ONE BILLION DOLLARS!

Still wearing tattered clothes, Elvis strode into the grand marble-floored bank, determined.

The chandelier sparkled above him, and the air was filled with sounds of laughter, and prosperity. However, as soon as he entered, he noticed the indifferent glances from the bank staff. 

"Good morning. I'm here to open an account," Elvis announced, but the staff members who heard him acted as if he was invisible.

In a split second, a customer walked up to the counter close to where Elvis was standing. "Hello, Miss. I'd like to open an account," the young man announced. He was wearing a designer suit and shoes.

 "You're very welcome, sir. Please take a seat," The staff answered quickly, as she brought out a form and swiftly attended to the wealthy man, with a smile. She was Helena Smith, one of the customer care representatives. She was a beautiful lady with a curvaceous body.

Undeterred, Elvis stood in line, waiting for his turn to speak with the representative. He watched as others who came after him were served promptly, but when it was his turn, he was blatantly ignored.

"I thought I just said that I wanted to open an account," Elvis repeated louder this time, but Helena did not bulge, instead, she gave him a disdainful look, staring at his shabby clothes.

"Is this how you treat people in your bank; what's going on here?" Elvis frowned.

Helena snapped at him. "As you can see, I'm busy. You can always open a Tier One account with your mobile phone. You don't need to walk in here to disturb us! We have more important customers to attend to." 

"What if I tell you that I'm here to open a platinum account?" Elvis glared at the representative.

However, Helena gave Elvis a condescending look. She believed he only said that to get her attention.

"We both know, that's a lie! I'm sure the account you want to open is a Tier 1 account. Young man, I'm not ready for senseless talks. If you have nothing else to do with your time, get the hell out of here!" Helena replied harshly as she turned to face the other man standing in front of her. 

"Sir, your account balance is $100,000,000."

So, this rude lady was keeping him waiting because of a client whose account balance wasn't even more than a hundred million dollars!" 

Elvis became irritated so he approached Helena more closely.

"Why are you so rude and discourteous? You have left me standing here while you attend to other customers. Can't you show some little courtesy?"

"Hey, don't run your stinking mouth at me, or I'll order security to kick you out of here!" Helena raised her voice at Elvis while she continued to attend to other customers.

Elvis wanted to move to another representative, but he noticed that several customers were already waiting in the queue. 

He pursed his lips in disbelief at Helena's attitude. However, before he could say or take any step, Helena turned and asked him some questions before collecting his passport photograph.

Then, after a short while, she looked up at Elvis and passed him a small sheet. "Here is your new account detail."

"I said, I need to open a platinum account, not this!" Elvis yelled.

However, when Helena noticed Elvis's sudden change in demeanour, she was taken aback. She hadn't expected such an outburst from Elvis. To Helena, most poor people hardly showed any boldness.

She gave him a disdainful look and then passed a form to him to fill, just to stop him from pestering her.

Within a few minutes, Elvis' account was ready.

"You'll need to deposit a minimum amount of $100,000 before you can use your new account. Here is your account number," the lady said as she handed a sheet to Elvis. 

Without delaying, Elvis quickly texted the account number to the phone number which had been used to contact him earlier.

"This is my account number. From Elvis Klein."

Within a few minutes after sending the message, he heard his phone make a  notification sound, so he checked the message. 

"You have just been sent a sum of 1 billion dollars. Kindly check your account balance," the message read.

"One billion dollars? This cannot be true," Elvis thought to himself. 

He turned to Helena.

"I have more than the required balance for a platinum account. Go on and confirm." 

Instead of checking immediately, the lady hissed at Elvis.

"Stop wasting my time! I gave you that form and agreed to open the account because of your perking disturbance. Yet you have refused to leave! How could a poor person like yourself even have a thousand dollars talk more of $100,000? Any more disturbance from you, I'll call security!" Helena threatened, ignoring Elvis.

"Do I look like I came here to play or joke?! Now listen, if you don't attend to me, I'll make sure I report you to your manager!" Elvis spoke authoritatively.

On hearing him, Helena looked up at Elvis in bewilderment. She began to be sceptical about who he was. 

Peradventure he was "a mystery shopper", sent by the bank to spy on how she related with customers.

"Please, hold on a while," Helena said as she tried to check Elvis's account balance.

 "What?! A billion dollars?!" The lady widened her eyes in shock with her lips wide agape as she stared at Elvis in his shabby-looking outfit. 

Within the twinkle of an eye, she jumped up from her seat. "I'm sorry Mr Klein.

Erm... You have a total of 1 billion dollars in your account!" She said with her eyes beaming with smiles.

She got to know Elvis's name from the details on the form. 

"What?!" Elvis muttered under his breath, ignoring the lady's sudden nice gestures.

"So it's true. Can't believe this!" He screamed within himself.

Looking remorseful, the lady begged: "Sir, please I'm deeply sorry for the way I reacted. Please don't report me to the authorities. I thought..."

"Enough! I choose to do what I want," Elvis replied, looking at her disdainfully.

"Can you please come along with me?" The lady requested calmly, as she ushered Elvis to an inner room where he was given some special care and attention before the manager came to see him.

"Mr Dan, this young lady is a bad egg to your company. And if she's not gotten rid of, she'll bring a decline in your company growth." Elvis told the manager, pointing at Helena.

"Oh, please! I'm sorry!" Helena broke down in tears, rolling on the floor regretfully but of course, it was too late! She had gotten the bank job after a series of exams and interviews. She wasn't employed easily after sending several applications to different organizations. Being given a job in this bank was like a dream come true and now, she was losing the job just like that!

"Helena, you are fired! Now, leave this company at once!" The manager ordered. He couldn't afford to lose the trust of any customer, especially one as rich as Elvis!

Throughout the time Elvis spent in the bank, he was lost in thoughts, still wondering if all that was happening to him was a dream.

"So I truly have a rich uncle somewhere," he thought.

He looked at his tattered wristwatch; it was past 3 p.m. He had spent hours within the banking hall, unknown to him. Helena had delayed him so much, before attending to him.

Realizing the amount in his account, he couldn't contain his excitement.

His story had changed, just in less than 24 hours!

As soon as Elvis came out of the banking hall, he called his Uncle's special assistant to inform him of the 1 billion dollars in his account. 

Elvis knew that he could no longer go to check the estate on Berkeley Street before going to see his Uncle. It was just a few minutes to 4 p.m right now. He quickly boarded a taxi, and before long, he was at his Uncle's luxurious mansion.

He was greeted by the special assistant who had contacted him on the phone earlier. The assistant led him through opulent halls and grand rooms until they reached a spacious study where Mr Klein was already waiting.