Bob Ellis

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2020

Stories (4)

4 Stories

118 karma pts

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“Computer Evolution” by 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...

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“Bar at the end of the world” by Bob Ellis

I’m diligently working the gate of a sheep fold at the end of the world, and I desperately crave a beer. The enclosure is on the outskirts of Lapataia, a hamlet of perhaps two hundred souls, twenty kilometers west of Ushuaia, and hugging the Beagle Channel. The sun is brilliant, and I’ve been warned repeatedly the overhead hole in the ozone will fry my eyeballs if I dare remove my Oakley’s. In and around Lapataia, herds of sheep run through the streets like swirling snow flurries, white-capped mountains loom overhead, and penguins play on...

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“Damned if you do...” by 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 ...

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“Is he, or isn't he?” by 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...

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Author bio

Bob Ellis is a retired financial services exec and consultant, residing in SWFL. He has lived and worked on three continents and swum in all the oceans of the world.