Idea Tree

By Dale Stubbart

I've taken two of my favorite themes, saving the Earth and Romance, and combined them in this story.
Ricky, Anne, and Shwederer met in high school. They instantly became fast friends, even though they were polar opposites - personality-wise. The one thing they had in common was their desire to become rich and famous.
They succeed in that quest by creating the firm Idea Tree. Their company helps solve Earth's problems which humans caused and which where were the result of many great cataclysmic events. Idea Tree really gets rich when they hire Ian, Raiza, and Alexei as Idea Generators.
Then Ultresa Milan enters the scene. She started life as a poor woman named Jicindo de Juarez y Milan. As Jicindo Juarez, she figured out how to invest wisely, even on her meager income. Now, she has become a multi-billionaire and has changed her name to Ultresa Milan. Since she is now using her wealth to save the Earth, the press refer to her as Earth's Guardian.
Ultresa Milan comes to Idea Tree with her right-hand person Margret MacNally. Ultresa wants to hire them to help solve a problem. That solution will help save the Earth. Ultresa has come for a solution. However, she finds much more.

Rated PG (no TMI). Reading Level Easy 5th grade. Longest word: Intercommunication.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dale Stubbart
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201065096

Book preview

A

Post-Cataclysmic

Get Rich

Earthwise

Romance

First Factor

Most great ideas or solutions consist of several factors. They take several parts to work. The first factor is the dynamic Trio who created the firm Idea Tree.

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The Trio

Ricky, Anne, and Shwederer were perhaps they strangest group of three friends you could ever meet. They were what was referred to as polar opposites. Yet, they couldn’t have gotten along better.

They were at the same bar that they frequented every Friday evening after work. They were having pizza as usual. They were having their usual drinks, except that Ricky was mixing up the various beers on tap, trying one and then another. It was just another Friday night.

Ricky occasionally mixed up his beers. So the waiter was prepared to just bring him just a few ounces of each beer. That way Ricky could try more of them before he reached his limit.

The Trio were chatting about the same subject that they talked about every Friday evening: How to hit it big and make lots of money. Of course most of their ideas centered on starting their own business. However, the three of them could never agree on what type of business they wanted to start.

Ricky leaned toward starting a financial or tech company. Those types of companies were the big stable bread winners in his mind.

Anne wanted to start companies which would serve people and which would help the world. This was the year 2052. The disasters which humans had helped to create were now surely all in the past. But there was a lot of cleanup work to be done. A lot of people needed help putting their lives back in order, or just in order in the case of Gen C.

Shwederer leaned towards the arts. Shwederer wanted to beautify the world. The manmade disasters had done their share of uglifying it.

RICKY, ANNE, AND SHWEDERER might have made a strange Trio 50 years earlier. 100 years earlier they might have been threatened for being different.

But now it was 2052 and nobody cared. Whoever wanted to hang with whoever was accepted. Each one’s relationship with others was their own business.

Ricky was very masculine. Nevertheless, he tried his best not to be macho.

Anne was his opposite. She was very feminine. She tried not to be either an ultra-feminist or a femme-fatale. Both she and Ricky failed miserably at trying not to be who they were.

Then there was Shwederer. Shwederer didn’t claim a gender. And it was hard to tell which gender Shwederer was. Shwederer went by he, she, you, or thon (short for this one or that one). However, thon preferred hon’. And hon’ sometimes referred to hon’s self as I or me.

Hon’ was what thon’s mother had called thon. And hon’ stilled enjoyed being referred to that way. Shwederer was the only one of the three who succeeded at being who hon’ was, hon’s own person.

RICKY ENDED THE NIGHT and their conversation with, If only there were an easy way to make money. This was not the first time that Anne and Shwederer had heard him state this phrase. But tonight they heard something different when he said it.

Tonight, there was no desperation in that statement. Anne and Shwederer heard something different instead of the desperation. Even Ricky heard it.

But none of them mentioned it. It was too foreign to them.

They went home, somewhat stupefied, somewhat dazed, but not accepting either of those realities. Something new was on the horizon. Nevertheless, they all wrote it off to being a little drunk.

Selzman, Orion, and Shwartz

The Trio of Selzman , Orion, and Shwartz had met in high school. There, they had become fast friends.

At some point during their high school years, Ricky and Anne had thought that they were in love. They had dated and hung out together. Everybody thought that they were an item.

However, they soon enough realized that they were just playing the roles which everybody else expected them to play. After a month or two, they called it off. And they were once again just friends.

Even though they were just friends, others often gave them their space. One day, they were sitting together, all alone in the midst of the crowded lunchroom. It was then that Shwederer chose to swagger over to them and sit down at their table.

Who and what are you? Ricky asked in amazement, his mouth almost agape. He was genuinely curious who this new person was dressed up to be.

Shwederer took the question as it was meant, as one of wonder and not one of disgust. Hon’ replied, with a grin on his face, I am Shwederer. And you may call me hon’.

Well hon’, Anne replied with a wide smile on her face, even though she was totally serious, I just love your dress! And your shoes match my purse. Can we trade some day?

I’d love to. But I’m afraid they’re not your size. came Shwederer’s smooth response.

There was something about Shwederer which either instantly attracted you or instantly repelled you. Ricky and Anne were both instantly attracted.

This was somebody whom they knew they liked. Hon’ might be weird. Still, hon’ was their kind of person. And the three of them became almost inseparable.