Dilemma of a rich man

A Story by Ryan Smith

Mr.Rydberg gets an invitation to a social experimet

As I was swimming in my pool my butler (whose name was Winston) slowly approached me. In his hand, in a very butlery fashion, was a silver plate with a silver lid. For a moment I thought he was bringing me some food. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
-Is that my dinner Winston? -I asked hoping that it was.

-I’m afraid not Sir -Answered Winston-, you’ll have to wait a bit for that.

-All right then. I give up. What is it?

-Well, it’s mail for you sir.

-Mail you say? Is it the bank? Have they written back about the contract, or could it be Sarah? -I asked hasten to know the answer

-No Sir, it’s none of them. It is from a man named: Dean Fitzgerald

-Who the bloody hell is that? More importantly what does the letter say?

-To be honest, I have not read it Sir.

As Winston and I were discussing that, I got out of the water, grabbed a towel and started scrubbing my hair with it. Winston grabbed and raised the lid, revealing the letter. I quickly grabbed it dying to know what the contents of the letter are. I opened it and it reads as follows:

“Dear Mister Rydberg,

You have been invited to take part in a social experiment, that will be hosted by me. All the participants are rich men, just like you. Though, you will not meet anybody there. Now, you needn’t bring any food, water, equipment, butler or anything. All will be provided to you(except for a butler. You won’t need him).

Now before I go on any further let me tell you the address and time: Come to Cooking Street 24/C at 12pm tomorrow. Sharp.

I can see that you’re wondering, why should you believe this mysterious letter from a man unknown to you. You shouldn’t. Call your friend Sarah ask about this and she will tell you it’s real.

P.S. This event does not necessarily have a name, but I like to call it: Dilemma of a rich man. Just so you know what to inquire about. Hope to see you there.”

-Winston! -I shouted- come get my phone, call Sarah, and put her on speaker for me.
-Right away Sir!-Said Winston and went deep into the manor, to my dining room.
I was left alone with my thoughts for a moment. I did not know what to think, what to believe. The letter raised more questions than answered. What kind of an experiment is this? How does he know who I am? Hopefully this phone call with Sarah will clear some things up, but even then... I was cut short in my train of thought seeing that Winston was coming back holding the phone... on a silver plate of course.

-Here you go Sir.-Winston said while giving me the phone.-I put her on speaker for you.
-Thank you Winston. You can go now.-then I turned to the phone and saw Sarah’s name, number, how long the call has been going on and that she’s on speaker. I completely forgot why I put her on speaker so I swiftly put her off the speaker. I raised the phone to my ear and greeted her.
-Greetings. Is that you Rydberg?-Asked Sarah in her calm and soft voice. Though this time the phone distorted her voice a bit.
-Well haven’t you figured that out? Yes, it’s me.
-So are you calling about Dean’s little parade?
-Yes. You seem to know a thing or two about it. Could you fill me in?
-All righty then, straight to the point. Dean is a journalist, he writes for an online blog and he wants this story to kick-start his career. He is going to write about your reactions, your answers. He approached me about a month ago. Dean told me about the experiment and I found it interesting so I helped him out with a couple of names and phone numbers.-explained to me Sarah. It was nice to get a little context about this.
-So, you were in on this?
-Yes.-she answered
-Hmmm... I guess I’ll go. It can’t hurt can it?
-Was this all you wanted to know?
-It sure was. Thanks..-We then said our goodbyes to each other and I hung up the phone.

I decided. I’ll go to this event, get to know this Dean. Seems like an interesting guy. Also I want to know what this experiment is. I then told Winston all that happened. He also agreed that I should go, but he was a little worried. I was too. After that he told me food was ready. This made me really happy. I do love food.

After finishing my delicious dinner I went straight to bed. The very next day I got up at around 10am. I immediately asked Winston to prepare my finest suit, until then I fixed myself up a little bit. At around 11:30 I was ready to go.
-Shall I take you there Sir?-Inquired Winston
-No, that’s fine.-I answered-I’ll walk there. It’s just a couple of blocks from here. It can’t hurt to take a nice stroll, can it?
-Right you are Sir. Though I suggest you go immediately. I don’t think you should keep this Dean person waiting.
-I wouldn’t have it any other way Winston. Well then I’ll see you later.

And with that I was off to Cooking Street. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing. It was a beautiful day. In about 25 minutes I was closing in on the house. I got up there and rang. Before I could even say anything I got buzzed in. The door opened and I naturally went in. In the hallway I saw three doors properly titled A, B and finally C. I couldn’t remember which door should I knock on so I quickly opened the letter and saw I should try C. So I did. I got no answer, but nevertheless I tried again. Still nothing. I thought to myself: “I guess he isn’t home.” I quickly searched the hallway for a seat, but I couldn’t find even one. I looked at my watch. It was 11:59. Right at that second it changed to 12pm and with that door C opened. I was just standing there dumbfounded. I then heard a voice coming from inside: “Come on. Don’t just stand there. Come in.” It took me a second to come to my senses, but I went in.

What I saw was... quite intriguing. The whole apartment was just one room, or I just couldn’t see any doors. What was more interesting was that the room was whit. Completely white. The only things that stood out were Dean who was sitting behind a table. On the table were two boxes. One a normal and another spray painted gold. Dean quickly got up from the seat and greeted me.

-Greetings Mister Rydberg.-Said Dean(well I assume he’s Dean)

-Good day. Uhmm... Dean?-I asked

-Oh, I haven’t even introduced myself. I am sure you heard about me from Sarah, but still where are my manners? I am Dean Fitzgerald, it’s very nice to meet you.

-Same here. My name is Jonathan Rydberg

-Right. I’ll ask you 5 questions and after that we get to the main point of this experiment. Shall we start? And please we should leave this formal kind of speech.
-Well all right. Let’s start

-So Jonathan. Your name is Swedish, but you’re not from Sweden are you?

-My family is mostly British. Uh... If I remember correctly my great-grandfather was Swedish.

-Great. Second question: Any girlfriends or wives or whatever?
-No, not at the moment.

-Well that’s sad to hear. I’m sure you’ll find someone. Third question coming right up: How did your family come in to their wealth and how did you?

-Well I inherited. Right now I am trying to make some contracts with banks to keep my money that way. About my family... I think it was the Wall Street, but that was a long time ago.

-Wait inherited? Your parents aren’t...

-Yes they are.

-I’m sorry to hear that. Well question number four: How does it feel being rich?

-Honestly? I like it. But sometimes it feels like people want more from me than what I can give. Like they want me to just spend all my money for charity. Some even want me to fail or for me to be a complete dumbass. Losing my money or whatever. It’s... harsh.

-Huh... interesting. Shall we go on?

-All right, sure. So, fifth question?

-Yes. You have a butler, you’re rich and your parents are dead. Are you Batman?
-No. I am surely not.

-Well all right. That was just a joke. To the main attraction then. You see two boxes in front of you. One of them is painted gold and costs 500 dollars. The other is a normal box, but that costs 1000 dollars. Which one you choose?

-Well... Neither. I don’t need a box. Not for that price.

-Yes, but you have to choose.

-No, I don’t. There is always another option. Nobody can make me do anything.

-Just the answer I was looking for.

-Can I ask? What is this article about?

-Judging people... Well rich people, but it could be about any other people. Before I show them your answers, I ask the readers to do as if they were rich. What kind of stereotypes they think would say this time about you. To show them how people judge before they even know anything about the person.

-Didn’t you say that multiple people are going to take part in it?

-Yeah, I lied. It’s solely about you. Thank you for your time Mr.Rydberg.

-No, thank you Dean.

I get the message. I get what he was trying to say... but I think he did it wrong. It's not just about your message it's also about how you deliver it. Judging people is an important issue, but choosing boxes? Does that really do it justice?