What They Left Behind

Gennie spent the entire night after the interview trying to draw some concepts for a motorcycle and a car. She wished she had a drafting table and equipment, so she could have something professional looking to show Erik. She was a lousy artist doing anything freehand, but with only a number two pencil and Michele’s crayons, she did the best she could.

  She tried to imagine what a motorcycle would look like in 2014. From her experience helping to design the F1 car in college, she surmised that it would be as aerodynamic as possible. She started sketching what she thought would be a very fast motorcycle. She drew something that looked like a bird with its wings folded. The front was long and tapered and got progressively narrower. Gennie colored the bike bright red and drew a yellow thunderbolt across it’s body. Her rendering wasn’t impressive, but Gennie thought the idea of it was a good one.

  The car was a bit harder. Gennie didn’t know whether to base her idea on a Trans-Am, a Thunderbird or a gull-wing Mercedes. She drew pictures based on all three. Gennie imagined that by that time just about every part of a car would be some type of molded plastic, probably Kevlar or carbon fiber, so she drew the cars using a French curve stencil, trying to form them into a teardrop shape.

  She called Erik the next day and asked if she could stop by briefly at his office. Even though she was exhausted, she arrived at Erik’s office twenty minutes after she called him and showed him her sketches.

  “I’m sorry for the hack job,” Gennie said, “but I wanted to know what you think about them.”

  “Actually, I wasn’t expecting such elaborate drawings.” He studied the sketches carefully. “All I can say is…I’m impressed and all I can ask is…why the hell aren’t you working for GM? I would die to get a car like one of these.”

  “It would probably be too expensive right now to mass produce cars like this,” Gennie explained, “but maybe not in the future.”

  “These are amazing,” Erik said. “Ready for your next assignment?”

  “Sure.”

  “Write a proposal about how you would go about making vehicles like this. What kind of materials would go into them? What much would it cost? The suits need to know.”

  “Well…” Gennie said, “that could be a challenge.”

  “Are these designs feasible?”

  “Yes, definitely, but how much are they willing to pay?”

  “Don’t tell anybody I said this, but money is no object with those people. The network has blown a ton on this series already and we’ve barely gotten started. They wouldn’t blink an eye if you said it would be in the six figures.”

  “I could propose a slightly cheaper way to make them.”

  “How?”

  “Instead of building all the vehicles from the ground up, we just have the body made. See, this motorcycle…its engine is completely concealed. Honestly, we could use any old bike, though a sports bike would be best. We get a plastic cover made, possibly with chrome fittings, snap it on to the bike and we’re good to go.”

  “And you would propose the same thing for the cars?”

  “Yes. These designs are based on cars that exist today. We make a plastic body, put it on a chassis and that’s it. No one will know the difference.”

  “I never would have thought of that. That’ll save everybody a lot of money. Maybe that the extra dough will go into increasing our salaries.”

  “That would be nice. I was thinking, maybe I could try and contact a company that makes custom plastic molds, though I imagine they’d want something a little more polished and detailed than what I gave you.”

  “Well, I guess you’ll need to get yourself a drafting table and supplies.”

  “Unfortunately, I don’t have the money for those things right now.”

  “Don’t worry; you won’t have to pay for it. Get some catalogs and order whatever you like. It’ll be part of the show’s budget.”

  “Am I dreaming or is this the best job in the world?”

  “No, you’re not dreaming,” Erik replied. “It’s all real.”

  Chapter 60: March 2