Morning all. I hope you had a splendid Veteran’s day. It was a lot frostier here than I remember them being in the past. Time to get this morning started with a writing prompt. Timers set and off we go.
Not sure where this is going but a part of me wants to put a few more minutes on the timer to find out.
Wednesday, November 12th: Joanna smiled at the sight.
Joanna smiled at the sight. How often was the family together? It had been a while. ‘More importantly, how often are they together when it is calm?’
That was the more interesting question. When she thought about it, she could remember the last few times everyone was together. Each instance involved damage control for the company or some personal calamity. ‘Mostly because the personal calamity threatened the company.’
The company was the altar where the family worshiped. It was the beginning and the end. Nothing you did should negatively impact the company. And if something you were doing could positively impact the company, it had to be tied in with the PR department so that everyone was on the same page as far as promotion went.
‘Thou shalt not impact the company without an assessment statement,’ Joanna thought.
It was, in the end, why she was here. She married into the family and for a while did her best to work with them. She sublimated herself to the family and company’s needs. She did what was needed. Then the assessment came and she was told her efforts were no longer needed. It would be best if she stepped back and let one of the blood family take over. Apparently, those who married in did not generate the same level of public trust that those born to the family possessed.
So she stepped back. Joanna remembered the many, many meetings with the lawyers and the pr team when she was asked to step back. She had only been family for a few years at that point, and they knew she would not be content to do nothing. So, they tried to shepherd her activities in a direction that did not impact the company.
Her business was completely sperate. She was asked to return to her maiden name for all paperwork filed for her business so that the Elliston name did not appear on anything she was involved in. None of her contracts intersected or competed with theirs. Any time there was the possibility of a brush, let alone a collision, someone was detailed to come and speak to her privately so things could be negotiated.
Slowly her work became separated from the family more completely than anything else. It was no shock when after a few years of complete separation, she and Mike separated themselves. Their divorce was quiet and unnoticed. To keep anything from rocking the boat she was occasionally called to attend public functions and when the family gathered, she was asked to come.
‘After all how would it look if I weren’t here,’ she thought.
She was never allowed to participate in any issues or discussions of course. She had been background before the divorce. Now she was merely a ghost, brought out to remind everyone that Mike was married. This time there didn’t seem to be any major problem though. It was odd to see. She wondered if they just decided to pretend to be a normal family.
Then, Peter looked at her and waved her over. It was a lift of the hand and the curling in of the fingers before he dropped the hand. A quick summons, meant for underlings and people not really involved. As she stepped forward, she wondered what it is they actually wanted from her after all this time. ‘Perhaps they found out.’ She thought as she moved forward.
Ten til Midnight 