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On cue, Barrett comes up to the podium, smiling and waving at the cheering audience. He’s oozing charisma, and they love it. He’s wearing a dark bespoke suit and his salt-and-pepper is slicked back with gel. There’s a visible smattering of grey forming at the sides. I must admit that he has good taste and for a sixty-five year man, and he certainly has a trim and healthy figure. He gives Patty a charming smile and her cheeks redden, obviously smitten from the privilege of sharing the stage with one of the most influential men in the world. They exchange a handshake, and he takes a seat across from her.
She beams. “Thank you for coming, Mr. Andrews.”
“No, thank you. When I heard I was going to be a guest speaker at a conference, I wasn’t expecting it to be held in Georgia. I’m really happy to be here. It’s good to be back home.”
A round of clapping follows next and I roll my eyes.
How very tacky.
Patty taps her flash cards. “Now, let’s get to the questions. You recently established a new line of business affiliated with A & Sons three days ago called Weatherture.”
He nods, wearing a pleasant smile. “That’s correct.”
“Could you tell us what was the main objective for this?”“Money.”
The audience burst into momentary laughter. Even Patty let out a small chuckle.
“Okay, on a serious note,” he says with a sober face and sits up. “Money is just secondary. WeatherTure is a startup business that I launched a few days ago. It comes with an app that I created it to foretell the lurking dangers of erratic weather conditions. We live in precarious times where climate change is inherently doing more harm than good. These things are fast-spreading, almost like a virus. I was in Jakarta a week ago to visit the displaced victims of the flood and the looks on their faces…” he shakes his head slightly and his eyes dims, “were absolutely terrible. These people deserve better and WeatherTure is the starting point to getting it right.”
“In what way?”
“In a lot of ways, Patty. Now, WeatherTure doesn’t just predict. It prevents. The meteorological data have been meticulously calculated by scores of experts. Everyone came together to work on this for the sole reason of making it right. We need to make it right as people are dying and millions are getting displaced. And what can we say about the out-of-school children? They’re suffering, too.”
The silence in the room is heavier than usual. Poignant, even. I send a quick glance around. The faces of the people reflected soberness.
Oh, jeez. What a classic manipulator.
Patty “Alright, I’m going to start the open Q & A session soon, but first we need to know. With WeatherTure, what is the expected outcome? What makes yours stand out?”
Barrett clears his throat. “Thank you for that. Now, prior to this, I mentioned two things. An app, and an organization. We have those strongly in place. The organization is also called WeatherTure. You can look it up. As of today, we have opened two branches in two different continents where these raging weather conditions are prevalent. We’re seeking to triple that amount by the end of the week. Now, what’s our incentive? Simply philanthropy. We want to offer as much aid as we can to people who have been ravaged by flood, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other terrible natural disasters.”
“That’s a very responsible position.”
“I thrive on pressure,” he says.
“It also sounds like a lot of back-breaking work. How are you going to pull through the backlog of funding? Will the government assist?”
“The government will not.” Murmurs fills the room, and sympathy clouds Patty’s face. I scoff.
It’s not so hard to know why they won’t be sponsoring you.
Barrett continues, “Regretfully, I’m a lone wolf. I don’t have any external support. The government, for some reason unknown to me, has refused to lend assistance seeing WeatherTure isn’t registered as an NGO. That’s fine because I remain absolutely undeterred.” He smiles and continues, “I want to help people. I love to help people. It’s one of the things that make me very satisfied. As a philanthropist, I learned a lot of people aren’t privileged to have the necessary of life but I was. I still felt very dissatisfied with myself. What’s the use of having so much when everyone around you are going through it? Hardly worth the brag, is it?”
I bristle as the audience applaud him again, this time louder and happier.
The fucking fraud. How can they not see through his charades?
Patty turns to face the people. “I’m sure our audience have questions to ask; so, I’m officially declaring the Q & A session open. Let’s begin.”
I raise a hand. “I have a question.”
Patty waves her hand to say, “Go ahead.”
Rising, I shift my burning gaze to Barrett. “Mr. Andrews, you say you want to help people—“
“That’s correct,” he cuts in.
“That’s a lie.”
