- Excerpt
The Ladies' Conspiracy
by Alex Brown
INTRODUCTION
The excerpt, below, is from the new book, The Ladies' Conspiracy, an
epic story of three girls who are challenged by a wise mentor to become
women of substance.
Set on the exotic island of Antigua and the industrious island of Manhattan,
the novel illustrates how women accumulate and wield power in business
affairs. While most fictional accounts of high-finance focus on the macho
maneuverings of men, this book features strong female leads who achieve
results through intuition, guile, and skill in interpersonal relationships.
The excerpt introduces the teenage heroines -- Judy, Lola, and Isabel
-- as they accept the gauntlet cast by their tutor, Gilda. Their determination
will take them to top positions in finance, government, and the media,
but the journey will be wild and dangerous.
More information about the book, The Ladies' Conspiracy, and
author Alex Brown follows the excerpt. Enjoy!
"My Testament"
by Alex Brown
When Isabel and Lola got to Gilda's house, Judy was already there. She
had on a small white apron with a funny embroidered duck on the front.
The apron had long ago become too small for her, and Judy's round breasts
peeked out from both sides of it. But she liked it and didn't want to
wear another.
Gilda had presented these aprons to all three girls many years ago,
when she taught them to cook. Lola's apron pictured a small fish, and
Isabel's a kitten.
Judy was baking something and her hands were white with flour.
Gilda was sitting at the dining
table reading to Judy from a book, which she closed when she saw the
girls. "Oh, you've come at a good point." Gilda
took off her glasses. "And we've undertaken a pie here."
Judy threw a lock of red hair out
of her face with the back of her hand. "Well, who won?"
"Women," Lola answered. "The sad
men sailed away to drown themselves."
"Judy, will you be finished soon, dear?" Gilda
asked.
Judy opened the oven and pushed
the pie inside. She turned on the flame and looked at the wall clock. "In
half an hour it'll be ready. I'll tidy up."
"Let me." Isabel put on her apron. "You've
done your work. Have a rest."
"I don't have anything against that." Judy washed her hands, hung up
her apron, and sat at the table. "Go ahead, please."
Gilda put on her glasses again
and started reading. "Man is energetic
and assertive toward woman only in the first stage.
"To attract her attention he must
demonstrate for her his best qualities, which is necessary, because
instinct forces woman to find the best father for her future baby.
"Nature shows us shining examples
of such selection. Duels between males illustrate well the motivations
of men."
"What's that?" Isabel turned from the service table. "A
zoological encyclopedia?"
"This is Al's book," Judy said
reproachfully.
"Yes, girls." Gilda looked at Lola and Isabel. "This is a chapter from
one of my late husband's books. I think it's time for you to read it." She
stroked the book. "I never met a man who understood women better than
Al."
"Wait for me, I'm almost done." Isabel cleaned the service table quickly.
She wiped her hands, sat down at the dining table, and asked Judy, "Well,
what was in the beginning of the book?"
Judy went up to the oven to check
the pie. She lowered the heat a little and returned to her chair. "This is the beginning," Gilda answered for
her. "She asked me about the principles of relations between men and
women, and I decided that nobody could answer that better than Al did."
Isabel looked at Lola. "Seems I
know why you want to discuss this."
"Well," Gilda put on her glasses. "Shall
I read further?"
All three answered simultaneously, "Yes."
During the last school year, Judy
had noticeably left behind the others in her academic studies. Gilda
was glad that Judy had this reason to grow in self-respect. These last
years, the girl had experienced many disappointments. Because of her
logical nature and lack of flexibility she suffered a lot, especially
in trying to find a boyfriend. The boys had given her a nickname, "Tank."
But now Judy was standing out. She had found the area where everybody
acknowledged her superiority.
The girls avariciously consumed every drop of Gilda's wisdom and more
often added their own ideas and competed with their teacher on equal
terms. They became young ladies but from force of habit still came to
Gilda with big and small questions.
The day came when Gilda told them the theory of the Asian monastery.
To her surprise the girls listened to the story of the Art of Love without
particular emotion, paying the most attention to her description of the
sexual techniques for ruling men.
Only Isabel smiled once. "Well,
now I'll show them who is the leader of the world. A very useful theory!"
In the end Lola asked for the address
of the monastery. "I've heard
about it from my grandma, but thought it was a legend." She turned to
Judy. "Would you mind going there sometime?"
"No. I understood everything. Take
Isabel -- she likes such exercises."
Isabel nodded. "I would go there.
It would be worth it to polish this art to the extreme."
Gilda listened to their conversation with a sad expression on her face.
The girls had definitely become adults. But their reaction and discussion
were strange to her. At their age, she had been quite different. She
realized absolutely clearly that her time had passed. She could tell
them nothing essentially new and her theoretical course was actually
delaying their progress.
The next day, after a sleepless night, Gilda made a hard decision.
She invited the girls for a traditional cup of tea to say good-bye.
Until the last moment Gilda hesitated, trying not to think about the
approaching critical conversation.
Soon all of them were sitting at the table in their favorite study/bedroom.
Gilda had turned to the window and was looking far away with a solemn
expression. The girls drank their tea quietly, not daring to break the
silence. They glanced at each other from time to time, understanding
that something had happened.
Lola stood up and went to the bookshelf and took down a book to ease
the tension.
"Read aloud," Isabel said. "Otherwise
Gilda will say something awful right now."
Gilda turned to face the girls. Her eyes were wet.
"What has happened?" Judy put her hand on Gilda's and looked into her
eyes. "The next reason to cry hasn't come yet. All of us are here and
still alive."
Gilda swallowed hard, trying to
hold the tears back, and said with a guilty smile, "Yes, you are right, my sweetheart. Really, nothing bad
has happened." She sighed. "Isabel, pour some tea for me, please. I want
to tell you something, but my throat is dry." Isabel quickly filled her
cup.
"Maybe next time? Listen to a new
story."
"Come on," Lola said, sitting at
the table again.
Isabel began, "A patient is saying
to the doctor, 'Doctor, I'm forgetting everything so quickly.'
"'How quickly?'
"'What quickly?' the patient asks
with surprise."
Gilda and the girls laughed.
"You, too, hope I'll forget?" Gilda asked, smiling. "No.
The idea is very simple and not bad, actually. I think it's time for
us to part."
The girls looked at her silently.
"Are you leaving?" Judy asked in
a low voice.
"No. You are leaving. My tea shop is closing." Gilda
felt some relief, thinking 'the hardest words have been said aloud.'
"Everything has a beginning and an end," Gilda continued in a firm
voice. She had completely calmed down. "My time on earth is coming to
an end, and I feel that soon I'll see Al again. I'd like to give him
the answer to one question that I had no time to answer during our life
together."
She took her cup and sipped the completely cooled tea. The girls were
still sitting motionless, looking at her.
"One day Al asked me whether women
could lead civilization. I said, 'Easily.' But he wanted me to prove
it. All my arguments abut women's strategic superiority he knew better
than I did. He needed a practical example.
"After a short discussion we came
to an agreement, that putting a large amount of money under their personal
control would mean that women could win strategic battles. Whoever
controls big money controls the world. In reality, it's so."
The girls relaxed a little and began to move again.
"How much would be sufficient?" Isabel
asked.
"Al said about a billion dollars.
But starting from zero."
Isabel whistled in surprise.
"Three hundred thirty million per person," Lola
said.
"That equals nine hundred ninety million," Judy
corrected her.
"I'll add ten million bucks," Gilda said. "I
failed to prove the theory to Al in our day, but the experiment isn't
over. It's still a challenge for me."
"Do you have ten million?" Isabel
asked.
"And do you have three hundred and thirty million?" Lola
asked Isabel.
They laughed.
"Really, girls. It would be great to have one billion dollars!" Isabel
said.
"Nobody has ever considered you a fool. And you have proved it once
again that you're not." Judy turned to Gilda. "Should the money be in
cash or in assets?"
Gilda shrugged her shoulders. "Well,
what's easier?"
"It depends on the goal. Cash is
more concrete, but nobody keeps that amount in cash."
"I'll agree to keep my part in cash," Isabel said. "I'll
store it in a separate room in my palace."
"How much will your palace cost?" Judy
asked seriously.
"Well, about one hundred million."
"Then there will only be two hundred
and thirty million in your bedroom. Or in the kitchen. It depends where
you'll keep the balance of your cash."
"We'll do it, Gilda," Lola said suddenly and she looked into Gilda's
eyes. "I promise you."
"I am confident of it. But the
issue isn't money. Money is only one side of the coin. Your whole life
should be the evidence of the triumph of women.
"My life isn't a typical example.
I started normally, but had to seriously slow down in my thirties,
and in my forties I stopped altogether. You're starting where I finished.
You're only eighteen, all your lives are ahead. You must take it further,
take it to the very end. Otherwise, all this stuff is worth nothing.
This is my last will, *my testament*, if you wish."
Gilda stopped talking and looked
out the window again. Lola put her cup on the table slowly, so as not
to make any sound, and said in a low voice, "I understand."
In the quiet, Judy said, "Fifty percent of the task is already fulfilled." The
girls and Gilda looked at her.
"The first condition was to start from zero," Judy explained, "and
we really do have nothing. All that remains is the second task to make
a billion bucks."
Copyright ©2002
by Alex Brown. All rights reserved. Please feel free to duplicate and
distribute this file as long as the contents are not changed and this
copyright notice is intact. Thank you.
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