Mean Woman Blues

sort of thing he’d do anyway. Her husband was very formal, very much of the old school, much like her father and uncles.
    Carol Ann met them in a black silk flowing pantsuit— a lot fancier than even Karen had counted on. She was wearing her hair up as well.
Power do of the evening
, Karen thought.
    “Karen, sweetie, how nice to see you.” Her aunt gave her a cursory kiss. “And David. We’re
so
pleased to finally get a chance to sit down and really get to know you. We’ve been so looking forward to it, ever since the wedding.”
    “I have as well, Carol Ann. I sure have. It’s an honor for me.” He was handsome in his well-cut suit and well-cut hair. Karen felt a burst of wifely pride.
    The men poured themselves some bourbon, while the ladies indulged in a little white wine. Karen had to talk to Carol Ann the whole cocktail hour, which pretty much bored her, but it was good practice. If things turned out as David dared to hope, she’d be spending a lot of time talking to the wives of powerful men.
    She asked politely after Carol Ann’s children— her own cousins, Dennis, Kevin, and Beth— and Carol Ann asked about Karen’s life, which so far in her marriage had consisted mostly of working with contractors and decorators, and one other thing— something close to her heart— the foundation she and David had planned out together. She had an office already and a phone number, but that was about it. She hadn’t yet told more than a handful of people about it. “I’m ready to move on,” she heard herself saying.
    Carol Ann raised an eyebrow. “Move on? Are you thinking of going back to school?”
    “Well, some day. Some day, when the kids are old enough, I’d love to go back to school.”
    Carol Ann sat back, as if suddenly gratified. “Ah. Kids.”
    Karen smiled at her. “’Course I have to hatch some first. That’s what I want to move on to— that and…” She took a deep breath. Okay, she was going to tell Carol Ann about
her
plan, one she’d had for a long time. “…that and the foundation I’m starting. Right Woman, it’s going to be called. The idea is to do some of the things the show does, on a broader scale, for women like me. I mean, women in the kind of trouble I was in when I met David.”
    “Ah.” Carol Ann sounded supremely uninterested.
    Karen was suddenly self-conscious. “We’d… uh… provide loans, services, maybe, uh, child care. For, uh, women. Maybe other stuff; it’s still in the planning stages.”
    “I see.”
    “You seem skeptical.” At the very least.
    “I was just wondering, how will you fund it?”
    “I’m looking into funding sources now.”
    Carol Ann cast her eyes down, probably hoping not to be tapped for a donation. But that wasn’t at all what Karen had in mind. She wasn’t going to family and friends for money; she was going to do this right: learn to write grant proposals, make formal calls on potential donors. She wasn’t about to hit up an aunt and uncle at a dinner party. But all that seemed a bit too much to explain at the moment. Perhaps she’d jumped the gun by mentioning it.
    She gave Carol Ann a reassuring smile. “Actually, about all I’ve done so far is rent and furnish a little office. I’ve only been working on the foundation proper for a couple of weeks.”
    Carol Ann’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh! You’re actually working on it.”
    Lovely family
, Karen thought to herself, suddenly realizing that Carol Ann thought her too stupid to run a foundation. But she was determined not to let her aunt dampen her spirits. She shrugged. “I’m pretty serious about it.”
    Her aunt changed the subject abruptly. “You mentioned having children.”
    “Oh, yes. That’s very much in our plans. The sooner the better.”
    Carol Ann didn’t pause for a second. “Are you pregnant?” she asked avidly, as if pregnancy wasn’t quite respectable.
    Or so Karen thought at first. Actually, she realized later, it was probably the opposite, probably a lot safer and more interesting and comprehensible to her than any foundation.
    “I wish,” Karen said. “So far no luck, but I’ve got my fingers crossed.”
    Carol Ann gave her an older sister kind of smile. “Well. Dinner’s ready.”
    Despite the formal clothes and the elegant surroundings, dinner was on the simple side, as Karen had predicted earlier when she told David what to expect. These people were old-fashioned Texans, and they didn’t bold with foreign cuisines outside of a