Chapter 4

After that, Albert and I talked a bit of shop, but I tried to keep Raylene in the discussion, adding bits of information for her to add to whatever knowledge she had about running a Union. When I had paid, we stood and went to fetch our coats. Raylene gave me a hug, and then I did the same for Albert. I was happy that he didn’t recoil or flinch. Our time, tonight, had allowed him to think of me as a woman.

Friday, I checked out and went south, to Liverpool, where I had another four sites to see. When I had finished those calls, I drove home, arriving later in the evening. It didn’t take long to unpack, fill the laundry hamper, remove my make-up, and get into bed with my love. We may have been a little noisier than usual because Cathy gave us an old-fashioned look in the morning.

Saturday, we went shopping, then I worked on my notes in the afternoon. That evening, we had our appointment with Carol’s friend, for tea, at their place. There would be the kids around, so I expected that her husband would fire up his barbeque, something I didn’t like, myself. I was happy eating the produce when the cook was good. The meal was interesting, with her husband giving me his attention. We had often been left to talk, but the conversation didn’t move in the ways it usually did. I wondered if he was just being nice to a stranger, then I then saw him, not long before we took the girls home, and the look in his eyes told me that he actually fancied me.

When we had got home and put the girls to bed, I brewed a hot chocolate and we sat on the settee, sipping our drinks. Carol was being very quiet, so I put my cup down and looked at her.

“What’s the problem, my love?”

“It’s just that I couldn’t work out what was going on, this evening. There was a strange vibe in the air, but I can’t put a finger on it. I had the feeling that there was something going on between the two of them.”

“Ah! I think that she was using us to test her husband. She hadn’t told him who I was.”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s a case of something he didn’t do, not once, the whole time we were there. Along with the fact that he couldn’t take his eyes off me.”

“Oh! Do tell. You’ve been a girl two weeks and my friends husband was giving you goo-goo eyes in front of his wife. Hell, he was giving you goo-goo eyes in front of your wife!”

“In the past, he would always remind me that I was working for a union. He would hum ‘You don’t get me, I’m part of the union’, the old Strawbs song. When he found out I was in the office of N.U.M.B. he would quietly sing ‘Hello, hello, hello, is there anybody in there?’ I can’t say I like the man.”

“What’s to like? He is a banker, after all.”

“Exactly! If she had told him that I was Jen, he would have rubbed my nose in it. He was trying to be too nice, the whole time, and she had picked up on it. He never once asked where your husband was, or even what I did for a living. All he could talk about was the deals he was making and the Porsche that he had his eyes on. You two were off discussing whatever you had to talk about, while I kept my eyes on the children and my bum out of reach of his hands.”

“Oh! You poor girl. Now you know what we girls have had to put up with for centuries. He must have thought that by being the only man there, he had to act like a lion with his pride, and you were the new lioness that had wandered in. It all fits, now. She kept looking over at the two of you and her mood was getting blacker by the minute. I wonder if she just told him off after we left. If she told him who you really were, he would be beside himself that he had been so stupid. We’ll know which it was if we get a nasty phone call from him.”

Sunday, we just tidied up around the house and did the laundry, while the girls played in the garden or watched cartoons. Carol and I were at ease with each other in a way we hadn’t been, before. I hadn’t been as helpful, around the house, as I was being now. I think that the home dynamic was as if it were two women. I was finding myself looking at things and wondering what I should do to make them tidier, or cleaner.

My week away, where I lived in total womanhood, had started to make me appreciate the nice things in life. I had been treated well in all of the hotels, looked after whenever I was in the restaurants, smiled at a lot, and responded in kind. All this was before anyone had seen my face in that advert. I wondered what it would be like after that was published.

I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Monday, at the girls lunch, there were copies of a woman’s magazine on the table, with my face covering a whole page. Tracy told me that there would be others, all taken from the single shoot, with different slants on why their lipsticks were the best.

“Don’t be upset when you see some of the others. They have edited the pictures, mainly altering your lip colour and make-up colour to match the lipstick in the advert. It isn’t much, really, and you should be proud of how little they did do. Sometimes, a model has her face reshaped after the shoot, to match the image they want to portray. There will be further cheques as the campaign progresses. The clothing company want your girls to be front and centre in their Autumn wear catalogue. There’ll be several pictures, along the lines of the one I gave you, in teen magazines, starting this week. We’re discussing a time and place for the shoot, but I have insisted on a weekend. It may have to be an overnight stay as there are evening fashions included. Natural candlelight can’t be easily fabricated, and the early morning light can do wonders for a picture. They’re looking at one of the stately homes and there will be a big crew, with around four or five other models. I’ll let you know, well in advance.”

When we got back in the office, Bernice had a copy of the magazine and wanted me to sign the page for her. Now, that was really weird! Not that I didn’t have a couple of copies to take home. Generally, though, my day was spent discussing things with Cyril and the other guys. We needed to be certain about how we would manage the future. I was to spend a week on the new project, but next week I was to do my usual trip around the south of the country, visiting sites and talking to Organisers. I usually did the two trips every quarter, so, by the time the next ones came around, we hoped to have Albert ready to do the tours. I rang Janet to tell her about Suzi coming down on Thursday and she said that she would be around, as well as her kids, who, she said, were now fully committed to making things work.

I had a whole day, talking to the southern Organisers and setting up my appointments, as well as booking the hotels. Wednesday, I took a trip to the new site, on a whim, to see just how far they had gone since I was last there. Alex welcomed me, resplendent in overalls with paint splashes. He showed me the changes that they had made in the reception area, putting a lighter colour on the walls, and replacing the old desks with modern ones. I was impressed. Outside, the old facilities were now bright, clean, and sparkling. There was now a dedicated women’s block, with more cubicles and an extra area for relaxing. There were plenty of mirrors and hanging hooks, I could see Tina’s hand in this.

The working area had been tidied up, with a lot of the dangerous things removed. The welding areas had been moved into the old metal storage area, and that had been shifted to a new, open sided shed with a new overhead crane and space for delivery trucks, all half built. It was a far cry from what was there before.

“Mum took a lot of what you said on board, Jenny. She has called in a workplace safety expert to guide her on a lot of changes. He was amazed that no-one died in this site before it was shut down. I think that your person will be happy to see what she will join, tomorrow.”

“She certainly will, Alex. If this is what your family intends, then I can see a very happy workforce joining you. Do you have office staff ready to go?”

“Yes, we are negotiating with a local agency. With that contract signed, we have had doors opened to us that were firmly shut, before. They know that they’ll never get their money back from the old company, but they’ve seen what we intend and how we want to move forward. Some of them have even visited, recently, and have gone away, smiling. We now have accounts ready to go, with tooling and consumable supplies, the welding and gas supplies, office, and canteen supplies. We’ve even been approached by a cleaning company who had refused to even meet with us, earlier. Word about how we’re going about things has spread.”

“Well done, Alex. I’ll be here, tomorrow, with a couple who could be joining you. She is a qualified welder, an Organiser and already a member of a board. Her hubby is a tooling storeman. I hope we can fill the two places together, then they can help things be ready when we get more coming along.”

I went back to the Head office with a much better expectation about the project. I made sure that I timed my trip home, so that future trips can be closely planned. Tomorrow, I would time the trip there, so that I get there to meet Suzi. In the future, there would be no set times for me to be on site, so I could be a bit easier on myself.

On my way back, on Thursday morning, I stopped at a newsagents and looked at the magazines. I found one with the beach picture and bought a couple of copies. When I went to pay for them, the girl at the till had the lipstick advert open. She asked me if the picture was me, then she asked me to sign the page for her. When I got to the site, Suzi and her husband had arrived and were talking to Janet, in the new reception area. I was welcomed, introduced to her husband, and then we went off on a tour of the site.

The two of them were amazed at how good the place was. Suzi appreciated the undercover welding area and the women’s facilities. Her husband was shown the tooling store, which wasn’t worked on, yet, but he could see what was needed. He was impressed by the new steel storage. He asked some questions about the daily volume of production and the likely numbers of workers. With the contract, it would need both pipe welders and steel fabricators, so it would be a busy place.

The only thing left to swing the deal was the housing. I drove Alex and the two of them to the terrace. Alex had the keys.

“I don’t want to pressure you, Suzi, but the end of terrace is slightly bigger than the others, by a couple of feet.”

He opened the door and ushered us inside. The place had no furniture, but it had a completely equipped, and new, kitchen. Alex said that all the houses had underfloor heating and totally new electrics and plumbing. We looked through the place and I stood, in the front room, with Suzi, while Alex took her husband off to look at the lockup. Suzi was certain that they would be coming south. Janet had quoted them a good wage before I had arrived, and it was easy to see that she had fallen in love with the house.

Back, on the site, Janet and Alex took the two into the office and they came out, after twenty minutes, with big smiles. Suzi told me that they would give two weeks’ notice on Friday and start getting ready to come south. Janet told them that they would be buying a large van for the storeman to use, so they would be able to use it to move. Suzi had taken lots of pictures, and she was sure that she could get a few more of her current workmates happy to join her.

Janet took us all to lunch, at the restaurant that Cyril and I had been to. As we talked, the waitress stopped by our table and asked me if I was the face in the lipstick advert, and I had to admit that I was. This led to some signings, with Suzi leaving the table to go off and buy a couple of the magazines, with me signing them both. One was for her, and the other for her mother. After we had returned to the site, and Suzi had left, Janet asked me about the modelling.

“I went up to the agency after meeting the girls for lunch, and Tracy sat me down and they took all these pictures. I thought it was a bit of fun, but it ended up with a contract. I’ve got some magazines, in the car, with my daughters modelling bikinis. I’ll get a copy to show you”.

“Wow, Jenny. That picture is one that doesn’t need the thousand words. It has it all, an older woman, two teens and two pre-teens, all having what looks like genuine fun. Those kids look really beautiful, they take after their mother, that’s for sure.”

“Yes, Janet, they do. Tracy tells me that we may be doing a weekend shoot for the Autumn catalogue at a country house. The time, on the beach, was totally unexpected. I don’t know what the future holds, but we’re taking it a day at a time.”

I stopped to call Cyril, on the way home, to let him know that we were taking the first steps. I didn’t go back to the office, but went home, to have a relaxing bath, after telling Carol about my day and showing her the magazine. She took it with her when she went to pick up the girls. It was their last day of the term and would be home for a while. When she came home, she had been to the shops and bought some steak for our dinner, seeing that we were now celebrities.

Albert got back to me on Friday, telling me that he would take the job. I put him on hold and went to tell Cyril. When I got back to him, I told him that Cyril had suggested that he, and his wife, fly down to see the office and look at the real estate situation. I told him that I would be going south, all week, but Bernice would be able to give him any information either of them would need. In the late afternoon, Tracy came into the office and asked me to come with her, back to the agency.

Wondering what this was all about, I followed her upstairs. In the agency, she showed me a storyboard for a fashion shoot. It was to be for an up-market eveningwear line, for young women and children.

“Jenny, I have a big problem. The girls that were supposed to be the children have gone down with measles; the shoot is tomorrow afternoon, and the client is determined to make a magazine deadline. There’ll be parts for all of you and the location is a stately manor, just south of the city. Can you help?”

I looked at the storyboard, and could see that it was very well planned, with several changes. There were a few men, pictured in tuxedos and suits, but the dresses were mainly long ones. I rang Carol, at home.

“Carol, love, it’s Jen. Tracy has asked me if we can help out with a shoot, tomorrow. It’s mainly the girls she wants, but there may be a place or two for us. Can we do it if there’s nothing else planned?”

“Sure, we can, Jenny. Does she want us fresh from the salon or do we come as we are?”

“I think that she will have a full crew on board to make us look right. It’s a much more complicated set-up than the beach. We’ll need to make sure the girls have a bath in the morning, but the rest will be done there. We’ll use the Interceptor, so there’ll be room for a change of clothes when we’ve finished.”

As I put the phone down, Tracy smiled.

“You have a Jensen Interceptor? We were talking about a shoot, on Sunday, with some classic sports cars. If you don’t mind, I’ll see if I can do it on Saturday, with a second crew, while you’re busy with your job. There’ll be a small bonus for using your car as well. Now, you can get back to your work while I get tomorrow organised. Thank you for helping out.”

Wondering just what I had agreed to, I went back to work. I had been looking forward to a relaxing weekend, before leaving on Sunday afternoon, but that was now out of the window. I suppose that I should be happy, the extra money would be great, and the girls would be adding to their bank account, as well as their standing at school.

Before I went home, I let Bernice into the planning for succession in the Union but told her to keep it to herself. Once she understood that she could be coming back into her old seat, with Raylene acting as my PA, she smiled and gave me a big hug. I told her that Albert and Raylene could be in the office while I was away and that she could see, for herself, if they would fit in.

At home, Carol gave me a lingering kiss and told me that I was a slavedriver, but that she was happy with it. When we were all sitting at the kitchen table, we discussed the shoot on Saturday, and I told the girls that they were going to get their wish to look like princesses, if the pictures I had seen were anything to go by.

Saturday morning, the girls had been bathed, Carol and I were freshly showered, and we got in the Jensen, all dressed very casually. Down, at the stately home, I drove up the long driveway, arriving at a large, gravelled area, to park next to a line of very nice cars. We got out and the photographer came over.

“Lovely motor. Leave the keys in and we’ll be very careful with it. This is going to be a great job, what with the two Jags, the TVR, the Aston and the three MG’s. It’s supposed to be outfits to go to the car races, horse races, in fact, any kind of race you can think of. Tracy says that you can come out and join in, if she doesn’t need you, so it’s going to be fun day. The lunch will be in the main dining room, the caterers are the best around, so you won’t go hungry. Through that side door, over there, and welcome to the circus!”

We went in through the door, to find a lot of girls, in stages of undress, wandering around with Tracy giving out orders. We were directed to a side room, to meet our dressers and make-up artists. Before long, we were directed to the main room where the actual photography was taking place. It was a sumptuous salon, with the main dining room beyond. All four of us were in long dresses, and the girls were taken to their spot, told what to do, and not to sit down, no matter what happened.

The morning went by in a blur of movement, changing, posing, and waiting. I could see snippets of the storyboard I had seen, but nothing was in any semblance of order. At one point, Carol and I were dressed like women at a racetrack, with fascinators, and were sent outside to add to the crowd while the real models posed with the cars. They had this huge green screen behind the cars, so that they could add a correct background, later.

The lunch was, as promised, a very tasty collection of finger food and soft drink. Then we were into the afternoon session. This included shots in the dining room, with guys dressed for dinner, and the models dressed to kill. It finally came to an end, with Tracy declaring that there were enough pictures in the can for a hundred campaigns. The outside shoot had ended, and all those models were back in their casual clothes to go home. That’s when one of the helpers came around from the side of the building in a minibus.

We didn’t expect any special attention, but Tracy got me and my family, in the last outfits, and had a number of pictures taken before we were sent off the change into what we came with. One of those pictures is now framed and standing proud on our shelf of memories. I often look at it, to gaze on the four of us, looking like princesses at some royal event. As we were about to leave, Tracy thanked us for helping out at a short notice. Other models were leaving, and a couple told us that we were great to save the day, and that they would pose with our girls, anytime.

When we got into the Interceptor, it smelt like perfume. It had been washed and was ready to go. The outside crew, still packing, gave us a wave as we left. Carol suggested that we weren’t dressed for a restaurant but were dressed for the favourite fast-food café of our girls, so it was two boxed meals and two burgers on the way home. We were tired, but happy that we had all had an experience that not many had in their lives. Tracy had given Carol an envelope, before we left, and, when she opened it, we all had proper membership cards for the organisation that looked after models and those working in that business.

I had to laugh. I was now in another Union.

Marianne Gregory © 2024