The Dream That Was

Woman - 1977

It was Dagny's first time meeting with potential investors in Urbia on her own. She wore her best powersuit and made sure that she looked impeccable. After much practice, she made sure to project an air of confidence and sophistication. She wanted to be regarded as a powerful woman, and not daddy's girl, out to do his dirty work.

The meeting was at one of the TD Centre towers in downtown Toronto. Dagny loved having meetings in a skyscraper. There was something that made the meeting all the more important being held many stories in the sky.

After reaching the seventeenth floor she exited the elevator. Before her was an orange coloured reception room with ultramodern fibreglass furniture. Dagny thought about the fact that she would one day have an office designed in a cutting-edge style.

She made her way across the shag carpet over to the receptionist. The woman was busy filing her nails. Her face was old and worn. She looked like she used to be beautiful, but the beauty had faded by years of neglecting herself. The woman had made up for it by pasting on layers of makeup to cover up her wrinkles. It really made her look like a clown. Then she started hacking. Dagny noticed a cigarette smouldering in an ashtray on her desk. She looked up when Dagny approached.

"Oh I am sorry dear, the secretary job is already filled," the woman spoke in a raspy voice.

"I am not here for the job," Dagny replied.

"Then what can I do fer ya?"

Dagny paused for a moment in shock at the woman's slang.

"I am here to meet with Daniel McKinder and Scott Brown. It is an eleven o-clock meeting," Dagny announced.

The woman looked at Dagny and blinked.

"You have a meeting?"

"Why yes. Did they not inform you?"

The woman looked down at the logbook on her desk. She moved her index finger with a fire engine red Lee-Press-On-Nail across the page.

"Oh here we are. It says they have a meeting with a D. Cohen of Villeneuve Consolidated Developments."

She brutalised the pronunciation of Villeneuve.

"That would be me. Miss Dagny Cohen."

The woman scrunched her face.

"Oh, I see. Do they know yous a woman?" she asked Dagny.

"Does it matter?"

"Well I guess not. It's just that a pretty woman like ya is gonna be distracting for the guys. You know what I mean, deary. You should have given them some sort of warning. That way they could have tied down their little willies."

Dagny did not know where to look. Why was this woman saying this? This was a corporate office, not some vulgar bar. She decided to laugh to break the silence from her shock.

"I'll tell 'em yer here."

The woman's warning, although a little forward, was right. Through the whole meeting she noticed the two men staring at her breasts.

"Gentlemen, the diagram's are up here, not here," she indicated to her chest.

"I am sorry. I am just in awe of your beauty," Daniel spoke.

He was a heavy-set middle aged man with a receding hairline. Dagny could see that he was married. She knew that he was just some dirty old man.

"Yeah, we are not used to having a woman in this board room," Scott piped in.