with great respect that we are forced to complain - Eddie McGinty still walks upon this earth. In other words, he remains alive as of today’s date. The services of your organization came highly recommended to us, and it was with incredible difficulty we raised the five thousand dollars necessary to rectify the problem of Eddie. It took us over two years of “borrowing” money from our cookie sales to acquire sufficient cash to purchase the service...

0 likes

Reporting for Duty

Bob Ellis

Submitted to Contest #299

Welcome to Minot Air Force base and to Delta Seven Two, your new post, Lieutenant. Hope the elevator trip down wasn’t too unnerving. Only two hundred and ten feet, ten stories is all, really, but that old elevator’s gotten a little wobbly. I submitted a work order three years ago, but, well, you know, the bureaucracy and all.…No, flight suits are fine. I tore the arms and legs off mine to be more comfortable. We ain’t too formal down here. Call me Tom, not Major. I’ll call you Pete.…No, Pete will be fine. Let me show you around, Pete. First ...

5 likes

Computer Evolution

Bob Ellis

Submitted to Contest #236

We bought the Timex Sinclair 1000 home computer for $99.95 in the fall of 1982. It ran BASIC instructions without the aid of any operating system. Users were forced to write programs for themselves, otherwise the six-inch by seven-inch, 20-ounce box did nothing but collect dust. The computer lacked a complete keyboard; no games, sound boards, or monitor were included. We had just moved up to Maine from Boston and had little money to spend. To get the computer’s required, but not included, black-and-white monitor, we drove from Yarmouth, M...

5 likes

Damned if you do...

Bob Ellis

Submitted to Contest #95

“Find a way to pay me, or leave the bank,” my boss, Teresa Tedescho, snarled her ultimatum. My entire professional life felt like it was slipping away. If caught, I could lose my licenses, get fined hundreds of thousands, and be banned from the securities industry for life. Life, hell, I was only forty-two. Cutting lawns and plowing driveways for the next thirty-plus years was a decidedly unattractive proposition. *** I was hired by Johnson City Bank to build a brokerage program in the late 1990’s. All the community banks were getting ...

9 likes

Is he, or isn't he?

Bob Ellis

Submitted to Contest #49

A few minutes past 10 AM, with a little time to kill, I sidle over to Malcolm at Green and Steele’s market-making post. Malcolm is a New York Stock Exchange specialist, maintaining orderly markets in a dozen large stocks. Malcolm looks drawn and tired, his hair all askew, and we still have six hours to go in the trading day. Malcolm’s badge and blue jacket bear his company’s name and his personal exchange number, 805, on them. This allows quick counterparty identification when making trades. I work as a specialist in several different stoc...

4 likes