Mourning Glory Read Online Free Page A

she spent with us last year,
Grace?"
    "She asked me the same question," Grace murmured.
    "And well she should," Mrs. Burns said, lifting
her eyes and studying Grace in their hot glare. "Eighty thousand a
month."
    "That's nearly a million dollars a year," Grace
exclaimed, calculating quickly, stunned.
    "A world-class movement of merchandise. That old biddy
is an industry for us. We pucker on demand."
    "Hard to believe ... she's such a..." Grace
checked herself. But she hoped her expression would convey her honest
characterization of the woman, which was miserable shit.
    "...marvelous, generous, beautiful person," Mrs.
Burns said, completing the comment with a sly smile of understanding.
    "I gave her my best makeover advice, Mrs. Burns.
Unfortunately, there is no product, except perhaps a complete face mask, that
could hide her wrinkles."
    "If she wants her wrinkles hidden, Grace, then you are
charged with finding a way to hide them."
    "Believe me, I tried," Grace said. A sob seemed
to catch in her throat.
    "Apparently not hard enough," Mrs. Burns told her
between tight-pursed lips. "She wants you fired."
    "Fired? Because I couldn't find a product to hide her
wrinkles?"
    "Apparently it was also the manner in which you
trumpeted your failure."
    "I didn't trumpet anything."
    "That was your mistake. She needed trumpeting, the
flattering kind. You should have trumpeted her assets."
    "They escaped my notice."
    "Therein lies the nub of the problem, Grace. She
craved the licking of her tuchas. This is where she gets it. It is not
for nothing that this store is named Saks."
    She searched Mrs. Burns's face to find some recognition of
the double entendre as a joke. It wasn't apparent. The woman was dead
serious.
    "Understand the deeper psychological implications of
our role here, Grace. Mrs. Milton-Dennison gets off on shopping. This is where
she comes to replace the fucking she does not get at home."
    "Jesus!"
    "I detest this kind of pressure, Grace. It frustrates
me and I hate dealing with frustration. My only goal is to make numbers, to
increase these numbers year after year. Numbers are what determines my bonus.
We are not dealing here with the human equation. Numbers provide the true
meaning of our existence. Mrs. Milton-Dennison represents only numbers, Grace.
She is a factor here only because she puts a lot of bread into the oven. She is
the soul and spirit of the capitalistic machine."
    Mrs. Burns's sudden mixing of metaphors was disconcerting.
Grace wondered if she should be respectful of Pamela Burns's remarkable candor
and realism. The woman was generally admired for "telling it as it
is," which was exactly what she was doing now. But to whom? Grace
pondered. Certainly not to Mrs. Milton-Dennison. To me, poor impoverished
servile loser me.
    "I do not like to be forced to grovel before
Mammon," Mrs. Burns said, as if reading Grace's mind. She lowered her
voice. "We both know what Mrs. Milton-Dennison is." Suddenly no sound
came out of her mouth. "A fucking miserable cunt" were the words her
lips seemed to have formed.
    Grace was encouraged by the intimacy.
    "A mover of merchandise," Grace said, the fear of
firing suddenly diminishing as a possibility. She felt oddly relieved.
"Then you're not terminating me," Grace said after a brief pause.
    "What would you do if you were being threatened with a
million-dollar loss of custom, Grace?"
    "It would be like..." Grace searched her mind for
an adequate image. "Like being caught between the devil and the deep blue
sea."
    "That represents a choice. Mrs. Milton-Dennison didn't
give me such a wide range of options."
    "So I am fired?"
    "I hate to put it that way, Grace. It makes me feel
like an instrument of cruelty. I do know your situation Grace. We have to know
about our employees in these litigious days."
    "Am I or am I not?" Grace said, raising her
voice.
    Mrs. Burns shook her head. She seemed genuinely grieved,
although Grace distrusted the pose. Dissimulation was part of the stock