Woman Scorned

by Fritz, K. Edwin

  “Yes, Lucy. It is so little time left,” Gertrude said. “And we couldn’t be happier for you. On behalf of all the women here and for your ten years of service, several of which have been directly under my… well, I’ll admit it… my very strict command…” more laughs came now. Gertrude had them completely under her control, as usual. “…we congratulate you.” Now real applause came, and it lasted quite a few moments. Within seconds a spontaneous standing ovation occurred.

  Lucy smiled and accepted her well-deserved praise. But as the women stopped, dropped their hands, and sat back to their seats, Lucy noticed something no one else did. Josie hadn’t stood from her seat in the back of the room. Lucy’s smile faltered, and she looked carefully at Josie, trying to read her thoughts.

  “Sadly, Lucy, your time has come to move on, and I’m the one left with the decision to try to fill your shoes.” Quickly the crowd snapped to attention again. She was going to announce her next second-in-command! This was indeed a special day.

  “Josie, if you would be so honored-” but the rest of her words were lost in an explosion of cheers and screeches. Girls rushed to her and swarmed her in hugs. The ones who couldn’t reach just applauded where they stood. Rhonda clapped, Lorraine laughed joyfully, and Monica beamed a winked smile at Gertrude when no one was looking.

  Gertrude grew two inches taller in spite of herself at her stand by the podium. This was all according to plan. In one smooth move, Lucy was now sadly out, but in her place Josie was respectfully and adamantly accepted by all. Even Rachael, who had deserved the position but for Josie’s special dominance, didn’t appear jealous and joined in the celebration.

  Lucy, honorable as always Gertrude noticed, walked to Josie and offered her hand. Josie took and shook it, and the two women spent an unusually long moment just looking at each other. Ah these girls, Gertrude thought, they are all so sappy. Such moldable figures.

  Finally, the women calmed down. They all found their seats and turned to Gertrude one more time so she could finish out the meeting and they could go on to their busy schedules.

  Gertrude, however, wasn’t finished. In seconds she changed her demeanor back to that of the controller. “In the wake of such joy,” she said, “it is with much… fear… no… no I’m afraid it’s disappointment. Even, dare I say it, anger… that I must continue with our last order of business for the day.”

  Once again the room shifted atmospheres. Anger? What could this mean?

  “It has come to my attention,” Gertrude said, looking only at the podium, “that there is someone among us who has… well, I might as well just say it… she has deliberately ignored The Cause.” A rustle ran through the crowd. “This is no minor infraction but a repeated trend of serious actions.” The rustle increased and women looked around. Who was the culprit? Nobody seemed to know anything about this.

  “My suspicions started some time ago… but recently I have been… witness… to other clues that have showed me more of the truth than I cared to learn.”

  “What is this, Gertrude?” Rhonda asked. “Are you telling us there is a traitor in our midst?”

  “Unfortunately, Rhonda, I think you are correct.” Now the rustle was a buzz. Some women began to speak out. ‘Who?’ the voices said. ‘What did she do?’ ‘How can you be so sure?’

  “I know you are all puzzled and upset by my announcement, so I will be brief about it,” Gertrude said. She looked up from the podium and despite her promise of brevity took her time looking around at the many eyes in the room. “Josie,” she said, making eye contact, and Steph shook her head as if she could shake away an accusation, “as the new second-in-command, tell me what you would do if you knew that some woman was purposefully evading her responsibilities to The Cause.”

  Josie stumbled inside. Her promotion was certainly expected, but still she wondered if it was a set-up of some kind. The kind only Gertrude could conceive. The giant headwoman had been fully informed of Josie’s emotions by Monica, of course. But using that steel resolve that always had been her truest beautythe inner beauty she had just recently rediscovered Josie strengthened and spoke. She was her own woman now. Gertrude would no longer rule her.

  “So much depends, of course, upon the details,” she said. “What is her role? How has she been evading her duties, and what effect does it have? I think most importantly I’d need to know just how purposeful her actions were. You must agree the details are important.”

  “Yes, of course they are, and you are right to need more information before making a decision. The slackness in this individual is, indeed, purposeful and also quite detrimental. I can assure you that. Lucy, as a veteran second-in-command and as a last favor to me before you leave, can you tell me what you know about that mysterious shotgun blast everyone on the island heard last week? It has yet to be explained.”

  Now Lucy stumbled. She forced herself not to look at Sherry, who had fired the weapon that day, and the other girls who had joined in the fun of the mess it had made. “I know only as much as everyone else, Gertrude. It was a Sunday afternoon around feeding time, and there was a gunshot that, as you just said, has not been explained. At least, no one has come forward yet. No official inquiry has been made.”

  Silently, Sherry held her breath a moment longer. Did Gertrude know Lucy was lying?

  “Hmmmm,” Gertrude hummed. “Of all the women on this island, it has been my experience that Lucy is the most trustworthy to learn information. Not quite a headwoman, yet still one of the girls. Everyone seems to trust her. That she does not know on top of the rest of you shows, I hope, the severity of the situation.” The buzz was a soft rumble now, and Gertrude took a moment to let it grow some more and let it soak in her bones.

  “Lorraine,” she said over the noise, “can you help us in this situation?”

  “Why, no, Gertrude. I’m afraid I’m as much in the dark as everyone else.”

  Gertrude breathed in, held it a moment, then began working on the next item on her list. “Then can you PLEASE explain to the women of this ISLAND,” she yelled and held up her hand with a tiny object between her fingers, “why I discovered THIS empty shell on the roof of YOUR FEEDING ARENA!?”

  “What?” Lorraine said, standing at her chair. “What do you mean on my roof? I haven’t fired any weapon.”

  “I never suggested you did, you witless dolt. Obviously someone in your squad must have been having some fun at your expense. Also on that roof was a shredded food bag and fruit rinds splattered all over the place. Is that how you run your squad, Lorraine? Have you become so sloppy that your own hunters can disrespect you and your authority and you don’t even recognize it? The dangers of actually using a gun are paramount. They are to be used explicitly and only in the case of self-preservation. At all other times they are for show only, to scare the witless men. For one of your own girls to put our careful organization at risk simply to have some fun is a direct slap in your face!”

  “I can’t imagine it was anything like that!” Lorraine shouted back. “And how dare you accuse my squad of disrespect when it’s been quite clear around here for some time that you are the one everyone fears and hates!”

  “Is that your opinion of me, Lorraine?” Suddenly Gertrude’s voice was calm. She was reclaiming control. “Can you really be so incapable? My directives may be stern, but expecting more from my girls helps them to rise up to their full level of potential. Just look at what Josie has recently accomplished. Was that something you would have ever thought of? I think not.”

  “We all have our own style, Gertrude. Just because nobody else here needs to put others down in order to feel important…”

  “Putting down others?” Gertrude hissed. “Were those the words you just spoke?”

  “Yes,” Lorraine said, her chin held high. “What of it?”

  “You mean like how someone might disrespect another person?”

  “Yes.”

  “Like how someone might degrade their own personal style of work ethics
?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “Well then, Lorraine, you have just confirmed my point.”

  “What?” Lorraine squawked. “What the hell does that mean? I think you’re going crazy, Gertrude.”

  “Crazy, huh? Perhaps Monica could clarify just how crazy I am.” All eyes moved to Monica now, who looked back dumbfounded. “She is our island counselor, right?” Gertrude asked the crowd. “She would be the one to diagnose the sanity of anyone here.” Heads carefully nodded all around. “Monica, what would you say was the mental state of the person who vandalized my office last week?”

  Everyone looked at Monica. What’s that? someone asked. Vandalized? said another. Monica’s eyes opened wide in understanding. “Yes,” she said, taking two steps forward. “Gertrude’s office was severely vandalized last week. I was there to see it.” Gertrude carefully stepped back from the podium to allow Monica’s voice to carry more weight. Monica instinctually took another step forward, and Gertrude had to hide a small smile.

  “Maps and colored pencil marks were everywhere,” she continued. “And when you think about how many hours of work Gertrude has put into her maps- which, of course, she uses to capture those bastards in black sector- well, you can all understand how devastated a person might be. The attack was definitely personal. Its intention was to make a statement. I daresay the person responsible was not someone I would tend to consider perfectly sane, if you understand my meaning. Why, whoever she was actually went out of her way to retrieve maps from Gertrude’s closet. And some were jammed in the window blinds. Oh, it was awful. Just awful! You could tell the culprit was very angry. On a rampage I daresay. They were likely suffering from years of-”

  “Monica,” Gertrude interrupted, stepping forward again.

  “Yes? Yes?” Monica stepped back. So simple, so easy, this cat-and-mouse routine.

  “You know every woman here better than the rest of us. You’ve been here nearly as long as I have and you’ve dedicated your life to The Cause and to understanding how people think. Tell us… who do you think did it?”

  “Oh! Why, Lorraine was the only one ever who has had it in against you, Gertrude. Right when I saw it I thought to myself ‘Lorraine has finally gone and snapped’. You girls really wouldn’t know this, and it’s not really my place to say, but today seems to be turning out to be one of those days when it’s important to know the whole truth. Lorraine has always had it in for Gertrude. Jealousy, I’d say. She can’t stand that Gertrude keeps such a strong hold over her girls and plus she’s the black headwoman, of course. Way back when Lorraine first came here we had our sessions and truly when she revealed to me that she was power-hungry I told myself to remember it in case some day it came back. And here it is… an important thing to take note of indeed. Lorraine certainly advanced through the ranks quickly, and she was such a hard worker, but I’ve always noticed how she held a grudge against Gertrude. I daresay something must have happened that pushed her across that barrier. She may have lost her sanity.”

  It was rare for Monica to run out of words on a subject, and when she stopped this time the silence lingered on and hung over the room like a black shroud of death. Lorraine was beet red in the face, too angry to respond. Gertrude, back at the podium now, stood tall. Monica could always be counted on to spill too much information no matter how annoying she could be.

  “I…” Lorraine tried to say, “I…”

  “It’s too late, Lorraine,” Gertrude said. “It took me a long time to collect enough information to expose you. I try to put my energies into The Cause, not petty personal matters. But this has been a long time coming.”

  “As an impartial listener,” Beatrice, the green headwoman, said, “I must say that Gertrude’s story and Monica’s information certainly add up to me. I’ve been here long enough to see the tension between the two. I believe that at this point we need to reassess our situation as a collective. The Cause that Gertrude has provided to us all is our ultimate motivation here. Everything else needs to be put on hold. I, for one, am sadly convinced that Lorraine can no longer be trusted to her duties as headwoman.”

  Jackpot, Gertrude thought. It didn’t even come from my mouth. “You all know how I feel,” she said aloud. She used her most dismissive of voices. Ah, pure seduction!

  “I agree,” Monica said. “But before this becomes a bandwagon we all jump on…”

  Too late, Gertrude thought.

  “…I believe that Lorraine has a right to speak on her own behalf. Lorraine?”

  But Lorraine was already defeated. Her anger had subsided into embarrassment. She stood there with the disbelief of a child caught cheating on a test. She was fully guilty of the office vandalism and had already suspected the shotgun had been fired by her own blue hunters.

  She tried to think of a way to talk herself out of the situation, but she’d never been surrounded like that before. It wasn’t just Gertrude in a deserted hallway. This was the women’s meeting with everyone on the island in attendance. There was no one else to hear her side of the story.

  “I hate her,” Lorraine managed to say. It was the only truth she knew. “And I’m so tired. Gertrude has wanted me gone for some time now, and I guess it must be my time. I won’t apologize for my actions. I won’t do her the honor to have beaten me that far. I enjoyed- simply adored destroying those fucking maps! Gertrude, you can be so damned…” but Lorraine looked up and made eye contact with Gertrude and the anger quickly diffused into shame. “I’ll just… pack my things. Monica can fly me out in the morning.”

  “I’ll be flying out this afternoon. You might as well join me then.”

  “Yes,” Lorraine said. “Fine.” Then she stared at the floor and nearly shuffled her way out into the hallway. When the door closed, its soft snick was loud in the stunned room. The nineteen remaining women stood or sat in place without moving.

  4

  Nobody seemed to know what to do. The silence and stillness of every woman continued long into the moments after Lorraine’s departure. Some women were thinking of their own hidden faults and improprieties. Some simply stood and waited in their dumbfounded emptiness. Gertrude watched them all, allowing them their thoughts, feeling how she alone was comfortable in the silence. She let it linger on, willing them to progress their want for an authoritative voice into a need. However Gertrude’s assumption was wrong. She was not alone in her easy composure.

  “I apologize on Lorraine’s behalf,” she finally said. “We all know she was once a good woman who worked hard for The Cause. But she doesn’t belong here anymore. I’m sorry I had to bring our celebration to such a negative vein. I hope you can understand its importance. I’ve always thought of every woman on the island as part of a great family. Lorraine simply pulled away from us more and more until she wasn’t family anymore.”

  Gertrude stepped away from the podium to expose her full mass to her audience. The movement and the change of the impression she made stirred the other women into taking their seats again.

  “Though I don’t like to continue with business, we now have a serious gap in our organization, and we need to fill it before we move on. Monica, I know you already have a new girl lined up to fill the hole left by Lucy… how long would it take to find yet another?”

  And for a wonder, Monica was relatively brief and managed to fill in their earlier conversation as well. “No worries there, Gertrude. I have two other prospects waiting in the wings. I’ll just bring in Lucy’s replacement early and push the other two along and see who shines. I’m sure I can have my pick within a week. Two at most.”

  “Thank you, Monica.” Gertrude stared down her congregation yet again, remembered the final box on her checklist, and placed the last piece of her puzzle. “Filling a hole should not be patchwork stuff. We need more than a Band-Aid. We need a leader to take over as blue headwoman. Does… anyone have any suggestions?”

  There was silence while the many eyes shifted around, looking for comfort. “I know her time ha
s just about finished,” Beatrice said, “but Lucy is obviously best qualified for the job. She’s spent a few years as second-in-command and before that she was part of the blue squad for quite some time. She knows their layout well and has learned the authority needed to fill Lorraine’s position.”

  “I second the motion,” said Rhonda. “Even without working alongside her, I know she’s competent and clearly the best suited for the job.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Gertrude said. “Lucy has always been a model woman and it has pained me to think of her leaving us. What of it, Lucy? Will you continue on as a headwoman? It’s a different life, I’ll admit that. It’s not ten years of service we’re talking about anymore but a pure joy of The Cause. You’d have opportunities to help young women reach their potential right here on the island. It’s not all glory, of course, you’re aware of the work it involves. But I believe you can handle it and do it well. If you need time to think about it, we’d all understand, but under the circumstances we’d appreciate any answer you could give us.”

  Lucy had gravitated back to her space on the wall after the room-altering disturbance of Gertrude’s accusation. Now she paused there, completely alone, completely still. Only her eyes moved. She flicked them back and forth to every woman, focusing on all and on none. Eventually, she closed her eyes and sighed deeply. Then she opened them, pushed off the wall from her shoulders, dropped her crossed arms, and walked to the open lectern. Gertrude had abandoned it knowing someone else would come to speak soon enough.

  “I’ve spent a great deal of time getting ready to leave this place,” Lucy began, “and now you ask me to stay under a new position with more work and even less freedom than I’ve had these past ten years. I appreciate the honor of the offer, but I’m going to decline. I think my place here is now… as awkward as Lorraine’s had become. I don’t belong here any more than she does, and I’ll be sad to take Monica’s flight out of here in thirteen days, but that’s just what I’m going to do. I’m sorry I cannot help The Cause any more. I am done.”