The Road Not Taken

Banking Trouble

Jane Bedfordshire sighed as she looked at the letter in front of her. Her regular bank was going out of business soon and she had to locate a new one to transfer her funds too. And fast. She read through the short letter again.

Dear Ms. Bedfordshire,

We are sorry to announce that we will be going out of business in two weeks time. We would request that you find an open an account with a new back at your earliest convenience to prevent the risk of losing some of you funds.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

~James LeRoy

Chelsea Bank*

Ms. Bedfordshire stared at the letter for a few minutes more before looking at a calendar. Saturday. She had time to look for a new bank today and could get that problem taken care of.

30 minutes later Jane had a list of banks she had compiled through the internet and friends of banks to check out for the rest of the day. Starting with the ones closest to her and working her way out. First up the Bank of London.

Jane Bedfordshire looked at the bank in front of her. It was the fifth bank of the day. Some of the banks weren't viable, and the first two banks had said virtually the same thing.

"We'd love to have your business. As you can tell we have a great savings program. Since you will be switching banks here will be a 500 Pound changing fee."

"We appreciate you looking into joining our bank. We have one of the top savings programs in London. As a heads up there will be a 700 Pound changing fee if you do decide to come here."

This left Ms. Bedfordshire standing in front of the Royal & General Bank on Liverpool Street. None of her friends had ever used it but she had found the website online. At the time it looked great. Now she was having qualms just about entering the bank. Danger, it seemed to scream. Jane shook her head, adjusted her bag, and walked in. The reception area was small to say the least. A leather couch and a few chairs, brown marble floor, three elevators on one side of the room, and above the desk was a row of clocks showing times for major cities all over the world.** It was very generic in terms of banks, and very empty. She walked up to the woman at the front desk.

"Hi. I was wondering if I could talk to someone about getting an account here."

"Take a seat. Someone will be down shortly to talk to you."

"Great. Thank you."

Ms. Bedfordshire sat on the leather couch for about fifteen minutes before the front door opened forcefully and a man stepped out of the elevator. But before she can see who entered the man came over an introduced himself.

"Jane Bedfordshire? I'm Ben Daniels. I'll be talking to you about getting an account here," he introduced, as a young man walked past to the elevators.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Daniels," Jane replied standing up. Ben led her to the elevators where the young man from earlier was just getting in. They joined him.

"If I get offered a peppermint I'll kill Jones," The young man, no, Boy, muttered under his breath. Although all Ms. Bedfordshire could catch was peppermint.

"Ben. How are you?" he asked before turning around. The boy looked up surprise shone on his face for a second.

"Ms. Bedfordshire? What are you doing here?"

"Alex? I'm looking into getting an account here. What about you?"

"Looking into an issue with my account. Listen you do not want to get an account here," Alex Rider replied looking slightly upset.

"Alex, you know her? How?" Ben asked Alex. Some concern evident on his face.

"She's my school's secretary. Who should not get a bank account here."

"Alex, what do you have against this bank?" Jane demanded. He has an account yet seems to hate it. Why doesn't he just change banks? She wondered.

"Can't tell you. Sorry," Alex replied before turning to Ben. "Please tell me you're handing her off to Crawley."

"Nope. I drew the short straw," Ben replied with a small smile. With that the elevator stopped and Alex left saying "See you later Ben, Ms. Bedfordshire."

"Shouldn't someone be bringing him to the correct place?" Ms. Bedfordshire asked Ben.

"Oh no. Alex knows his way around. His uncle used to work here so he knows where he's going. Now this way," Ben led her into a small office and let her take a seat before offering her a drink. Ms. Bedfordshire was about to accept when a yell was heard.

"NO! AND I DO NOT WANT A PEPPERMINT!"

Ben paused for a second before offering a tentative smile.

"Don't worry. It's just banking trouble."

*All banks are made up

**Description cam from Stormbreaker I just added/changed a few words

Soo...I had a dream of this and decided to write it and publish it. So...yeah.