Ollie's Lost

I was beginning to sweat a little bit because I was unsure how I was going to strategize for this moment, leave alone this entire campaign. I thought about it for a little while and then the ringing in my right ear began again. It was soft so I decided to try and ignore it. “What do you have on the marketing gimmick?” Mitch asked Brad. “Well we were thinking of a dozen ideas all night last night and we couldn’t find one that would really work.” He said. “So you have nothing?” said Henry, bluntly. “Not entirely nothing.” Chimed in Francine. She was sitting so quiet the entire time I forgot that she was even in the room. “We have a couple of ideas that involve marketing the brand itself as nameless, like blank hoardings all over the city with teasers as to what the ad could be about.” She said, looking over at Mister Astiff for support. Mister Astiff did take the cue and continued, “You know, like campaigning for the campaign.” “That’s been done before.” Said Henry to Mitch. Mitch nodded and confirmed. “We came to you for new ideas. This isn’t new.” Henry said. “Like we said, there were a few ideas that were not worth working on and then there were some that were even worse… It will take longer than one day.” Brad said. “What’s your strategy?” Mitch said looking over at me. I looked over at Mister Astiff, trying to get some help on this one because I didn’t want to seem like a fool. Mister Astiff just sat back in his chair and sighed, he knew this meeting was going downhill. I had to sound like I knew what was going on. To make things worse, the ringing in my ear was becoming increasingly annoying and louder by the second. I scratched my ear for a brief moment and resumed attempting to ignore it, the sound didn’t go away but I had stalled for long enough. I had to come up with something. “I was thinking that we could serve up the soda in restaurants for free and have people ask what it was, when the waiters would come back they could say that they didn’t know. Then we could market it using word of mouth instead of a real campaign.” I shut my eyes after I said this trying to make sense of it all in my head. “No.” said Henry. “No?” asked Mister Astiff. I noticed that our team had a smile on their faces. What I said didn’t make sense to Henry and Mitch but at least the smile reassured me that it was better than anything Mister Astiff, Brad and Francine could come up with. “The product isn’t ready yet. We can’t serve it if it doesn’t exist.” Brad was getting impatient, the way he’d always get when he was made to sit for too long. He began to interrupt anything that anyone was saying. Henry and Mitch weren’t fazed by this and went on dealing with the situation calmly. Their calmness was making Mister Astiff livid because he had no control over the matter and he hated not being in control, Francine just sat there chewing her nails and as for me, I was sitting there trying to shut out the mind numbing ringing in my ear. When the yelling was almost insufferable Becky walked in. “Not now Becky!” Mister Astiff yelled. “Mister Jacoby is on line two for you.” She said. “He said it’s urgent.” The yelling didn’t die down at all, Brad kept hurling ideas at Henry and Mitch and the two of them were just shutting down everything that Brad threw at them. Francine sat there chewing her nails; Mister Astiff kept ignoring everything that Becky was saying and yelling at the two suited men in front of him. Becky kept cutting in reminding Mister Astiff that there was a call for him, but she remained ignored. All this wasn’t even half as painful as the ringing. Oh that damn ringing. I couldn’t take it anymore. I shut my eyes and covered my face. Until all that there was, was darkness and that painful ring. A ring so sharp and loud that it made my head rattle. I pressed my fingers into my eyes trying to feel something, anything but that incessant ringing. Finally the ringing got so loud that it felt as though it couldn’t get any louder. Then it stopped. There was silence. I moved my hands and opened my eyes. I had to squint because there was a sharp light coming at me from all directions. While my eyes readjusted I snapped my finger next to my right ear to see if I could hear it. I could, it still worked. When my eyes finally readjusted I looked around and found that I was standing in the middle of a desert. There was nothing but sand under my feet for miles and miles. I was still wearing my black shirt and trousers, my hair was just the way it was this morning but my wallet wasn’t in my pants back pocket where it usually was. It was warm but breezy. Brad, Francine, Mister Astiff, Becky, Henry and Mitch were nowhere in sight. Mister Astiff’s office couldn’t have just magically transformed into this! It was all too real to be a dream and yet there was no explaining it. One minute I was in a heated meeting and the next minute I found myself in the middle of nowhere with no money and nothing to identify myself with. My name is Oliver Turner, what on Gods green Earth is happening?