The Collected Works of D. Alex Rhue

Prompt: Your protagonist has arrived in 1950 with $50,000 and all of their knowledge of the future. They also have the knowledge that they will survive until beyond 2024.

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This is harder than I thought. 1950s America feels like a completely different country. The cars are cooler at least, but I feel cut off from the whole universe. At least I am dressed the part. So odd that people are this dressed up to walk around town. At any rate, I head to the bank to deposit the $50,00 in cash given to me for that purpose.

I enter the standalone brick and cement building. Centurion Capital Bank in gold relief above the door in large block letters. Before I made it all the way out of the revolving door i was greeted by Carl Smiley. Yes, Mr. Smiley lived up to his name a broad car salesman like smile stretched across his face as he reached out with his right hand. “Hello, I am Carl Smiley. How can I help you?” He then began gesturing awkwardly indicating I should remove my hat.

Barely a hat really, the hat was a prop designed to make me fit in. “I need to open an account.” “Excellent right this way, Mr..” Smiley’s voice trailed off as he waited for me to introduce myself. I nearly slipped up giving him my real name, and so I paused. I wonder what was going through the mind of this simpleton as I reached for my identification. “Jason Bourne”, I said. If this time period was going to make it so easy to invent an identity, I might as well have fun with it.

If I stuck with the program, I would have identified myself as Bill Withers, an equally fake name that would be easily recognized in my home time but today stands as a mystery. I worked hard to suppress a smile as I think of how hard a laugh I would have at Carl’s expense if I hadn’t the need to be so formal and in memorable. Well the sum I would deposit would surely be memorable, that couldn’t be avoided, but in every other way, I want to be just another customer.

“Alright Jason, what kind of account would you like to open?” the banker inquired as he prepared a stack of paper forms. Actual paper!! How archaic! “I would like to open a checking account and a savings account. I have $50,000 that I inherited from my Grandfather when he died last month and my family keeps telling me I shouldn’t keep it under the mattress.”

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Well, I ran out of time there. Where would you go with the prompt from here?