My Magazine Ch. 16: Final

That amused Jenni because someone had told her years ago that tell a man the problem was 'a woman's complaint' and he'd not enquire any further.

"Look, the magazine is already in print and the sections are being perfect bound as we speak. Just don't leave a copy around the house. Your husband won't go into a bookshop or stop as a newsagent's to purchase magazines to read in case you or your daughter is mentioned in them. Nor will his male colleagues read our magazine word for word looking for you daughter's name, and women friends who read it would talk to you about it over a cup of tea rather than announce loudly at a dinner party - 'Guess what, Amanda's had her stomach muscles reconfigured'."

"Ann, not Amanda."

"Oh I'm sorry about that. But there's one more thing that I can comfort you with: husbands know their wives lie to them, and in most cases when a wife is found out her husband begins making a great fuss only because she refuses to defend her action. In this case you would tell your husband something like, 'It was necessary to take this action while Ann was young to ensure she made herself more attractive to secure better advantages in life'."

"He of course won't have a clue what that means. But no man wants to stand in the way of his daughter securing better advantages in life whatever that means."

"Well perhaps," said the mother, "but you're not married, are you Miss Giles?"

"No - is that relevant? I can't see how it is."

"Well it's easy to stand on the side-line and commentate isn't it?"

"Oh I see. Because I haven't stood at the altar I can't possibly know about men. Mrs Humphries let me tell you I know a great deal about men and puppies, and really there's not a great difference."

Mrs Humphries snorted and went into a laughing fit.

"You should write a series in your magazine on that subject, Miss Giles Your magazine's circulation would soar as women stampede to get their hands on a copy."

"That's an excellent suggestion, Mrs Humphries. Thank you. Now do you think we have defused this situation somewhat?"

"Yes and thank you. I am more confident about handling the situation if any fallout occurs. Like a puppy, eh? Ha, ha, ha. Goodbye Jenni Giles."

Brenda arrived with labels already printed for the guests she'd chosen to invite.

"Here's a guest list for you to check - I've already phoned those on the list but you can make additions."

Jenni skimmed down the list and pointed to a name.

"How did this name get on the list?"

"Rhonda phoned me and gave me the name. She said the more than you see of him the better. Have you gone soft on this guy?"

"Oh Brenda I'd thought with Rhonda going it would be the end of inquisitions. You are beginning to appear to be the perfect substitute for Rhonda."

Jenni had said that in jest, but machinery in her head began to whirl. The two women looked at each other and laughed.

"The job's yours if you want it Brenda. We should start with a three-month trial with the right for you to return to your current position if it doesn't work out. There could be a downside: You will no longer be shielded from interfacing with the public and you'll have more money to spend but the hours will be longer."

"Could you give me five minutes, I need to chat with Timmy."

"Timmy?"

"Yes I now have that naming privilege but I must revert to Timothy when talking to his mother."

She returned a few minutes later.

"Yes I'll do the trial but I don't see myself wanting to revert. Now, you will want to discuss that other thing."

"What other thing?"

"My appearance."

"Well yes. I must admit I was wondering about the best way of entering such a discussion. You have talent, Brenda, and I will encourage you to develop, if that is your wish?"

"Yes, and I suppose the first thing is my hair?"

"Look phone this person Leigh I'd added to the list at this number. Tell her it's an emergency, that I want you groomed for a party this afternoon. I've been going to her for years, and she likes me - really likes me in fact that she makes me slightly nervous at times. But she's one of the best in her business. Here - take this, said Jenni, and ask for her fifty pound special: the magic words to say to her are, 'I'm in your hands' and then don't interfere."

"But suppose she decides on a style I don't like?"

"Other people will like it, Brenda because Leigh knows best. She'll comb and then run her fingers through your hair. Then she'll stand back and look at your face and your hair and then set to work, chatting about her butch girlfriends but she never talks nasty. My impression she is one of their recruitment officers."

"Jenni you're making me nervous."

"Have confidence in yourself, Brenda. You can handle anything."

Gina and Jason from Kitchen arrived at 11:30 with two trestle tables and linen table cloths, plus decorations, plates and silverware. Leo's restaurant had been hired to do full catering.

Jason, a thin and sallow trainee chef stood, hands on hips, shaking his head, saying, "This will not do, this will not do."

"What's the matter?" asked Jenni anxiously, coming out of her cubicle.

"These division things - they will interrupt the flow of people, spoiling atmosphere and enjoyment."

"Well let's move the blasted things," Jennie.

"Timothy please get Nico and Janus up here to help you dismantle the partitioning. The hire people are coming in tomorrow to collect the partitioning anyway."

"This chef from Kitchen is quite right. We want open slather!"

Nico came up the stairs leading Janus, puffing slightly. Nico was resplendent in a three-piece suit.

"Nico," Jenni said. "You should be in your drinking clothes."

"This is a great occasion," he said. "It's also a sad occasion and I must look my best."

He took off his jacket and waistcoat and began helping Janus and Timothy, leaving just Jenni and now Brenda's cubicle intact as all the files had not yet been packed.

Vivian and Ella were the only ones to keep on working and so Jenni sent them downstairs with laptops to continuing working on their columns for the third issue.

"You lot haul the desks, computers and your filing cabinets over against these remaining partitions," she said.

The trainee chef clicked his tongue in approval as an extensive cleared space appeared. He and Gina, assisted by Mae and Ali, had been setting up rice cookers, warming cabinets and a big micro-wave oven in the kitchen as some of the food would be cooked on-site.

"Leo's always lifts the game for valued clients," Jason said loftily, when Jenni enquired was it necessary to go to all this trouble just for some nibbles with drinks.

Leo's was licensed to sell and serve liquor off-premises so all drinks had been ordered from the restaurant. Gina was asked not to break open the cartons until the last minute to avoid staff being tempted to start imbibing early.

Rhonda arrived, looking her normal self, and seemed pleased that staff rushed her. She and Jenni hugged warmly.

Then Rhys appeared.

All staff looked at him and then Jenni, but learned nothing. They greeted each other but did not touch.

"I've come to see if I can help."

"Good because there's plenty of stuff in our van to haul up here," Jason told him. "Use the parcel lift if you wish but walking it up the stairs is faster."

Katarina entered wearing a lovely new blue silk dress. Gina her grand-daughter had to immediately send her out from the kitchen.

"Jason will throw a wobbly if you attempt to interfere," Gina cautioned.

Guests began to arrive, with most people knowing everyone, but it was necessary to introduce Lady Barcote and her daughter Marissa, solicitor Sue Boyd, accountant Garth Oliver, freelance journalist Paul Lobb, real estate people Tess Jordan and Peter Upton and the very pregnant Gracie and husband Snowy.

The team from Zephyr had arrived early - David, Charles and Sharon, with David bringing a huge bottle of champagne. Late arrivals were Charmaine and Mace from television, with an apology from make-up artist Colette Illes who was having facial enhancement surgery.

Leo the restaurateur was last to arrive, carrying a huge bottle of champagne that, to David's relief, was no bigger than the one he'd bought. He knew Leo well as they had occasionally gone river cruising on Friday afternoon together with a couple of women.

Formalities were very brief. Snowy called for everyone to be quiet and Jenni thanked everyone for coming.

"A magazine is nothing without the right people behind it and in the team that produce it," she said brightly, showing no sign of becoming weepy.

Snowy told them a couple of stories about Jenni's exploits in her younger day, and said she was admired by journalists familiar with her work.

"Snowy was born with a silver tongue," Jennie interjected.

Mace Matthews, dressed in a white suit and wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt, said that Jenni was one of the few women who'd got on top of him. At that the whole place erupted, and he stood there, face burning.

"I rephrase that comment - I meant she hammered back verbally on that interview so hard that I eventually had to back off and to my astonishment I ended up not being annoyed."

"That's because you're used to dealing with women who are not subservient," called Brenda, fired on champagne and looking very chic with her new haircut and the benefit of a full facial.

"May I speak?"

"Certainly, Lady Barcote," Snowy smiled. "Please take the floor."

The room feel silent apart from the low hum of a microwave oven and two ceiling fans.

"Jenni Giles took an unfortunate situation that occurred within my family and used it to her advantage, and I have no quarrel about that. However, at the same time she somehow managed to give back very much more, something that we treasure - the restoration of a united, loving family."

"Another thing I wish to say is that last week Jenni accepted an invitation to become a trustee on a trust that our family has set up together with some of our friends to support women emotionally and financially who have hit the wall, so to speak, in their desire to make something of themselves in business or public life. This is a very much ignored section of people in our community."

"We glibly talk about the so called 'glass ceiling' without really understanding what it means or appreciating how people truly are victimised by it. Our trust aims to make a positive contribution towards leader to better public understanding and to provide support for some of the victims whose goals remain intact."

"Finally I wish to be a touch personal. It's rather silly of me to say this, really but say it I must. When I die I want no other person than Jenni Giles to write my obituary, as I know of no other person who will present me as I truly was. Jenni Giles is gifted."

People clapped, a few cheers were vented. Most were eyeing Jenni. She stood, now looking rather pale and swallowed a couple of times. She joined in the clapping and appeared to be blinking rather rapidly.

"Thank you everyone, thank you indeed," she said. "Now let's party."

Epilogue

It's three years since Jenni and her team relocate in South London. But soon the greatly enlarged editorial division, advertising division and most of administration return to that former JJ Publications Ltd site now covered by an almost completed three-level building.

On the roof of the company's new headquarters of Zephyr Media revolves a bright yellow restored English Ford Zephyr sedan that is floodlit at night. The neighbourhood has been redeveloped with a mix of office and residential accommodation. Leo's has a branch there called Jason's, a small take-out food bar attached to the company's catering division.

Rhonda is now married to Ludvik. Jenni went to the wedding in Sweden. Rhonda is office manager of Ludvik's fish processing machinery exporting business in Göteborg, She has emailed Jenni to say that they have decided it's time to have a baby, adding the interesting titbit that her mother Brigetta is being courted by Rhonda's divorced father-in-law.

Lord and Lady Barcote live in the Far East where Lord Barcote is a UN political negotiator for three adjoining countries. Their elder daughter Haley has two children while Marissa is assistant marketing manager in France for a manufacturer of mountain and hiking apparel.

Mace Matthews is a presenter on TV in Canada and Charmaine is still presenting 'Behind the Headlines', fighting the station assassins attempting to replace her with a much younger woman, the girl-friend of the female producer.

Colette Illes is happily married to her surgeon and they have a new-born called Esmeralda. Colette wanted a distinctive name for her daughter because the family surname is Smith.

Long retired headmistress Miss Childs is still alive, and although no longer writing her column for My Magazine sends a sizzling poem to Jenni every so often as a reminder that her facilities are still intact.

Among the deceased are Jenni's birth father lawyer Tom Bennett and her unofficial surrogate father, Anthony Burrows and Victor Henchman (his wife Isabela lives back in Spain).

Her real estate friend Tess Jordan has her own business broking agency with co-partner (business only) Peter Upton, considered the city's top consultant in corporate realty deals.

Accountant Garth Oliver has still not asked his business partner to become his bride but adores her. He becomes extremely nervous when she occasionally has this great urge in the office and whispers to him, "Lock the door and hit the carpet, lover."

David Brooks is still living in France still trying to find his best wine in the whole of France. Wife Lydia is having a double quest - to find the best cosmetician in all of France and trying to rid herself of her accent when speaking French that makes everyone smile and even burst out laughing. The French don't even seem to recognise that David has an accent.

Nico and Katarina remain unchanged, despite selling out to Zephyr Media Ltd for a great deal of money. They retained one of the penthouses on the building above land that formerly belonged to old Mr Stephan Kecic who's come back from Croatia with his daughter, both complaining that they felt so totally unwanted in a very foreign land that had been Mr Kecic's homeland.

Nickolas Duckworth was divorced by his wife after she found him in bed with Maria from Jersey but she relented and remarried him.

Maria's parents are doing fine and continue as residential caretakers of the former Brooks' home on Jersey now owned by Jenni Giles and husband Rhys.

Jenni and Rhys married just six months ago and Rhonda was maid of honour while the slimmed down sophisticate Brenda Simpson (since then becoming Timothy's wife) was chief bridesmaid. It was a church wedding and Jenni wore white, a fact noted by every caption writer when the wedding photographs were run in magazines as well as a leading morning newspaper.

That first awards evening for My Magazine was a triumph. JJ Publications picked up the award for Best New Magazine; Best Feature in any Magazine (The Secret Life of Lord Barcote - Jenni Giles), Best Composite Magazine Story (The Intimate Thoughts of Wives of MPs - staff of My Magazine), Best Front Cover (Mae Cheung, My Magazine), Reader's Choice of Best Magazine (My Magazine), Public's Choice of Best Writer (Jenni Giles, My Magazine's Lady Barcote Interview). Rhonda Flagstaff was runner-up in the Best New Columnist category.

Another crop of awards was received at the recent awards evening, including three top awards. My Magazine (editor Vivian Stanton) was named Magazine of the Year; Jennie Giles received the Publisher of the Year award on behalf of Zephyr Media and in the final presentation of the evening she was called up again to receive a special award from the Magazine Publisher's Federation - Outstanding Magazine Publisher of the Past Three Years.

Rhys's father Maurice Cain, took Mrs Smart to the conference in Vienna and they now live as husband and wife in Brighton. Maurice thought he had finalised a deal with David Brooks, but Rhys told him to request another luncheon and to ask for more. David, fearing a succession of such boring luncheons, caved in.

Rhys couldn't believe it when his father returned from the first meeting to say that Zephyr wanted him to continue on as editor but that the magazine would be changed into a newspaper focusing on women office workers. He threw an uncharacteristic tantrum and stalked out and got drunk.

The next morning when Rhys came to work, looking quite ill, and his father berated his son for behaving like a kid who had lost his tricycle. He told his son that Rhys' 'bit of fluff" knows that only Rhys can steer the redesigned business paper into profitability. Then as soon as it was in the black, Rhys should marry the woman as good women were like good help - very hard to find these days.

Jenni is little changed, though now married and loving having a tender, considerate man at her side. Her goddaughter Hattie comes to stay with her at least twice a month and they occasionally have Rhys children to stay; they really like Jenni. She is now majority shareholder of Zephyr Media and executive chairman, with Ron as managing director and relishing the role of expanding the company into product over-printing - one of the fastest growth areas in business.

Jenni serves on three boards and is chairman of the trust set up by Lady Barcote and her friends. Lady Barcote and friends have discretely nominated Jenni for a New Year's honour for service to journalism.

Jenni and Rhys are soon to go to Bognis Regis on the south coast of England for a meeting with a solo mother and the woman's relatives and her solicitor. The woman, who is dying of cancer, was a beneficiary of the trust and as a result of counselling, had broken through the so-called glass ceiling in local body administration before being stricken.

As a dying wish she's asked Jenni to consider adopting her fourteen-year-old daughter who is being to lose her grip on life. Jenni took one look at the photograph and decided she would love to mother that child. Rhys wasn't surprised that Jenni only took half a second to make her decision upon seeing the photograph: the only time Jenni couldn't decide what she wanted was when she was shopping.

The End