Your Girl’s in Trouble
Your Girl’s in Trouble
Ruth and Elliot are having dinner at Musso all the lights are out but one. It casts a strange shadow across the floor, like there’s a ghoul watching over them.
Elliot makes a sound, part laugh, part sigh, as the lines deepen in his forehead and at the corners of his soft brown eyes. “I was hoping you’d know,” he says, reaching for her feet and planting them in his lap, gently massaging one and then the other.
She gives herself over to his touch, the way his thumb works the ball of her foot, his fingers rubbing the arch where she didn’t even know it ached until now. “Let me ask you something, Elliot—what do you want to be remembered for? I mean besides being a good husband, a good father and grandfather. For being a mensch.”
“Sounds pretty good to me. We have two grown children and we have grandchildren now. Isn’t that enough?”
She goes quiet and contemplates. Barbara and Ken have their own lives, their own families. What’s left for her? Seymour’s saying Barbie’s in trouble, and without Barbie, what have they got? If they don’t bring in someone like a Seymour Rosenberg, Mattel could still grow, but not at a rate that will satisfy their board of directors and stockholders. The value of the company will drop, followed by rounds of layoffs. They’ll be forced to close one plant after another. They’ll discontinue various toys, and soon Mattel will be just another company that showed great promise before it fizzled out.
And what if she dies young like Sarah? Ruth wants to be remembered for something. She wants to leave her mark on this world. If they hire Rosenberg, they could build a legacy. Their toys, their names, could live on forever, long after she and Elliot are gone. Why stop now, halfway up the ladder? Why not climb to the very top?
“Think about it,” she says. “You and me—we’re the American dream. A rags to riches story. This is a chance to take our place in history. We could be right up there with General Motors, IBM, AT&T.”
Elliot squeezes her toes gently and laughs. “Now you’re dreaming.”
“But that’s what we’ve always done, isn’t it? We dream. This could be our shot. We could make Mattel one of the greatest companies that ever existed.”
It’s this conversation and her vision that decides it. They bring on Seymour Rosenberg as their executive vice president, head financial advisor. To sweeten the deal, they even give him a seat on their board. Elliot becomes Mattel’s new chairman and Ruth is now president.