wow! I am so surprised at how many people really like this story, thanks to everyone that reviewd! Beautiful mind: heh heh, yeah he's a creep. Nella: go me! WaffleCat: continuing! Plasma Bomb: wow, thank you, alot. I read your profile and, you are really cool, the word needs more cynics like you! Anonomous, Base 2, Sword of the King, lady shelina Raven, Daiselle: thank you! thank you! thank you! midnightmoon: aah! updating now! don't hurt me! Blackfire 18: I like her alot too, I thought she needed more respect, and, oh shoot, you're right... she does have green eyes... sshhhdon't tell ayone! Pitbulllady: all your points are really right!and the accent confused me too, I thought french for awhile, like you, but decided on Russian because I know more about the culture and stuff. Secret of Tetra: ::blush:: thanks (your name by the way... that wouldn't happen to be a certain legond of Zelda Tetra.. now would it?) Dream out loud 9: I KNOW! it wasn't even a "moment" moment! it was just a comforting moment of joy! NewfoundGlory Fan: cool, maybe I'll email you sometime.
"I'm back, ladies!" Richard Lewd grinned toothily at the women in the opening office. They all just popped their gum and lazily continued to read their cheap magazines and penny dreadfuls.
"Did you get me the coffee I asked for?" one of them troubled to say. Richard looked around guiltily but smiled all the wider, his brow glistening under the hideous fluorescent lights.
"Well, no." He conceded guiltily, the woman scowled and went back to her book, A Time to Love, by Ima Nass. "But!" he said quickly for fear of losing his already non-existent audience, "look at what-" he laughed nervously at his mistake, "excuse me, I mean who, look at who I did find, ladies and... ladies, I'd like to introduce you America's next models: Ta-"
"Oh Rich, you didn't bring in another pretty girl wanting to be a star... again. Your girls always wimp out right in the beginning. Besides, today isn't a good day, the Boss..." she looked around and lowered her voice, "the boss isn't in a good mood today."
"Don't worry so much, these girls will knock your socks off. Tatiyana, Anzhelina, you can come in now." I looked up at the back of my mother's head and glared.
"I'm not going in there." I whispered in Russian. "He said my name wrong." My mother whirled on me unexpectedly.
"Anzhelika," she whispered venomously, "you will go in there, and you will make a good impression, just see if you don't." she paused, glaring at me, "This is our last chance." I could see her eyes glistening with tears. I was stunned by the suddenness of the attack, and seeing the tears in my strong, beautiful mother's eyes brought the tears stinging to my own. My mother took hold of my arm, and physically pushed me through the door into the inhospitable greeting office beyond. Holding her head up high, she followed after me.
The ladies by now had given up interest in Lewd's latest mystery-girls and had gone back to reading their respective magazines/bad novels. The small room we entered was ugly, sterile white, and smelled of whitewall. There were three desks somehow crammed uncomfortably into the space, each with a woman of varying age and state of boredom behind it and papers spilling out over the sides. There were pictures of ridiculously thin, ugly girls with puffy lips contorting themselves into strange and uncomfortable looking poses. I noticed that they all looked slightly healthier than I did.
"And here are my angels!" Richard said loudly. One of the women looked up lazily from her magazine and with just as much energy looked back down. She paused, gave a small start, and looked back up at us.
"Oh my god, they are angels." She said breathlessly. The other women started looking at us too. They said the nicest things, about how beautiful we were, how we would be wonderful for modeling and the like... I felt like a zoo animal, and resented it, but everything halted when a strong sounding but strangely quiet voice rumbled dangerously through the office.
"What's going on here?"
The door in the corner had swung open, and in the doorway stood the shadow of an impressively built man smoking a cigarette. The affect of the words was amazing: all the women in the office hurriedly stuffed their reading materials into their desks and resumed whatever it was that they were doing before. I was amazed at how skillfully they returned to their typewriters, to make it appear as though they had been working all the while. The shadow man stepped out and into the room.
"I said, what's going on here?" I saw Richard Lewd slightly shrink away from the man, and I could tell that he was afraid of him. This alone made me like the stranger. He looked at my mother and I with little, if no reaction at all. This made me like him even more. "Who are these people Lewd?" Lewd scurried up like the little weasel that he was.
"Oh, hello Henry, I just discovered them. Aren't they lovely, Henry? I thought we could use-" the man waved his hand cutting Richard off.
"Yes, yes, I get the picture... just- stop talking now, and, stop talking about these young ladies like they're objects." I could not express in words the gratitude I felt for this man, Henry. He sighed heavily, and mumbled something about Rich and his girls. "Come into my office ladies- not you Lewd, are you a 'lady?'" he snapped when Richard tried to follow as well. 'Yes, he is' I thought. I glanced back at the varmint I now so despised, and made the hem of his pants catch on 'fire.' As we stepped into the stranger's office, and the door was shut behind us, we heard a strangled cry of fear. I sat in one of the chairs the man gestured towards with a triumphant smile on my face.
The strange man, Henry, violently crushed his cigarette into the ashtray and sat across from us. The smile faded from my face. I could still see a trail of smoke rising from the embers of the mangled cigarette, the whole room smelt of smoke, and the ashtray was filled with similarly slain ashes. His fingertips formed a steeple and his hooded eyes stared us down. He was a shadowy character indeed, but I would trust him far before I would trust Richard Lewd. There was a long silence in which Henry stared at us, apparently calculating who would be the first to crack. Finally he spoke.
"Ladies, do you know what kind of business I run?" he asked. We both shook our heads. "Well, then," he continued, "let me tell you what kind of business I run." Henry spoke in calm well-measured words. "I run a very serious business here." He said, "I don't need people who are no good. I don't need people who aren't serious, and dedicated to working hard for this company. I don't need people who are afraid to bleed sweat and cry for my agency. I don't need two bedraggled children come from god knows where asking for a job. And, unfortunately for you, I don't need people. I have more models than you could safely shake a stick at, certainly more than enough to run the business." He fingered a neat stack of papers that was set on his desk and reclined in his chair.
"Now, though it pains me...to be frank; I don't exactly know whether you young ladies could handle a difficult job like modeling," he said with obviously counterfeit remorse, "Now, I'm terribly sorry for all the inconvenience you were put through this..." he checked his watch, "evening, but I'm afraid we simply don't need any more models," he sat up again in his chair and gestured to the door, "So, if you could just go on out that door and down the stairs, you'll find yourself on the main road. I'm sure Richard would be more than happy to escort you two fine young ladies ho-"
"NO!" my mother stood up in her chair and slammed her hands on his desk, making Henry and I jump, "I need this job- I need money! My daughter is hungry; and if this - this modeling will give money so I might feed her, then you will give me this job, or I will never allow you forget that you did not! I will never allow you rest until I am given job! It would be simpler now, but if not now, I will be back! Make a choice."
My mother was breathing hard from the passion and poison of her words, her white blond hair splaying haphazardly across her flushed face. She glared him down, just daring him to point to the door again and Henry stared back at her wide-eyed in shock, and for a moment, an electric silence filled the whole office. Then, without warning, Henry relaxed and a strange smile crept across his face. When he spoke, he spoke quietly, and calmly, the way he always did.
"Excellent." He said in his well-measured words, "I was hoping you would say that."