GODDESSES INC

20

Two weeks? That's all I get paid?

Mnem stared at the rectangular piece of paper in her hand. In first paycheck shock, she read down the list of payroll taxes. Moving to Greece looked better and better. Disheartened by the sad little number on the check, she dropped it in her purse and shut the locker in the employees' room. Time to start her shift. Time to repeat the same stories to museum visitors over and over again.

Mnem once attempted to tell the visitors the real truth, but Phoebe Lawson reprimanded her. Told Mnem never to discuss how sexual violence created new cultures. That museum visitors did not want to hear about warriors raping the women of a newly conquered town, and how those women learned to incorporate their cultures with the victors', blending customs and religions.

People have been conquering others for thousands of years, Mnem explained. It's a good thing. If not, we'd all still be living in closed-off inbreeding communities with no chance for genetic diversity, intellectual growth, and cultural intermingling.

Mnem recalled the conversation with Phoebe Lawson as she headed toward the antiquities department.

Phoebe Lawson, in a gray Armani suit and pewter Marion Parker ballerina flats, stood in the middle of the sunlit corridor. A small two-way radio was clipped to her waistband. She touched the earpiece. "Fifteen ladies from the Pink Bonnet Society arrived for their scheduled tour. Keep it PG."

"I love the Pink Bonnet Society." Mnem smiled. "Women are like olive trees. The older they are, the more beautiful and the more complex their fruit."

Phoebe Lawson looked up from her clipboard. "They'll like that metaphor."

Mnem adjusted her museum ID, which hung from a silver chain around her neck. "You need a goddess exhibit."

Phoebe Lawson blinked. "Pardon me?"

"An exhibit devoted to earth's oldest goddesses."

"Submit your idea to the director."

"A motherhood exhibit would be nice too. A Celebration of Motherhood." Mnem stretched out her arm as though reading the title in the air. She had lots of ideas! Thousands of years' worth of ideas.

"I'm sure the director would like to hear them all. The Pink Bonnet ladies are waiting." She gave Mnem a curt nod and strode away.

Mnem headed to the lobby where fifteen pink-bonneted women flitted about with the chatty energy of teenage girls during a sleepover.

"I'm Mnem, and I'll be your guide."

A woman with a flower-festooned fuchsia hat and matching lipstick gave Mnem the twice over. "We prefer a more experienced docent. You look like you're still in college."

"I'm older than I look." Mnem smiled. She adored feisty, no-nonsense women.

"Don't be rude, Helen." A woman wearing a silk pale pink hat put her hand on Helen's arm. "I'm sure Mnem is perfectly knowledgeable. Besides, what do you care? You're just here for the nudes."

"And lunch in the museum restaurant," Helen said from the side of her mouth. "I really could use a martini."

"Me too," whispered Mnem.

Helen beamed. "Well, honey, what are you waiting for? Show us some nude men."

Mnem escorted the Pink Bonnet ladies to the antiquities wing and past Greek Mother by the River, a marble statuette from 101 AD of a woman sitting on a rock, her son in her lap, his hand stretched forward. The one-foot statuette was back on display today after having been in the conservation room for the last few months.