Chapter 44: Change In Mindscape, and The Sales Pitch (2/2)
”Hmm? You want me to meet someone? Who?” asked George.
”A person with a product that I think is great. He contacted me hoping to get a meeting with you,” answered Elliot.
”That is rare, a reference from you, that is,” said George as he continued to work.
”Well, I have a certain standard to maintain, and this one passed the criteria I set up,” responded Elliot, with a smile on his face.
”Alright, look up a spot on my calendar and set up a meeting in one of the free spots. Within the usual timings,” said George.
Elliot nodded and stood up, ”It will be done.”
As Elliot walked to the door, George asked, ”What is the name of the person?”
Elliot looked back with a grin and answered, ”Oh, it is Quinn West.”
George stopped his pen and looked up with his eyes wide, ”What did you say?”
Elliot's grin was so broad that it split his face, ”I said the name is Quinn West, and I was thinking that we would set up the meeting here. It will be easy to meet for both parties.”
George stared at Elliot and uttered, ”... What?”
Elliot sat back down, enjoying the look on George's face.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Lia and George sat in one of the rooms in the West manor. The room was turned into a conference room. The room had two chairs behind a table for Lia and George to sit. In front of the table was an empty place for the presenter to stand and present.
Lia looked at her grandfather and spoke, ”Grandfather, please tell me more about the person we are meeting. You know I don't like going to meetings without knowing what I am here for.”
She sighed irritably and continued, ”I don't like to be unprepared.”
Lia wasn't feeling positive about this meeting. Her grandfather has called her while she wasn't in the country on brief notice and didn't give her an option to refuse. And, he didn't tell her anything about the meeting.
”Be patient. Elliot is the one who recommended this person,” said George, not revealing who the meeting was with.
Lia sighed and just looked at the empty display stand in front of the room.
The door opened, and the grandfather-granddaughter pair watched as Elliot stood with the door wide open.
”He is here,” said Elliot with a smile on his face.
Lia rolled her eyes and said, ”Finally.”
Elliot turned his face to outside the room and called out, ”You may enter.”
Lia's eyes widened as she saw her little brother enter the room, dressed in formal wear. He had a big envelope in his hand and was dragging a small trunk on wheels behind me.
”Quinn?!” exclaimed Lia, not sure what to make of this. While George sat in his chair, not a single expression on his face.
Quinn sat the envelope on the display stand and set the trunk a little behind the display stand. He brushed his clothes and confidently walked towards the table.
”Good morning. My name is Quinn West,” greeted Quinn with a smile on his face, his hand extended for a handshake with George.
George shook Quinn's hand and said, ”George West.”
George grinned when it came to Lia, ”Nice to see you, Lia.” Taking her hand and kissing her knuckles.
He stepped back and moved towards the stand. Taking out his fake wand, Quinn used magic. A thin white cardboard sheet floated out and set them on the display stand. With another swing, the cardboard sheet expanded to its full sizes, fitting the size of the display stand.
Quinn turned around to his family members and spoke,
”My name is Quinn West, and I believe what I am about to show you will change the way we communicate with each other,” he paused before smiling, ”I am here to present what I perceive as the future of communication in the magical world. Something that will change be conceived as a great change in the world.”
Quinn waved his fake wand, and a picture letter envelope appeared on the cardboard.
”When we communicate with people who aren't close to us, we write and send them letters,” said Quinn as the picture of the letter envelope shrunk and two stick figures appeared on the white. The letter went from one stick figure to the other, depicting that the mail was sent.
”Now, how do we send that letter to another person. We use owls or eagles as the carrier of our message,” as he said that the cardboard went blank before an owl appeared on it clutching a letter in its claws, flapping its wings as if flying somewhere.
”Owls and other carrier birds have been in the magical society for centuries. We have been using these trained birds to deliver messages of trivial gossip to important documents for as long as we can remember.”
Quinn stared at George and Lia and asked, ”But, is this the best we can do? We have the power of magic at our fingertips, and messenger bird is the best we can manage? No, I think we can do much better.”
Quinn waved his wand, and the Ministry of Magic's symbol appeared on the white cardboard.
”British ministry of magic stopped using owls for in-house memos because of all the mess that the owls made and the commotions that our trusted mail birds caused.”
Small paper airplanes appeared on the white as they flew around the ministry symbol.
”Now, they charm their documents so that they would fold themselves into paper airplanes and fly to their destination.”
Quinn made a 'meh' expression and commented, ”A somewhat interesting solution, but it has a major shortcoming. What happens if some jerk is having a bad day and decides to mess up someone else's day. He or she would yank a random airplane out of the air and tear it to pieces.”
The picture on the cardboard depicted an angry-looking man shredding the paper plane into pieces.
Quinn cleared his throat and spoke, ”We got a little off-topic. Let's return to owls,” he walked around the room with his hands behind his back.
”What are some shortcomings of owl communication,” Quinn uncurled his pinky finger from his fist, ”They take time to deliver the letter as it takes time to fly to places, and the time increases with the distances, owls make a mess as every bird does. It takes time and money to raise mail owls. Owl mail is not totally secure as they can get in trouble with other birds and can get distracted,” with every point, Quinn uncurled another finger.
He stopped in the center of the room and spoke, ”And anyone can capture owls to see the message inside; there is very little security when using owls.” Quinn stared at George and said, ”Our very own ministry has the authority to monitor owl messages... the big brother is always watching.”
He slowly walked towards the table behind which Lia and George were sitting and declared, ”What if I can solve every single of these problems. What if I can provide you a solution that would change the way people send letters to each other.”
A smile slowly emerged on Quinn's face as he spoke, ”Today, here and now, I have a product that will allow a person to send a message to another person.” Quinn snapped his fingers. ”Instantly... eradicating the need of any wait time for getting a letter. With excellent security that no one wouldn't allow people to snipe the owls and read our messages. A product that would cover all the shortcoming of owl mails.”
George and Lia watched Quinn as he spoke about his product. While George still had no expression on his face, Lia's eyes showed curiosity about this product.
Quinn turned away from the table and walked to the trunk, and rolled it towards the table.
Quinn spoke while crouched down to open the trunk, ”I am going to show you something that will convince you that I can break the long-running usage of owls to deliver messages.”
He took out two wooden objects; they were the size of a shirt box. Each wooden box had a slot on one of the short sides. On the top of the side of the wooden boxes, there was a rectangular copper plate in the size of A-4 size sheet embedded in the wood.
He took out two sheets of paper and set one sheet in front of Lia, and while handing a pen to her, Quinn said, ”Would you write something on this paper. Anything would do; you can ever draw on the paper if you like.”
Lia took the pen from Quinn. She uncapped it, and in the middle of the page, she wrote her name in fancy handwriting.
”Good, know would you place it upside down on the copper plate and tap your wand on the paper,” instructed Quinn with a smile. As he said that, Quinn put the other sheet in the other box's slot in front of George.
Lia followed the instruction and put the sheet down upside down on the copper plate. She took out her wand and tapped the page.
George and Lia watched as the copper plate under Lia's page glowed blue before turning green. On George's side, a blue light came from the paper slot before turning green.
Quinn smiled and looked at George, ”Mr. West, would you take out the page from the slot.”
George took out the paper from the slot, and his eyes widened as he saw Lia's name in the same handwriting on the page he just pulled out.
When Lia looked at the page in George's hand, she gasped to see her handwriting on another sheet.
”I give you instantaneous mail,” said Quinn with a smile on his face.
Quinn had invented the magical equivalent of the fax machine.
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[
A/N [1] - The fax machines became popular in the late 1980s. Quinn developed a magical version when the fax machines in the prime of the muggle fax machine.
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A/N [2] - I will explain the working of the magical fax machine in the next chapter.
]
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Quinn West - MC - Invented the fax machine.
Elliot Dalton - Sales Pitch Guru - Actually has a really high position in the West business.
George West - Big Boss - Proud of Quinn's presentation skills.
Lia West - Small Boss - In awe of the artifact in front of her.
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