Brenda Williams had been working at a dead end job for years. Her life seemed empty to her. Since divorcing her husband three years ago, she had been raising her 18 year old daughter, Jane, and her 15 year old son, Jonathan. Sometimes she felt like she was letting them down, but she had to tell herself to keep going. After all, secretaries don’t get paid a lot of money.
She worked for a cosmetics company. Her boss, Mr. Holden, kept her busy most of the day. She mostly answered phones and did computer work. The company, New Life Cosmetics, supposedly did a lot of experimental work. She rarely saw anything other than her desk and rarely talked to anyone other than her boss and her friend, Tammy. Tammy was another secretary there. They would meet up in the copy room and gossip about whatever was happening that day.
Occasionally, they would see scientist’s running back and forth through the hallways. But they would never talk to anyone. They were a very secretive organization.
Well, it’s seven o’clock. The alarm beeps, piercing the silence of the dark, lonely room. Brenda groggily swings her hand toward her nightstand, attempting to stop the annoying beeping. She’d love to go back to sleep, but Jane and Jonathan won’t get up if she doesn’t motivate them.
After missing the OFF button several times, she finally sits up in bed and slams her hand on the alarm. “Stupid thing,” she says to the empty room. Standing up and twisting the blinds open, the room is filled with sunlight. Normally this would be the beginning of a normal day for her. But this was just the beginning of her new life. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll soon find out.
She goes down the hall, visiting each of her children’s rooms and tells them what a beautiful day it is for school. They don’t seem interested though. Eventually, they get up, shower, and join their mother downstairs for breakfast.
They talk about the day ahead and laugh about days before. After that, they each get their things, hug their mother goodbye and go to school.
Brenda is left alone again. She knows it isn’t long until she has to leave herself so she takes a shower. She isn’t an unattractive woman at all. She wardrobe could use a little help though, her hair too. She’s a nice tall brunette, but she presents herself with a very low attitude. After getting dressed and ready, she gets in the car and heads downtown.
The city is filled with businessmen and women. Mixed in the crowd are the usual drug dealers and whores. Brenda can’t believe that this is what she calls home. She cringes as she thinks of how she has to drive here everyday. How terrible! Driving through all these evil people, day after day. All they’re interested in is money and sex. She can’t believe how some people can be so shallow.
Arriving at work, she finds a bit of commotion going on outside the front doors. A circle of people were marching around the sidewalk, all holding signs. She then realized that they were all women. The signs read things such as “Down With New Life!” and “New Life degrading to women!".
“What the?” Brenda is confused with this. They were simply a cosmetics company. They sold make-up and shampoo and pretty much anything a woman would need. This company was for women! Why were these people so angry?
They gave her a threatening glare as she walking into the huge skyscraper. It towered over the surrounding buildings. Over the front doors is the title of the building: NEW LIFE COSMETICS.
Taking the elevator to the tenth floor, she stepped off and was immediately greeted by Mr. Holden, “A little late today aren’t we, Brenda?”
She was surprised. She may have been five minutes late, but what was five minutes? She just smiled and apologized, “Sorry Mr. Holden, it won’t happen again.”
“In case you didn’t notice, we have a bit of a problem outside. So don’t slack off, this is gonna be a busy day.”
Brenda was burning up inside with hatred for this man. She never slacked off. In fact, she was one of the hardest working people on this floor. But why should her boss notice that. All he cared about was staring at her ass and down her blouse. The pig. How she wished she could quit. But she knew that would never happen.
“Yes sir,” she forced herself to say and walked off, rolling her eyes. She walked down the hall to her desk outside Mr. Holden’s office. She sat down, her back to the door with the name Jack Holden printed on it. Her name was printed on a small nameplate sitting at the head of her desk. After settling in and putting her glasses on, Tammy came walking up to her.
“Hey there, have you seen the circus outside?”
Brenda took her glasses off and smiled at her friend. “Hey, yeah, I walked right through it. What’s it all about?”
Tammy looked surprised at her, “You mean you haven’t seen it?”
Brenda was confused, “Seen what?”
“The commercial, it’s programmed into all our computers.”
She walked around Brenda’s desk and reached over to Brenda’s computer. Tammy was a hot lady. Even Brenda understood that. She had the typical long blonde hair and perfect figure. She always wore skirts while Brenda chose slacks.
Tammy clicked the computer to life and a small window appeared automatically and started playing a video. It showed an ordinary woman walking down the street, wearing normal clothes and going unnoticed by every man she passed by. She seemed unhappy about it too. Then, she was seen leaving a department store with a bag that said New Life Cosmetics on the side. Her clothes had changed to that of a slutty tramp and she seemed very pleased with herself. This time, while walking down the street, the woman was being stared at by every guy that passed. One even slapped her ass while she walked by, but the woman just laughed while a commercial played some loud rock song. She was next seen at a bar getting tons of attention by men. The screen went black and words came up on the screen, being read aloud by the woman, saying, “New Life Cosmetics: What men look for in women.” Then a male’s voice announced the exciting debut of several new products from New Life Cosmetics. Then the video stopped.
Brenda was floored! She couldn’t believe she was employed by these sexist pigs. Her boss appeared from around the corner and smiled at the two women. Then frowned and said, “Tammy, this isn’t your work area. And Brenda, I don’t want to see any playing around or gossiping today. I know work is difficult thing for you women, but we need to apply ourselves today. ‘K girls?”
They both said in unison, “Sorry Mr. Holden.” He walked into his office and closed the door.
Brenda looked at her friend, “I really hate that man.”
Tammy sighed, “I know, me too. But if we don’t kiss his ass, we’re both looking for new jobs.”
“I know, but I can’t believe they’re getting away with this commercial. Are they really playing this on TV?”
“Oh yeah, it’s getting serious airplay. Everyone’s getting upset about it.” Brenda couldn’t believe it. She’d never be able to concentrate today. She had to have a talk with Mr. Holden.
“I’m gonna talk with him,” Brenda said getting up from her desk.
Tammy started to talk her down, “Oh no, that’s a bad idea. He doesn’t like to be reasoned with. Especially by women, you know how he is.”
“I won’t do anything dramatic. Just a little talk is all.”
Tammy realized it was no good, “Ok then, but just be careful. Don’t get yourself fired.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
Jack Holden was standing by the window, looking down at the picketers circling in front of the building. It seemed to be growing larger. More and more women were joining to revolt against his company, but little did they know that they were making a big mistake. His partner, Gregory, was on his way outside to greet them now. He watched as his partner came out the front door holding the special perfume in his hands. He appeared to be offering one of the picketer’s a free sample, but she just started waving her sign in the air and shouting something. Then, he sprayed the perfume in her face and she dropped her sign. The woman seemed to calm down a lot and then just walked away down the street after Gregory had a few words with her. One by one, he sprayed the picketers, until they were all walking causally away, like they had just lost interest in the idea. Jack smiled at his creation and was pleased it was working so well.
He had a bottle of it sitting on his desk. He walked over to it and sat down. The bottle was oval shaped and was titled, Happiness. After many years of development, he had finally come up with several new products designed to bring in a hefty profit and dominate the cosmetics industry. Happiness was the first product being sold.
He leaned back in his chair and was relaxing when he heard a knock at his door.
“Come in,” he muttered.
Brenda opened the door and stuck her head in, “Sir, are you busy?”
“I’m always busy, Brenda. Now what is it.”
She was very nervous. She had never had confronted her boss about anything before. But she felt she had to let him know just how terrible this new ad was.
“Sir, I just viewed the new commercial for the first time a moment ago and . . .”
“Beauty ain’t it?” Mr. Holden smiled at his secretary, already preparing for what was coming.
“Well, actually . . . no,” Brenda flinched at her words, afraid of the response she was going to get. But instead, Holden just continued to sit and smile. He looked her up and down, making her very self-conscious. “Um, sir, could you please not —”
“Sit down Brenda,” he commanded, pointing at the chair in front of his desk.
“What?” she was expecting to be fired by now. Maybe he was understanding what she was saying.
“Sit down.” She did as told. She sat and crossed her legs, waiting for Mr. Holden’s response. He picked up a bottle of perfume that was sitting on his desk. The label read, Happiness. “Brenda, this is our new product. It’s called Happiness.”
“I see,” she said, eyeing the bottle.
“Do you know why it’s called Happiness?”
“Umm, no. I don’t.”
“Well, all those picketers are very unhappy women. Do you know why they’re unhappy?” She shook her head no. “Well, they’re not pretty women, basically. Men don’t pay attention to them. The worst thing is, they’re not trying to get their attention.” Brenda was nodding her head, not understanding where this was going. “This perfume can make them happy by ensuring that men will pay attention to them.”
“But, sir, I don’t think they want men to pay attention to them. They want to be respected like anyone else instead of stared at, like that darn commercial.”
He smiled at his secretary and pointed the bottle at her face, “But this perfume changes that.” He sprayed a cloud of perfume into Brenda’s face. She closed her eyes and flinched at the suddenness of Mr. Holden’s actions. It was very sweet smelling and started to fill Brenda’s head with a cloudy feeling. She suddenly felt very calm.
“Don’t you feel better now?” he asked, still smiling.
She rubbed her forehead, wondering why she felt so strange. “I . . . I guess so.”
“Stand up darlin’,” he led her to the window and pointed down to the street. “See, all the picketers are gone.”
She looked down at the street, “Where’d they go?”
“We gave them some free samples of Happiness and they just seemed to lose interest in picketing. Much like you’re losing interest in bothering me with your opinions, right?”
She thought about this. Her mind was filled with mixed feelings. She remembered being offended by the commercial, but now, she didn’t feel to concerned about it. Casually glancing down at herself, she wondered why she picked this outfit out today. It didn’t seem too flattering to her figure. She’d have to go shopping after work. Wait, why am I thinking about clothes now? I never do that? She started getting worried, but was suddenly sprayed in the face again by the perfume. The worried thoughts seemed to melt away. She looked at her boss and apologized for bothering him, “I guess you’re right, I’ll leave you alone now.”
“Brenda?” She stopped and looked at him. “Go home early today, get yourself some new clothes. You would really be a knockout if you dressed up a little.”
Normally, this would offend her, but now, she didn’t seem to care. In fact, if really seemed like a good idea. “Ok, Jack.” Did I just call him Jack? She started to worry again, but thought about shopping again and calmed down. She walked out of his office, unconsciously shaking her ass more and more. Jack smiled to himself and thinking he couldn’t wait to get the rest of the new products out.
No comments:
Post a Comment