Shiomi Komiyama
10/6/99
RLA D

THE PRESIDENT

She was walking down the hallway as quickly as she could. Her shoes
clicked in the extensive hallway, creating an echo.
"Miss Kindergarden!" Someone called from behind. She was a manager of
the company.
"Oh, hello, Mrs. Middleschooler. What are you doing here? It's
Sunday,"
"We had a small meeting with the customers. Well, what are you doing
here?"
"I was working on the construction plan. I was going to print few
copies of it but it's not so good, so I'm going back to my room to redo it."
"But that is perfect!" Mrs. Middleschooler peeped her head in and
exclaimed.
"You think that is perfect? Well, now I understand why you don't have
talents,"
"Oh," the manager smiled bitterly to her and changed the subject.
"Well, the customers we met are very pleased with our plan. They want us to
make a planning for a gigantic business zone with lots of attractions," she
mumbled while fidgeting with her fingers.
"Okay, I have to go," Kindergarden snapped and started walking. She
didn't seem to be interested in the manager's topic. Or maybe she wasn't
listening. She started heading for her room like a wind, and she
stopped.
"By the way, please call me President from next time. I know that you
are pretty older than I am. This is very impolite thing to say, but it is
really distracting me." She made her words clear and disappeared into
the corner. The manager was staring at the empty hallway.
As soon as she went in, Kindergarden slammed the door behind her, and
dumped her crumpled paper into the garbage can with her fist. Then she
took her cigarette and covered it with her hand to light it. Finally she sat
back on her chair with her legs crossed. Michelle Kindergarden was
eighteen years old, and was the president of the construction company. According
to her, she was born in Connecticut, to the family of lawyer and doctor.
Her father was British and her mother was American. However, she was also
one-eighth French, one-fourth Japanese, one-third Chinese and one-tenth
Egyptian. She had skipped five grades when she was small, and got
Master Degree at Stanford University. Without a doubt, her life seemed to be
perfect, but somehow no one knew whether it was true or not. In
contrast, everyone knew that she liked boasting, so it was hard to trust her.
Perhaps she was a great liar. This made a mysterious side of her secrets, since
no one knew her childhood. No one saw her relatives either, because she
never talked about them. She wore simple, official clothes in blue with
large, golden buttons on her breast pockets. She was quite tall. Soft,
light-colored pants hang loose from her crossed legs. She was also
wearing black shoes with golden designs on them. Her hair was thick black. It
was usually very short up to her neck, and she always clipped it back with
hair clips. Her eyes were deep black too, just as same as her hair. She had
a pair of favorite sunglasses which she used to wear everyday at work.
One of her dark eyebrows used to twist up behind her sunglasses, often caused
by impatience. In spite of the fact that she wore simple clothes, she
seemed to be rich, and she was extremely concerned about money. Besides, she
was snobby as a cat even though she didn't like one. The only thing on her
mind was her work. She adored planning buildings and constructions, but that
was the only thing she enjoyed. This girl was extremely irony and frank. If
you asked her anything, she would tell you that you are dumb. If you gave
her compliments, she would tell you that it is because she is too different
from us. If you boasted something to her, she would say that hers was
better. If you tried to act like her and used irony words, she would
either say "So?" or totally ignores you. She was that kind of person. She
disliked any objects that seemed to be unclean, calling them "filthy or dirty
things". In her thoughts, she was the center of the universe. The whole
galaxy rotated around her. She believed that she was supreme and
matchless. She was a noble, and the others were peasants.
She started to put her mind into her work, her black silky hair
drooping over the desk. Annoyingly, her left hand kept pushing her hair into the
back of her ear. At the end she realized that puffing cigarettes made
it difficult to continue, so she stamped it with her foot. It was totally
silent. She usually kept her secretary out of the room and made her do
whatever she wants, except when they had meetings or appointments. This
inflexible woman only accepted few outstanding people who were cleaner
than the others. One of her best friend was Mrs. Elementary, the Vice
President of the company. There were more than fourteen years of difference
between them, but her cheerful and youthful looks made a good balance with the
unkind President.
"Hi! Michelle!" the door banged wide open, and there stood the Vice
President. Kindergarden's hands stopped, and she faced her with her
back for a moment. Then she turned around, leaning back in the chair with
her legs crossed.
"Hi. How are you doin'?" she repeated it slowly again as she trotted
into room and plopped into the comfortable sofa.
"Excuse me Mrs. Elementary, I prefer you call me President,"
Kindergarden spoke sarcastically, pushing up her sunglasses with her forefinger.
"Oh yeah, Miss Prez!" she sounded mimicking to Kindergarden, and that
made her more unpleasant.
The next moment she noticed a dark shadow jump from behind Mrs.
Elementary's feet and dash under her desks. She got frozen at her place
when she heard the familiar sound of purring. Her face turned pale into
blue. A sharp shriek broke the silence, and there it was, a brown furry
cat on her papers which had hopped up onto the desk.
"Come here, Bingo," Mrs. Elementary drew her cat into her cozy seat.
She squeezed her cheek against the cat's soft whiskers. Its deep colors of
emerald glowed lovingly into her eyes. And as they stared at each
other, Kindergarden stared at both of them, standing helplessly on her knees.
That was her worst enemy, Mrs. Elementary's cat named Bingo. This was
also one of the reason she got annoyed with Mrs. Elementary. She detested
them so much. They were filthy alien creatures on earth, which made her skin
jump out of her bones when they attacked her mind. She couldn't stand
their eyes. Their eyes made her shiver. Actually she hated all the animals
because they were overflowed with fleas and bacteria. The second worst
were dogs. They appeared to be the strangest animals in this world which
seemed to love jerking their heads, thrashing saliva all over the place.
"M$B).(Jrs. Elementary, will you pleease get that$B)V(Jm$B)U(Jh,
thing out of this room?!" she started stammering out meekly, yet crossly. She was
impatient and afraid of the thought that the cat might flee towards her.
"Ohhh, I don't know why you hate him! He's so charming," Mrs.
Elementary asked her as if she couldn't believe it. The cat noticed Kindergarden
in Mrs. Elementary's arms, and threw its harmful eyes at her. As soon as
their eyes met, she felt her stomach creep upward into her throat.
"NOO! GET THAT OUT!" she screamed at the top of her lung.
"Okay," Mrs. Elementary sighed, "we'll visit you again someday!" she
chuckled aloud to herself, and waved her fingers goodbye.
Kindergarden felt her shoulders soften, and that moment she noticed how
her body was stiff when the cat was present in her room. She looked down at
her papers on her desk. She knew that the cat had jumped on it. She thought
for a minute$B)B(Jnd puffed on the sofa to redo her work, all over again.
On that day, she never even touched those papers because there were cat's furs
scattering over it.