Book Title: A Bad Fall

Book Genre: General Fiction

Author: DariaLamtsova

Character Name: Dylan F. Pratt

Nominated by: elusive_6788

About the story:

A young, prominent and razor blade sharp financial analyst Dylan Pratt thought, that understanding human behaviour in the world of finance meant he could decipher people in general. But he was wrong.

After a long rift with his best friend, Sam, life brings them together again. This moment follows such an ordinary event of hiring a new assistant for Dylan - a young girl, Dakota by name.

Once the lifelines of this trio cross, a chain of unordinary events start to evolve. Not only Dylan notices that there is a connection between Sam and Dakota, the existence of which is denied by both, but also quite unexpectedly for himself Dylan realizes that he is falling in love with Dakota.

At the same time, changes in the life of Dylan's sister Dionne, such as an announced engagement, remind him not only about the reason of his long-lasting rift with Sam, but also serves as a memory of Dylan's background - which was far from the life of a white-shoe boy, as others could think of him.

It takes less than a month, before Dylan finds himself dragged into a whirlpool of events, where from he gets out committing a crime.

Hi Dylan. Can I call you Dylan or do you prefer something else?

Hi, I easily answer to Dylan, so, no nicknames needed.

Welcome and thanks for agreeing to talk to us today.

I couldn't refuse to this opportunity as it is something very new for me, you see, usually I am expected to speak about no other things but money and stocks. Not going to lie, I feel a bit nervous, neither can I deny my excitement. So, thank you for having me today.

Well, I'll try to make this as painless as possible. Can I get you something to drink? Water? Soda? Coffee? Wine? Whiskey?

What time is it? Ah, it's noon. A glass of gin and tonic will be just perfect. No ice, please. Thank you.

If I was a sales trader I'd be already roaring drunk by this time, but I have an excuse for my work title, so I may start catching up on alcohol level in my blood this late.

Good to know. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

(smiles wide outstretching legs) Okay, a little bit about myself you've said. Well, first of all my name is Dylan Pratt, and despite recently noticed weird tendency of having problems with names, I've been always comfortable with my name even though I am also the owner of a ridiculously old fashioned middle name which is Fenimore. I am a born Canadian, but reside in US since childhood. What else? I'm 27 years old, and I am a stock market analyst.

Where do you live?

I live in Washington state, in Bellevue which is a part of Greater Seattle area. So, I'm permanently surrounded by evergreen forests drowning in everlasting rains. Lovely area for sun-haters and those who have no reumatism.

Sounds...lovely. Do you have any jobs or hobbies?

Well, as I already mentioned, I work in an investment bank in the capacity of that very guy, who spends his whole day reading news and building tons of graphs and models with the only intention to accommodate the knowledge in my guts to science, because unfortunately, gut knowledge sells much worse without wrapping made of of sophisticated financial terms.

But this is only between you and me: what you know in your gut is sometimes 90% more useful than all the tricks of technical analysis.

Then, hobbies you say, right? Oh, that's a tough one. I can't say I have any particular hobbies, at least so far I can't recollect anything specific, looks like my job and my hobby are the same. However, though it's very unlikely to be considered as a hobby, I can't help but mention that I am a music addict.

What are some of your likes and dislikes?

(rolls his eyes grinning wide) Gosh.

No-no, don't get me wrong, for my job this is a perfect question, not specified and giving a lot of space for maneuver. But truth to be told, in real life I feel uneasiness when have to deal with such kind of questions, because they always challenge me to think of the limits I am ready to open by giving an answer.

I can say that I like dogs and tea and dislike cats and sweets, which is an answer indeed, but hardly it's what people want to know.

Or I may say that I like, well, even more than just like, better say I have a passion for certainty in each and every aspect of life. I truly believe that to know the truth and reason for everything meaningful what happens to us, is crucially important regardless of pain it may sometimes cause. I strongly dislike situations when cause-and-effect links are not clear, logic is poor or someone lacks understanding of consistency. Now you see, I answered the same question, but I feel like the second one is of higher value.

What is your greatest fear?

(sips from his glass thoughtfully) Tsk, paradox it may seem, but despite my well-known nature of an introvert, my greatest fear is to lose people. Some may even notice that I'm somehow obsessed with seeing people home, women first of all, and this obsession is rooted to this very fear, I guess.

In fact, I'll appreciate it if you won't insist on me going into much detail regarding this topic, if you don't mind. Frankly speaking, now I feel it should have been left as no comment.

I appreciate your opening up and respect your privacy. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?

Only one? Damn, I came here with a complete set of such things. One. One. Oh, it's a difficult choice. Okay. Daycare. I wish my mother sent me into a different daycare. What? (smiles embarrassed) I'm serious. I think all my troubles started that day when I agreed to put on my yellow wellingtons and went to the daycare. Darn, maybe the problem was not in my daycare but in wellingtons...

Wellingtons can be quite dangerous. Are you happy we know your story?

I find the word happy unsuitable in my case, rather it was necessary to tell this story, even though I felt exposed and extremely vulnerable afterwards. You know I am not a social butterfly, and I kept a lot to myself thinking mine were the darkest secrets. Naive. But this was until I had to check up on the closets of my nearest and dearest. Apparently, we all have a skeleton or two in our closets, but oh Lord, some have impressive graveyards.

So, I think one may find my story helpful, educational to some extent even. Who knows, maybe right now, while you and I are sitting in this nice room with a great view drinking cocktails, someone is sitting on the floor like I used to, paralysed by the amount of shi-, sorry, paralyzed by a striking amount of events unbelievable and totally out of control. The story of my life proves that no one is flawless, everything is possible, and for God's sake never think that you are as lucky as to witness a coincidence twice. Trust your guts and never ignore the instincts. Also be careful what you wish for, you may receive it.

Do you like to cook?

Ah! Here it is! So great it is that you asked. Do you remember I said I couldn't recollect any of my hobbies? Well, I actually think that cooking can be considered as one of my hobbies.

But it's not like every evening I take a culinary book and say to myself, okay, Dylan boy, today we'll learn how to saute broccoli. No. Rather it comes to me naturally. I come home, open the fridge, see what's there and cook using what I have. Nothing serious, but i like to make myself busy with cooking as this is the only activity when my mind rests.

Do you have any special talents?

Not that it's a special talent, but when I was younger, I used to draw.

Do you have an event or people in your past who affect you today?

Genuinely honest, I think there is hardly anything left in me what has not been affected at least slightly by the events in my past and people of those times. And if I start to enumerate those events and people, then you'd have to bring at least one more bottle of gin and be ready that we'll have to empty this ashtray for at least three times before I finish.

Got it! If you could have done one thing differently, what would it be?

There was a moment in my life when one person, a woman, desperately wanted to tell me something, but I refused to listen. There is nothing I regret more about. If that was possible, I'd like to be back to that day in court and listen.

Are you in love?

I wish I could say no, but alas. I am. And this is the biggest trouble of mine.

Is there anything you want to say to your fans?

I still can't comprehend how a sociopath like me could get fans, but it seems like I somehow managed and I am truly thankful to those extraordinary guys out there, whoever you are.

Can we look forward to reading more of your story?

You surely can, I even insist.

I'm sure you still have at least a couple of those what-a-heck questions popping up in your mind at final lines. Trust me, there is nothing I can relate more than that annoying need for certainty. So, you are more than welcome to check on the freakiest team of people one can ever imagine, which joined me in London in search for truth.

I look forward to it! Thanks for chatting with us today.  You did great.

To read Dylan's story, click on the link in the comment here. --->

Now it's your turn to ask Dylan.

Add your questions as an inline comment here.  Don't forget to tag DariaLamtsova or dylanfpratt himself.---->