Part 1
"And Janice would you please get me the municipal proposals' summaries from last month," said April Dowze emphatically to her new secretary for the third time that day as they walked down the hall, Janice helping April with her Jacket and her coffee and her stack of files. April had a meeting with the C.E.O of Cellucorp, a cell phone company located just outside of Los Angeles. She didn't know what that old bastard wanted. Finally April had her jacket on, took the last sip of her coffee drink and handed the cup to Janice, smoothed her hair out and asked her secretary,
"How do I look?" She looked at her watch. '7:58.'
"Perfect," said Janice and she laughed and snorted slightly, catching her snort.
April greeted the bastard's secretary and opened the double doors to hear a big, "Surprise!" in unison from all of her coworkers. Actually, as of today, they were all her employees. As she mingled and moved from one cluster of employees to the next she wondered what they all thought of her now. Secretly. Were they jealous of her promotion? Did some feel it was rightfully theirs? Or were at least some of them as genuinely happy as they all seemed to appear on their faces and in their body postures and handshakes. In the C.E.O.'s office? 'This is some promotion.'
April was five foot eight. She had long honey brown hair, down to her waist, wavy almost like finger waves, but bigger. She had rounded bangs that she always brushed to one side or another, depending on her mood. She had full breasts, but not suspiciously large, a tiny waist, long legs, and always high, pointed spike heels. She wore business suits but she wore them tight, and tailored in at the waist. She carried an old fashioned briefcase with bright red stitching. Her eyes were green and her skin was fair. Her eyebrows, always waxed and plucked precisely. But no one ever thought April Dowze got by on her looks. She was brutal and fierce in her decision making. She was highly competitive and results driven. She was every corporation's wet dream in every way.
That night she returned to her apartment, ran on the treadmill for one hour while watching a saved episode of Oprah on her TiVo, and fixed herself a bowl of ice cream for dinner. She ate "dinner" on the couch in front of her other TV and felt a tinge of loneliness amongst all her electronics, machines, fancy appliances. She had been broken up with James for two years now but she still missed the warm body to sit next to, the friendly ear to listen to her, the romantic gestures.
April ran her love life as she ran her professional life. She dated respectable men, rich men, intense men. She climbed the social ladder with her men, but never were any of them as powerful as she. She always kept them at an inch's distance, kept herself a step ahead, never letting her man forget who was truly in control, who made the most money, who was most ferocious. When April was Director of Marketing she was involved with a lawyer, a partner in a small but highly reputable firm. His name was James Wadsworth. April asked James to move in with her, into her tall apartment, behind the Hyatt, overlooking the entire city.
April and James would sit out on the porch drinking champagne and talking for hours. They would go on shopping sprees buying expensive shoes for one another, suits, dresses, trying garments on, complementing each other's physiques, handing over credit cards nonchalantly while gossiping about office matters, hardly ever looking shop staff in the face. They went to fine dinners together, affording the best tables and booths, discussing the operas and plays they had seen together. They led the life of a perfect upper class couple.
April's and James' sex life was as their public life. As it was 'supposed' to be. They frequently had sex in bed, April wearing a silk camisole and matching tap pants trimmed in lace. James would crawl over her from the foot of the bed and pull her tap pants down. He'd take off her camisole. 'Sex should be naked.' April's breasts were so full, he'd think. Other times they'd be more adventurous, playing with strawberries and whipped cream, April wearing schoolgirl outfits, they tried anal sex. But April always ended up on top.
One day, James' firm had been hired to bring a lawsuit against Cellucorp. James tried to reassure April that it was only business, that it was nothing personal. He explained what she already knew, that they had been hired by an outside party to sue. But April's loyalty to Cellucorp took precedence and she came down hard on James. She coldly told him they didn't have to take the case. James argued it was a small sum for Cellucorp but a large sum for his firm and his client, not to mention the fact that he alone could not make that decision. April was unchanged. She asked him to move out within the week. She never saw him again.
The night after April's first day on the new job she went to bed with that lonely feeling in the pit of her stomach and awoke at 4:45 the next morning, her eyes sensitive to the morning light. She had just been promoted to Assistant Vice President of Marketing for Cellucorp. As assistant vice president of marketing, April will now oversee all aspects of the marketing area including internal and external relations, advertising systems, public affairs and community relations, and marketing. At least that's what her job description said. The first thing on her agenda was to go over those municipal summaries and find out what's really been going on in marketing for the last month. Then she wanted to sift through all the billing reports from the last month and really find out what's been going on in marketing for the last month. 'Ugh! There's so much to do! I can't believe I'm already looking forward to the four day weekend.'
The four day weekend April was looking forward to was Thanksgiving. But she didn't speak to her family much at all anymore. She was looking forward to four days of peace and quiet in her own apartment. Alone. April liked it that way. She didn't have many girlfriends on account of her looks and her fierce competitiveness. She didn't have a boyfriend because her job didn't afford her the time to hold down a relationship anymore. April wasn't planning on having anyone over or on going anywhere this Thanksgiving. This year it was just her and the couch. She'd even told her mother she was spending the weekend away, in Santa Fe, with her hippy friend, Sasha, so her family wouldn't call. The truth was, Sasha was her best friend and she hadn't spoken with her, simply out of neglect, in four months. Her father had tragically passed away in an automobile accident five years earlier, right about this time of year. April hadn't been to a Thanksgiving dinner at home since. She never spoke of the accident to anyone.
The new job was a bit overwhelming, but she got through the first short week on her own strengths and talents and Janice's gracious help. Janice was a somewhat dorky version of April. She too had long brown hair, but it was of a course texture, and not quite so long. She too parted her longish bangs to the side, only and always to the left, and they were rather stiffly brushed aside. She was five foot three and weighed about twenty pounds more than April. She wore a-lined 1970's style dresses in a variety of colors and prints to compliment her dark skin tone and hide the fullness of her figure. Her eyes shone blue through thick purple plastic framed glasses. It always seemed she became more beautiful the longer you looked at her. But as soon as April walked in the room April had a commanding presence. She was a force. Nothing could be as beautiful as she with her tiny waist, long locks, milky complexion, her drilling green eyes. Janice's alternative beauty didn't stand a chance.
April clobbered anyone in her wake. She treated her superiors with a fine balance of highly due respect, lack of ass kissing, and straight get-to-business talk. She treated her coworkers like stepladders, outwardly smiling at them as they smiled at her, secretly using them to gain footing on higher corporate ground. She treated her employees the worst. She used their hard competitive work for her benefit and never thanked them or took notice of whose work was most accurate or best put together. She never promoted based on merit only on who showed up with the flashiest final product. Two days on the job and April was already taking Janice for granted, expecting her to carry out tasks not in her job description. Carry her coffee, dress her, compliment her.
April strode out of the office early on Wednesday leaving behind a jealous Janice to pick up the slack. Because she left early she caught them off guard. There were three, maybe four men wearing black ski masks, black pants, and black tee-shirts. They were waiting for her in the parking garage. They were lazy at first, some smoking cigarettes by the doorway, but as soon as April realized what she was looking at they sprung into action. April was jostled about. She saw a fist fly towards her face, she saw a forearm with an elaborate yin yang tattoo, she saw army boots.
April was in a wholly different predicament from what she was used to handling. One she didn't know what to do about. That was a rarity. One man had her arms secured behind her back. One man picked up her legs. Another shoved a cloak over her head. There was a fourth standing and watching, the one with the tattoo. There were definitely four. She could sense how strong they were by how smoothly they carried her. They lifted her up, arms first, into someplace higher, with seats. April sniffed the air. She was in a van. The door slid shut. They were all in.