The Variable Annuities of Wrath: Chapter 1

To the green country and part of the brown country of Iowa, the rains came incessantly, and they did not stop coming. The plows sat idle. The rains kept the corn from being planted and the absent sun kept the corn from growing, while the rivers overflowed and turned the fields to shallow lakes. In the last part of June the rains finally stopped, but not before the rivers swept over their banks and washed away homes and even towns.

The weather had very little impact on the variable annuity external wholesaler’s major life decision, however. His home sat on a small hill, and the easement running alongside his property line encroached only slightly on his treeless lawn. The sump pump in his basement kept the water from damaging the piles of crude crayon drawings and the boxes of matchbox cars and assorted toys in the storage room.

No, throughout that wet spring, the variable annuity external wholesaler found himself thinking about something unrelated to the rain and the crops. He had heard of a job opening two thousand miles away, in a place called...California.

By the time the rains had stopped and a blanket of humidity had settled across the Iowa countryside, the variable annuity external wholesaler and his family had already begun the relocation process.

The children played. When the woman was on the phone, they cried and fought. The woman worked. She organized and planned and made phone calls and wrote checks. The external wholesaler went to California and sold variable annuities. Then he came home and fell asleep.