You pull your rented Toyota into the driveway of a large farmhouse. The yard is large and well kept, carefully accented with shrubs and colorful flowers. The house is painted a cheerful red, with white shutters at the windows. The wood-shingled roof is lined with solar panels, as well as a large satellite dish. This is the home of Charles Sneed, founder, CEO, and majority stockholder of Sneed’s Feed and Seed, Inc.
You’re ${character.name}, a reporter for The Clarion, an up and coming news website. You reached out to the normally taciturn billionaire, asking for an interview. You expected a flat denial. Mr. Sneed isn’t a recluse, exactly, but his usual interaction with the press is normally limited to greetings, waves, and “Sorry, no comment.” But instead, you received the following one-sentence email:
Are you free Thursday?
-Chuck
Hell yes, you are! An interview like this could make your career. You cleared your schedule, took a miserable coach-class flight to Pittsburgh, and drove your rental car across forty-five miles of Pennsylvania farm country to the little town of Teckleville, where Sneed lives.
Now you’re knocking on his front door. A uniformed maid answers almost immediately.
“Welcome.” She says. “I’m Gladys. Mr. Sneed is expecting you.”
Gladys leads you down a long hallway, into a large, wood paneled home office. Charles Sneed is sitting behind a broad mahogany desk. He rises when you enter.
Sneed is bigger than you imagined him, tall and broad, with a wild mane of black hair that reaches his shoulders. There’s a brute physicality to the man that doesn’t come across in photographs. He looks like a retired heavyweight boxer, or maybe a barbarian king wearing a polo shirt and khakis. He gives you a wide grin that reminds you of a shark, somehow.
“Welcome.” He says, shaking your hand in a bone-crushing grip. “${character.name}, right? You can call me Chuck. Everyone does.”
Chuck sits back down behind his desk, and you sink into a heavily cushioned chair across from him.
“We can start whenever you’re ready.” You say. “Do you mind if I record this?”
Chuck nods. “Go ahead.”
You start your phone’s voice recorder. Chuck leans forward and looks directly at you.
“First of all, I’ve seen all the memes.” He says. “My company sells feed and seed, just like the name says. And people like to make jokes about what I did when it was called Chuck’s, instead of Sneed’s.”
He laughs. “The boring truth is that we sold feed and seed back then, too. I just brought my brother Ed in for a half stake, and Sneed’s sounded better than Ed and Chuck’s.”
The grin widens. “As for the other thing, I know how to keep my personal life separate from my business.”
“Uh, okay.” You say. You check your notes for your first question.