My project in Creative Writing Foundations: Develop Compelling Characters course

Pie in the Sky ONE PAGER
by CAMILA HAMEL

Jonas, 30, works in the executive office of Wyndham Lake Group Hotels, the king of cheap sleeps. He is the purchasing manager, reporting directly to the General Logistics Supervisor, Everett Crowley. They clash on an almost daily basis as they are locked in a contest of petty one-upmanship.

Then Lynn, his ex-wife, calls. She is angry with Jonas for not moving his stuff out of the house fast enough. It’s only been six months since the divorce decree was issued, but for her it’s like six centuries. She threatens to throw everything out if he doesn’t come right away. He goes to the candy machine and buys two Snickers bars. Still upset, he puts on his coat and goes on foot to the warehouse. On the way, he fantasizes a huge argument between Isaac and Lynn in his head, although to him they are real visitations over which he feels he has no control.

Once at the warehouse, Jonas passes a scanner machine with an arm that pushes the cartons from the main conveyor belt to a very large canvas bin on wheels. When the bin is full these “problem” packages will be wheeled away to another zone where the labeling is reviewed. Usually, it’s a barcode screw up. This gives Jonas an idea. If he could divert a discreet number of packages a day to the bins as problem items and then personally handle their uploading back into the stream from his office without running afoul of the warehouse manager. He might be able to set up a shadow supply chain of goods that he could resell, provided he could find a fence. This would start a regular IV drip of cash that he could use to eventually escape his present life.

On the way back to the main office he drops his phone, which turns the screen into an abstract expressionist painting. The next day he goes out to his repair shop, and then the BQE for lunch where he meets Marco (Marky) Riviera. The two talk briefly and exchange cards. Later, it occurs to Jonas that Marky’s business might not be all strictly legal. He arranges another meeting and verifies this by degrees before launching into his idea. His hunch proves correct; Marky is resoundingly in.

Jonas’s system is working to perfection. By this time, Jonas has moved out of the central office and into the warehouse itself, to better monitor “operations”. The lack of oversight gradually makes Jonas bolder. Normally, the warehouse foreman, Bohdan Kovalenko, is too busy with his own work to notice what Jonas is doing, but one day he is at a loss to explain the sudden increase in defective merchandise and code bar errors on the floor. He decides to go with this to Jonas, who realizes he is two steps away from getting caught. He thanks Bohdan for his keen eyes, and tells him that he has an idea of what has happened. Then he calls Marky to tell him that they will have to temporarily reduce the shipments. Marky flies into a rage. He has overcommitted himself with several key clients.

Meanwhile, Bohdan, who is not at all convinced by Jonas’s explanation, keeps digging for clues. He does not yet suspect foul play; it’s just a matter of being a good employee. He notices that all the lot numbers correspond to items that had gone through the reject station and then picks up on the trail of shipments to be sent to Caspian Properties, which is not one of the company’s hotels. It is of course Marky’s shell company. This is an error on Jonas’s part. Bohdan further discovers that there are no bills of lading logged for any of these shipments and that they start five months back. At this point he begins to suspect tampering, but he doesn’t know how he can find out who is doing this. Nevertheless, Jonas gets the drop on Bohdan via his security feed of the reject zone where he sees Bohdan poking around. Jonas is forced to ask Zak for help. As Zak is an IT consultant with experience in cybersecurity and Sysadmin, he is able to hide compromising data and streamline the operation, but not after a terrible reckoning between the cousins. Zak feels it is the last favor he will ever do for Jonas. The humiliation for Jonas is brutal.

Marky asks Jonas to help him explain to an angry client, Weh-Yat, why his shipments are to be delayed. Meanwhile, Bohdan has decided to take his findings to Everett. On the way to the meeting, Jonas is so nervous he stops to have lemon meringue pie, and meets his co-conspirators late. As a result of the raging argument they have, Jonas, who is driving, crashes the car, and ends up in the hospital with what turns out to be permanent retro amnesia. His plan has failed, everything comes out, Bohdan takes his place as Head of Procurement, but he cannot be prosecuted because he is not competent to stand trial.

Hi Mark,
Here you have the one-pager. Just an outline of the beats. I will continue to refine it, but I'm writing the first scene now. Unfortunately, I don't have any rich text controls here, nor can I upload a pdf, so I prefer to send you a Google drive link where you can read and edit. Right now you've got the one pager there, but the first scene will appear right under it. Just give me a few more days. Thanks. :) https://docs.google.com/document/d/15IsEdQhRDiKX0W31u2SNLmKrAeGW9DQErOzrUSzX17U/edit?usp=sharing