Squeal

By Akanksha Jaiswal

‟Forget about bland ideas and let us explore something different. What say guys?”, Nellie said to her co-workers in the conference room.

Nellie was hosting a meeting with her employees regarding the new deal with JOYS (the leading toy manufacturer internationally). The deal was life changing for SQUEAL, Luke and Nellie Morgan’s toy making company, as working with an industrial giant will offer them an international exposure. Patrick (Luke’s PA), James, Henry, Liam and Luke Morgan were present in the conference room.

Nellie Morgan, a 27 years old promising business woman, lived in Bristol UK. The 5 feet 5 inches tall lady was adorned with short wavy hair, sharp tipped nose, small grey eyes, plumed lips and an oval shaped face. The most important thing about her was the attire she used to carry with grace. Nellie and her husband Luke Morgan own a toy company naming SQUEAL. Having a powerful personality, she was laconic, really keen at work, hating people who even make minute mistakes, that undoubtedly made her a fervent business woman who used to be disciplined and time bounded. On the other hand Luke was generous and prudent by nature but still very sharp in his business ethics.

Nellie being authoritative and astute by nature never compromises with her ideals. The reason behind Nellie’s stringent nature was her childhood spent under extremities. Her father was an artisan who used to make and sell wooden crafts to eke out his existence. But whatever he was taking in was not enough to fulfill the needs of his family. So her father decided to shift near the woods to get the raw materials easily for his work and to lessen the expenditures. That place was an estranged one where human footprints were found rarely. Nellie as a child was alone. She never had people around to talk and play.

PRESENT DAY (at conference room)…

‟Definitely we are working on such technique where toys will help kids to grow and learn as well”, James (Senior Marketing Manager) replied.

‟Also the present day toys are going to reduce the bothersome task of raising the kids”, Luke said. He added, ‟We are working on tracking system installed in these toys that will let the parents know where their lads are. If the kid has gone somewhere out of their sight while playing, they could easily track them with the help of our own app.”

‟Great idea! This is going to be an immense success.” Nellie stated. Her phone rings….

Patrick, ‟What?? You can’t hoodwink us!!”Cuts the phone.

Luke asked him, ‟What is the matter Pat?”

‟Sir, Joys has denied working with our company. They want the deal to end here”, Patrick.

‟How dare they? They can’t do this to us.” Nellie screamed with rage.

Patrick added, ‟They want to meet both of the owners of Squeal.”

Nellie asked Patrick to connect to them and took the phone. ‟Are you people out of your mind? How could you break the deal just on a phone call?”

After a long tense conversation Nellie disconnected the phone, took her car keys and left the room. Luke also went behind Nellie. They reached the Head Office of Joys and had a meeting there with John Winger, the MD of Joys.

‟ I don’t understand this sudden change of mind of yours. Why do you want this contract to end here.” Luke asked.

‟Look Mr. Luke Morgan we can’t go against our years old policy that has been clearly mentioned in the contract. But you guys have cheated on us.”

‟Will you please explain what policy you are talking about?” Nellie asked

‟I am talking about the policy of Patrimonial Corporate Holding. It is our decades old policy to work only with the entities who have inherited their businesses from their ancestors or you can say they must have a family background of business.” John replied.

‟I agree with you Mr. John and know about the policy very well. Also I have shown you that the entity I owe is patriarchal. If you are not satisfied with this I can show you the papers.” Luke said.

‟I am not talking about you Mr. Luke. I am talking about Mrs. Nellie. She is the 50% partner of this entity and she must also have such background.”

‟What nonsense! She is my wife and a part of my family. Why she also has to show you her family background.”

‟She became your wife after becoming your partner. But prior to this she was just a part of this company. And you have a deal with us her old details. ” John added.

Nellie was listening to them very carefully. She suddenly stood up and asked Luke to come with her.

Before leaving the room she said, ‟I also don’t want to work with people who value tradition more than talents.”

Nellie and Luke left for their house. On the way Luke took a glance at Nellie. For the first time he saw Nellie with distressful face against her so called confident personality.

After reaching home Nellie went to her room and locked the door. She sat there with her face under her palm and started wandering in the past.

23 YEARS AGO….

Nellie was a four years old child. Her mother died of some pregnancy complications while giving birth to her. Daniel, Nellie’s father started raising her single handedly. Being an artisan Nellie’s father used to make wooden handicrafts to earn his living. But he was not so capable to buy some toys for his own child. Living in the town was above their standards. So he decided to shift near the woods away from the town. There he could easily get the raw materials. Nellie, on the other hand, remained alone in such a small age. Her father was always busy in his work and could not pay attention towards his child. She has no one to accompany her either in studying or playing. There was so much to say but no one to listen and she slowly became reserved.

One day her father got a contract of 50 toys for which he would get good money. He became very excited and thought that now he would be able to provide a fancy life to his child. He worked hard and completed the order beforehand. Nellie was so happy to see so many toys around her. Joyfully she asked her father, ‟Can I get some out of them?”

Her father scolded her, ‟These are very expensive. Do not touch them without my permission.” And he slept after warning Nellie to stay away from the toys. But being a child she didn’t control herself and started playing with those toys and unfortunately some of them got broken.

Next morning when Daniel woke up and looked at the broken toys he surpassed his rage and shouted a lot on his daughter. She started weeping slowly but suddenly Daniel fell on the ground and never woke up again. Nellie’s world got shattered. She was taken to the orphan shelter and from there she was sent to a boarding school. Being a brilliant student she did well in her academics but her behavior didn’t change, still reserved and irascible. After completing her school she went to college where she met Luke. They together planned to start their own toy company. The idea of starting a toy company came from the fact that she had never been in a chance to play with toys in her childhood days and in this way she was carrying the burden of her past in her own toy company…

…After thinking too much Nellie started feeling jaded. This was not because of the stuffs going on in her life but emerged as a result of the heaviness drowning her inner self that has made a strong woman weary inside out. Next morning she woke up like she has never been in touch of any odds of life.

NEXT MORNING IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM…

‟Guys it is of no use to think about the deal with Joys. Getting into a battle with an industrial giant will harm us only and I know they are not in a mood to hear anything from us. So let us not waste much of our time and focus on our invention.”

‟Nellie Joys was ready to invest in us but now they also have hit the tied hands.” Luke asked.

Nellie replied, ‟I know it very well. But this is not the end. We can look for other options too.”

‟Patrick!” Nellie called. Suddenly he looked up and everyone was looking at him as he was busy in his phone .

‟Is everything alright?” Nellie asked in a suspicious note.

‟Yes Yes I am alright…” He replied in a manner he was caught red handed. And the next moment Henry entered the room and show them the newspaper written in it.. ‘A promising contract between Joys and Zuniang’

Everyone in the room got stunned with the news except Patrick and Nellie was noticing his strange behavior. But the next moment she motivated her entire team to involve themselves dedicatedly in their upcoming project and everyone came in support of them. After working hard for next three months the toys with tracker system and a mobile app was successfully designed by the team.

One morning Luke had a glance at the newspaper heading- an innovative idea of toys with tracker system and mobile application for parents to track their kids by Zuniang.

Surprised with the news he hurried to show it to Nellie. She saw the news and smiled. Luke asked, ‟How can you be so calm? Are not you surprised with it?”

‟Not at all Honey. It was my plan.” Nellie replied.

Soon after the launching of those toys complaints regarding the working of system started coming out. Also the cases of poor radiation harming the kids also came into the notice. Zuniang was in a shock as how it could be possible.

A press conference was organized and Zuniang has to answer regarding each and every technical fault in their toys. Nellie, Luke and Patrick also went to the press conference.

‟I can point out the faults in it” Nellie suddenly stood up and said. She came with the research papers of his team. She showed them everything and also the patented date and time of their research. People got surprised with the fact that how two companies can work on the same project.

‟This is none but our research that Zuniang has used to grab the market from us. And this became possible because one of our fellow mates Mr. Patrick Robinson was behind this.” She continued, ‟I was noticing his strange behavior since last few months. Soon after we succeeded in our research I know some conspiracy is waiting around. So I changed some of the research papers with our previously failed research notes. I was aware of the fact that Patrick will be in a hurry to steal the research and won’t pay attention on which papers are there. And he did the same. Am I right Mr. Patrick?” Nellie pointed out Patrick in front of everyone. Patrick got embarrassed and started looking down. The technical team of Zuniang also confessed that Patrick was behind this. Police caught them and put them behind the bars.

Squeal has challenged this in the court and presented their original research paper and won there too. Zuniang was ordered to pay heavy compensation to squeal.

After watching all these incidents Joys have decided to change their decades old policy of ‘Patrimonial Corporate Holding’ and started giving a chance to new talents. They also approached Nellie to enter into a contract but Luke and Nellie refused to do so with them. They kept working on their own and spread themselves and soon they became one of top ten toy making companies in the world.

By Akanksha Jaiswal