The Brass Statuettes Ch. 10

"A!" the children repeated.

She proceeded to contort her lanky body, progressing through the letters. The children repeated the letters as she called them out. With each letter the children's excitement grew stronger. Suddenly Trudy paused. "I can't figure out how to make 'Q'," she cried out to her audience.

"Like this!" A boy hopped up and repeated Trudy's 'O' form, while balancing on his left foot and holding his right leg out at a rigid forty-five degrees.

"Great!" Trudy yelled as she pointed at him. She continued on with 'R' and then all the way to 'Z'.

It was a big hit with the children. "Again—again," they yelled.

Maddy came to Trudy's rescue. "Maybe later, children. It's time for lunch now."

As the children formed a line behind the Assistant Teacher to prepare to go to the lunchroom, the three women retired to Maddy's office.

"That was really something, Trudy," Maddy gushed.

"Yes, really something," Gloria mumbled.

"It was just clowning around," Trudy replied. "The kids liked it, so it was fun."

Brenda remained silent, but studied Gloria's expression with care. She hadn't foreseen Trudy's sudden rise to stardom and realized how serious a mistake she'd made. Gloria was smiling but Brenda noticed that secret furrow in her brow. Brenda had come to notice things about Gloria that few others did.

"Do you mind if I use your routine from time to time?" Maddy asked, still fawning on Trudy and her performance.

"It's all yours," Trudy said and shrugged and laughed.

"We still have business to attend to," Brenda interrupted.

"You're right as usual, Bren," Gloria agreed as they all took seats around Maddy's desk. "We have to firm up the arrangements for the pool party for the office secretaries."

"It's all set, except for the children's artwork display," Maddy said. "We'd like to bring over something good, but so far we haven't had any good results."

"Get them to try again," Gloria insisted. "The photos will be real nice, but the paintings are sure to do the trick."

"What seems to be the trouble," Trudy asked. "Drawing and kids always go together."

"Of course, we told them to draw something nice," Maddy answered. "Unfortunately, their surroundings outside this school don't make good subjects for artwork."

"How about a landscape, or something like that," Brenda suggested.

"The children don't get to see landscapes very often. Their world is those streets out there."

"Well, that won't do," Gloria said.

"Get them to draw something nice that they're familiar with," Trudy suggested.

"Of course," Maddy agreed, "but what?

"Themselves;" Trudy answered, "or themselves with their family or schoolmates—whatever they want. I'm sure you'll get some interesting drawings to display and the children will enjoy doing it."

"Trudy, the human form is the most difficult thing to capture," Brenda interjected. "I recall from my college art classes..."

"It doesn't matter," Trudy argued. "We're just trying to show the personalities of the children. No one will expect a Rembrandt."

"I think you have it," "Maddy declared. "Trudy, you have such a deep understanding of children. You must have studied child development in college."

"No," Trudy answered. She paused and looked at the floor. "No I never did." Maddy shook her head in disbelief. "I had a lot of practice with my two kids," Trudy added as she looked up.

It was late in the afternoon when the three women arrived back at Gloria's house. The downtown traffic had been especially unpleasant. Gloria looked tired and chose to sit in the back seat. Brenda concentrated on traffic, so there was little conversation during the ride.

"Come out by the pool and we'll have a margarita," Gloria offered.

"Don't mind if I do," Brenda answered. She wondered if the new Gloria was still intact, or if her special services would be required.

"I'll take a raincheck," Trudy replied. "I need to get home and throw something together for dinner." She hopped into her car and was soon disappearing down the long driveway.

Gloria and Brenda made their way quickly through the house. Juana greeted them.

"Juana, be a dear and bring us margaritas on the veranda," Gloria asked.

"No Señora Trudy?" Juana inquired with no small measure of hope in her voice.

Brenda could see the new Gloria was trying to hold together. She wondered if the old Gloria would out-wrestle the new one.

They sat under an umbrella over a round table sipping their drinks. Gloria wasn't saying much.

"For someone new to the scene, Trudy certainly got a lot of attention," Brenda said.

"Oh, I know," Gloria sighed. "Trudy this and Trudy that. Even Juana can't get her off her mind."

"It's all right," Brenda soothed. "A flash in the pan. You're still the one driving all of this."

"It doesn't matter," Gloria said after taking a deep breath. "The old Gloria would have been upset. I'm glad that we have Trudy working with us."

The words were the right ones for the new Gloria, but to Brenda's ear, there was an undertone of defeat."

"Well, it's true that her idea about the artwork was a lifesaver," Brenda reminded her.

"Yes, the bit with forming the letters was brilliant, too."

"She probably saw it done somewhere. It couldn't have been her own idea," Brenda said.

"Perhaps," Gloria mumbled as she sunk lower in her chair. "The children liked it. That's all that matters."

"If it weren't for you there would be no school," Brenda intoned the familiar mantra. "The children love you."

Special services come in many forms. Brenda had already completed all that were required for that afternoon.

******************

After Frank completed his presentation to the Finance Committee he left the Board Room and returned to his office.

"How did it go?" Jeannette asked as he rounded the corner.

"Okay, I guess," Frank answered. "It's never as good as you want it to be. Some of them hardly listened; others were very supportive. It was the same ones you could have predicted before it all started."

"It's so unfair," Jeannette sighed. "You didn't have anything to do with creating this mess. All you tried to do is handle it."

"Don't ship me off to the undertaker yet," Frank insisted. "I'm still breathing. At least Alvin and Jim Sweeney were on my side."

"You've been in tough spots before," Jeannette reminded him in her low, soft voice.

"In the end," Frank deduced, "I'll probably keep my job because they won't agree on what else to do." He turned and started for his office.

"Coffee?" Jeannette called after him.

"That would be great," he replied without looking back at her.

"I'll bring some in as soon as it's finished. I have some brewing right now."

In the Board Room the Committee was reconvening after taking a short break. There were five members, but two couldn't make it on such short notice and were absent. The quorum of three was sufficient, which were the Chairman, Jim Sweeney, Detlef Mueller and Simon Lambert. As Board Chairman, Alvin sat in ex-officio but had no vote.

Sweeney brought the meeting to order. "I think it's time to discuss Frank's presentation." He looked around the table and the members sat silently. Their eyes cast downward, possibly studying the fine grain of the mahogany table at which they sat. "I, for one, think that Frank is doing a good job in a tough situation," Sweeney continued, breaking the silence. "He's done a lot to keep the ship afloat and he's got a solid strategy on finding a way out."

"Nein, nein," Mueller shouted. "Zee mare-jare wit zee Wertheim Grupen is ruined, und it is all 'is fault. Herr Bennett never sooported zee ackweezeeshone."

"Aw, c'mon, Detlef," Alvin said. "That's not fair to say."

"'e vass against it frome zee beegeening."

""It's true, he counseled against it," Alvin said, "but after the Board decided..."

"Unt zen, zee shelf registration."

"Well, I suppose..." Alvin admitted. "But I think that's all out of context."

"You agreed with Frank when he shelved the registration, didn't you Alvin?" Sweeney pointed out. "In my opinion, it was damned straight thinking. I thought it then, and I think so now."

"Well...yes; but I based my support on his recommendation," Alvin said.

Mueller and Sweeney stared at one another. They had never been allies during their tenures on the Board. Sweeney had always suspected the motives of the German banker. A seat on the Finance Committee had been a condition that Mueller laid down to join the Western Board two years before. A year after that he insisted on bringing his ally, Simon Lambert on the Board as a condition for staying. Jim Sweeney was always a man who fought back when his arm was being twisted. He sensed that Herr Mueller was biding his time till the day he could take over the chair of the Finance Committee.

"The acquisition in Germany was of great strategic importance," Lambert, the academic, said. "Delaying the stock issue might have been an advantage in the moment, but was possibly short-sighted for the long-term." He paused, letting a smug look descend upon him and cast a furtive glance in Mueller's direction. The German nodded, thrusting out his lower lip to put his confidence on display. Lambert reached nervously into his suit coat pocket to fetch his pipe and started to fiddle with it.

"It's hard to understand you, Simon," Sweeney said. "'Might and possibly'—they're boardroom words. They're not worth much when it's crunch time. If I could only have one man with me at crunch time, Frank..."

"Frank was right," Alvin stammered. "We could never have sold out the shareholders' interest so cheaply."

"True enough," Sweeney seconded. "Look, there'll be other deals in Europe, if that's what we really want."

Mueller slapped his hand on the table. "I knew it," he shouted. "It vass a treek. You ver against zee mare-jare, too."

"Aw, come off it," Sweeney scowled and looked away.

"We've got to come together on this," Lambert chanted.

"Unity of the Board is the most important thing," Alvin agreed.

"No one deep-sixed the merger," Sweeney insisted. "It just wasn't meant to be."

"You can prove it if you fire Bennett," Mueller spat back.

The last man in the room had said nothing so far. It was Al Crossman, the corporation's outside legal counsel. "You can't fire Bennett—at least not now." The men ceased their arguing and turned toward him at the far end of the table.

"For one thing," he began, "if you let him go right now, everyone, including the SEC and the FBI will take that as a sign that there is some kind of guilt in the management ranks..."

"Pairhops d'ere vas," Mueller shot back.

"For another thing," Crossman continued, ignoring Mueller's interruption, "the major shareholders support Frank. I know this is true. Murray Shoreham called me yesterday. He's nervous, but he'll hang tight if Frank's running Finance. If not..."

"Then we can do nothing for the time being," Lambert said. "We're arguing for no purpose."

"That's my feeling, too," Alvin added.

"So, Bennett stays," Sweeney confirmed.

Mueller shook his head sadly and waved his hand at the others in disgust. "Ach! Was ist los?"

***************

TO BE CONTINUED

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