Quagmire

Chapter 1

Bette stood just before the entrance to Franklin’s office. Franklin was not a person she liked much. He represented everything she was trying to change at the CAC. It hasn’t been easy forging change. Since she has arrived Franklin has fought her tooth and nail anytime she manages to win an appreciable move forward. If he had his way nothing would change, every CAC show would be the same boring shows over and over again. They may have been fresh and exciting in the 70s but today it’s just boring. Stiffening her back, Bette drew herself up to her 5′ 11″ height and entered Franklin’s office without knocking.

“You summoned me?” Bette asks upon entering.

Franklin looked up from the paperwork on him desk for just a moment and then returned to his task ignoring Bette’s presence. The lack of recognition was typical Franklin , he was putting Bette in her place. The silence stretched on with Bette standing in front of Franklin ‘s desk and he finishing up his work. After a few moments of Franklin ignoring her she began to look around her eyes first traveling up and around his office. Another few minutes pass, this posture of standing in front of the principle waiting for the proverbial bitching out was almost more than Bette could tolerate. Bette was just about to turn on her heels and walk out when Franklin finally moves.

Franklin clears his throat and then lifts his gaze up to Bette. This time instead of immediately looking back down he is ready to give Bette his attention. She is his next task before him.

“Bette thank-you for coming to my office. We have a few corrections we need to make to the agenda for tomorrows board meeting.”

“Corrections? What kind of corrections?” Bette asks.

“Unfortunately for you a portion of your funding on your spring show has been pulled.” Franklin announces all the while watching Bette closely to see her flip her lid.

“What are you talking about? I have all my funding all lined up.”

“Well now you don’t. You want to know why? Well I’ll tell you why it seems that cutting tongue of yours has sliced you the wrong way. You know William Appleton? Yes the one that bequeathed the CAC a grant of which most was being applied to your little project. It seems you and your high and mighty attitude rubbed our benefactor the wrong way. Mr. Appleton approached me about pulling his funding from the CAC and by default your project. It seems he doesn’t take kindly to being talked down to. It took all of my powers of persuasion to convince him not to pull out all together. Imagine my surprise when he described how patronizing you were to him in describing your project to him.”

Franklin pauses here as he watches Bette’s expressions cross her face. He notes she hasn’t yet grasped that this whole fiasco is her fault and could have been avoided.

“Bette I can’t begin to understand what goes through your mind but from where I sit you need to tone down that attitude of yours. It’s done nothing to ingratiate you to some of our most important donors. What makes you think you are always the smartest person in the room? Not everyone wants to break down barriers especially when it means you will give attention to pieces that can only be called art in the looses of terms.”

” Franklin I know who William Appleton is. Are you trying to tell me he’s pulled his funding? When did this happen?” Bette inquires frustrated that this is the first she’s hearing this.

“When he contacted me isn’t the issue here. What is the issue is your behavior and how it has negatively effects funding opportunities here at the CAC. If you hope to continue in…”

“Again Franklin , if you had brought me in on your conversation with Mr. Appleton I’m sure this misunderstanding can be avoided. Let me give him a call and see if we can put an end to this situation.”

“Oh no. I’m not giving you any chance to make a bad situation worse. I have dealt with Mr. Appleton in a way that we can keep his funding but we will need to channel it to a different project. The good news is the Winter show is now funded. It looks like we will have the impressionist show again.”

“What that show is is a tired retread that’s been around for the last five years. Putting that out for public viewing is a kin to giving everyone sleeping pills before they walk in the door. It’s not going to bring in the traffic that gets our board members excited and it’s not going to bring any positive press to the CAC.”

“I don’t care about what you think. There seems to be a sizable amount of people who like the Impressionist. They may not be cutting edge but they are beautiful to look at and after all isn’t that what we’re trying to do here show beautiful art?”

Bette takes in a deep breath at Franklin ‘s assault. It was clear that he had taken any complaint that Appleton may have had and blown it up into another stone to throw at her. Well she wasn’t about to let him see her hurt.

“You know without Appleton ‘s funding the Spring show is in jeopardy?” Bette asks to see just how malicious Franklin is.

Franklin tries his best to conceal his smile when he responds. “Really? Huh I guess maybe the board might want to go another direction tomorrow when they hear about it. Let wait to see what they say.”

“Sure let’s wait.” Bette says as she turns around ready to leave Franklin ‘s office.

“Bette stop I’m not done with you yet. While I don’t want you to call Mr. Appleton I do expect for you to write an apology for you patronizing behavior. No one and I mean especially our donors deserve to be treated like idiots. Not everyone is as smart as you Bette. If this behavior continues I will have to bring it up to the board. We may need to take some disciplinary action.”

******

Tina was sure she had the right address but somehow the building wasn’t what she expected. It was a very nondescript office tower. You would think for all the money this was costing the office would be in a better part of town and the building would look like the Taj Mahal.

Tina enters the lobby, taking off her sunglasses once she is out of the glaring sun. Looking around she locates the building directory and sees her location is on the 12th floor. Looking around she spots the elevators and makes her way over there. Tina pushes the up button and waits.

She is nervous. It wasn’t everyday that she goes somewhere alone without telling a living soul. Not even Bette knows of her little journey today. Tina realizes she should have talked this over with Bette but lately there just hasn’t been the right opportunity. Bette’s been as buried as ever with her work all the while Tina was becoming more and more disengaged from her primary focus, prepare her body for a baby.

Alice had been right when she laughed at her for even coming up with the idea of preparing herself for motherhood. The more Alice laughed the more Bette thought it was a good idea. Tina smiles when she remembers their conversation at the Planet.

“I’ve been thinking of quitting my job to better get ready for the family we plan on having.” Tina had started

“Wait … wait are you saying you are going to quit your job, stay at home and do what eat bon bons?”

“No Alice that’s not what she’s saying.” Bette reprimanded Alice insulted that she would take it there. “Tina’s just going to get away from all the running around and stress she has at work. It will be good for her, the baby we’re soon to have and good for me.”

“For you, what does that mean? You’ll be slaving away at the CAC and Tina will be lying around the pool taking it easy while you do all the work of making the bacon. How can that be good for you?” Alice persisted.

” Alice does Tina strike you as the type of person to just lie around the pool. No she doesn’t strike me that way either. Listen this is what we want to do. Get Tina ready for this pregnancy. It’s the least I can do seeing how Tina is carrying the baby.”

“Hey if that’s what you guys want to do it’s fine by me. I just wish I’d known you were that easy when I was going with you cause I’m here to tell ya I’d love to lay around your pool all day.”

To this Bette had just rolled her eyes and the conversation moved on. The brief conversation did give a window as to way Bette agreed to it. Tina knew this at the time but she always felt that once she was pregnant all the reasoning would slide to the past.

They had been trying to get pregnant for 6 months before Tina quit her job. They never could get their timing together. If Tina was ovulating and the time was right for insemination it never happened. She was either out of town or Bette was on some trip. If they get together to do the deed it seemed that it was just them going through the motions because both of them were so stressed out from the day. It just seemed to make sense to get a handle on one of them and they both decided that one should be Tina. Bette for her part had wanted no part of being the birth mother. For Tina she wanted nothing else then to carry their baby.

But now 6 months after having quit her job she still wasn’t pregnant. Tina didn’t know of any other way she could prepare. It’s all she’s done in the last six months since she left her job is make her body a temple for conception. If she didn’t get pregnant soon Tina didn’t know what she’d do. Failure just isn’t an option.

Something would have to change soon. Tina was feeling guilty for her failure. These feelings of guilt were mixed with jealousy towards Bette that she could leave each morning and go to work. It was these emotions and others that move her to be here today. When the bell ding, the elevator doors opened and Tina was off.