Submitting your vote... Letters : 10504 Words : 1928
The day began as an ordinary August Saturday afternoon for the Taylors. Kim, their 11 year old daughter was playing a video game in her room, profiting from her last days of summer vacation.
Natasha, her mother, was whistling while preparing a roast for supper with their neighbors they had invited earlier that week.
Only Eric seemed unoccupied as he was idly playing with a screwdriver he had recently used to solidify their front door's lock. Even few weeks, he needed to repeat the simple process which usually took less time than it took to find the screwdriver.
But this week, he still had it in his hand, making it turn on the kitchen table oblivious to the whistling of his beautiful and completely nude wife.
Not that it's abnormal in any way since the Taylors moved in their new house over 14 years ago in a Florida naturist center. During the summer months when Natasha is home from teaching Math at the high school, she can typically spend weeks without putting clothes back on.
No, this morning Eric is just preoccupied because he knows that he is about to receive an important phone call for which he totally ignores the content.
"Will you be home next Saturday around 11h00AM for an important life changing phone call Mr Taylor ?"
He had barely slept in the preceding two nights. His wife told him it was most likely a telemarketer, but his instinct correctly told him to expect more.
The call came a little early, around 10h54, which was a good thing since Eric had been actively counting the minutes for over an hour by then.
"Hello Mr Taylor, please hold on, I will transfer you over to Mark Kelso."
The name didn't ring any bells for Eric, but he waited patiently. By then, his wife had sat down next to him, her head close enough for her to hear the conversation.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting Mr Taylor, but I am Mark Kelso, CEO of DeriMarks Systems. You might not remember me, but we've met 6 months ago at the West Coast convention. We spoke briefly about project management after one of your conferences and we parted ways without me giving you my name."
Eric struggled but there was no way he could even being to remember every person he met on conventions. His employer sent him to 3 to 4 such events per year and he always tried to speak to as many potential clients as possible.
"I don't have much time to give you Mr Taylor, but what I would like to know is, what would it take for you to start working for our future DeriMarks headquarter within the next few days and move to Arizona ?"
His wife almost fell off her chair, but Eric stayed calm.
"What makes you think that I might be interested in working for your company Mr Kelso ?"
"Our new headquarters are going to be in Eden's Creek, which is in a former US Army base called Base Sygma. We will build the first naturist city in the USA, and not only do we have a great job for you and a house for your family but we also have a teaching job for your wife Nathasha. In both cases, you would be able to work without wearing clothes. We need a great project manager like you to handle the details of the conversion of the military base into a functional naturist city, including building tourist facilities and installation of our own headquarter. For the first year, we can pay you four times your current salary as well as give you any of the houses we have acquired during transition. If you agree to move in town in the next 12 hours, we will not only pay all your moving fees, we'll also give you an advance of 25% of your new salary. In other words, we'll give you 1 year of your current salary."
"Even if I were to say yes, there's no way I move that soon, I mean, 12 hours to move across the country ? This is too short of a notice."
"We need someone on location as soon as possible. The military is slowly leaving the town, so we need someone to talk to them as to how to take care of it. We need someone to see the big picture. We need you, on location, right away".
"Mr Taylor, our private jet is currently at the regional airport, and we have a truck ready to pick you up with your family within the hour. We'll have movers take care of the rest of your things. They'll be at your new house Monday or Tuesday, but in the mean time, you'll have basic furniture to last until then."
"What about after the town is settled ?"
"We'll hire you as a project manager, mostly likely at your current salary for now, but remember, you won't have a mortgage to take care of or even membership fees like you pay right now for your naturist center"
It was way too much for Eric to take in one take, but he couldn't simply say no to such an offer.
"I need to take advance notice to my employer, I can't simply leave like that"
"Let me handle personally. We'll make sure they understand"
"You seem to have thought this through."
"We did. And if we're wrong, you're the man we want to fix any issues with our plan. BTW, I just e-mailed you the brochure we plan to distribute to convince other naturists to join our town, and the list of all of the houses that we have acquired from old citizens. You can pick of them, it's on us. I recommend you take a look at house 45, 6th avenue. I think you'll like it a lot."
"The movers will be at your house in an hour. You either let them do their job or turn them away. They'll notify me either way. Just get your family ready if you say yes. I'll be meeting you when you get out of the plane tonight, if you say yes."
The phone call ended with most of Eric's questions unanswered. Visibly, Natasha was just as confused as to what to do.
"You heard everything ?", asked Eric, already knowing the answer. What he secretly hoped for was for his loving wife to just hand him an easy answer.
Eric was a project manager. One of the best in the country. But when it came to managing the future of the family, Natasha had the best intuition. She's the one who picked their current house. She's the one who suggested moving to Florida. She's the one with the long term vision on all of the personal stuff.
But this time, even Natasha was confused. She was raised as a naturist and always preferred avoiding clothes. Being able to live and work in a naturist center seemed like heaven for her. But this was going too fast for her ! A few minutes ago, she was preparing a roast for friends she might never see again.
"Let's ask Kim what she thinks about it" was her only coherent answer.
Kim was a lot less hesitant. She resented her double-life : wearing clothes in school, hiding who she was and being able to remain nude at her house. She did have a few naturist friends in the center, but since a few of them were open about their lifestyle, she had to avoid them in class. As for her textiles friends in school, they were never close enough to know how she really liked to live.
By the time the discussion had started on the pros and cons of the move, the e-mail arrive with the details of the new houses.
Eric will never admit it publicly, but house #45 on 6th avenue is the actual reason the three members of his family were on a plane less than 2 hours later.
The house was just perfect. It was a cottage built in a Victorian manor style. It had over 2600 square feet on it's 2 main floor and a fully finished basement which notably had a dance floor and a bar. Each of the two main bedrooms on the top floor had either a private bathroom or, in the case of their daughter's room, a direct door to the main bathroom.
On top of the garage was a big cinema room and there was a gas foyer in the ground floor's living room. The kitchen was roughly twice the size of their current one, with a breakfast nook on the separation with the dining room. The dining room itself was extended outside of the house by a solarium, which provided direct access via stairs to a beautiful in ground pool and a spa.
Such a house could only be found in rich neighbourhood and never on naturist centers. They had resigned to the fact that their lifestyle meant a smaller and cheaper house, if only because eventually selling a naturist home was rather hard to do despite the recent massive increase in popularity for their lifestyle.
They barely had time to pack as much clothes as possible in briefcases, laptops and other electronics gadgets when the movers arrived.
None of them had even thought to dress back up until they realized they had not really picked what to wear on the plane. Fortunately, that problem was easy to fix, at least, compared to the explanations given to the neighbours who inherited an uncooked roost and the keys to the house.
They were not alone on the place flight. Another family was already on board and to the Taylor's surprise, they are chosen to undress on the plane.
The Richardson were from another naturist center in Florida and Mrs Kelly Richardson had received a similar offer from Mr Kelso to become their civil engineer. Her job is to design cities so they will be functional and pleasant to live in. Mr Richardson was offered a position as an eventual unspecified department manager in the DeriMarks Systems corporation. "I was offered a token job so my wife would accept her own job offer", he was unashamed to announce.
The Richardson have a 10 year old son, Kevin and a 12 year old daughter, Amanda. During the flight, Kevin remained with the adults, but as soon as Kim had undressed, she joined Amanda near the back of the plane where they talked until the plane landed.
Sadly, both families had to dress back up as soon as the plane landed, but they promised to stay in touch no matter what.
On arrival, Mark Kelso and Derrick Summers were happy to welcome their two new employees and their family. Both men were warm and promptly presented Mrs Richardson to her new immediate supervisor, Mr Taylor.
The two families split to find their new house, the Taylors with Mr Kelso and the Richardsons with Mr Summers.
What will they find waiting for them ?
Will their new future work out as well as they hope for ?
Anxiously, both families sat silent in their respective cars