RICHARD ASKS, “What do you do, Belinda?”
Belinda says, “I work for Zizyph. Zizyph Software? It’s a computer software company.” She bursts out laughing. “Of course it’s a computer software company. That’s why it’s called Zizyph Software.” She laughs again and shrugs and looks at Matthew, and he realizes again how nervous she must be, meeting his pals. Then another look crosses her face. She looks puzzled. It occurs to Matthew that she might be wondering why on earth she should be nervous about the impression she makes on his old friends, wondering something along these lines:
Why should I be trying to impress them? Why should I be trying to impress anyone? After all, I’m vice-president of a company with a snazzy logo and up-to-the-minute office decor, not a hidebound toy company. Maybe Matthew and I have been going out too long. I’m beginning to act as if I’m serious about him. I’m behaving like a prospective second wife. Soon one of these people is going to ask me if I have children. They’ll want to know whether my children would be a burden to Matthew.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of it,” Belinda says.
“Oh, I certainly have heard of it,” says Richard. “I wish I’d bought some of your stock when you went public. You guys are a howling success.”
“Well, the company has grown,” says Belinda, nodding her head, “very fast. It’s — exciting.” Matthew can see that she’s flattered. She looks down and smiles a modest smile, but when she raises her head that odd look comes over her again for a moment, and Matthew wonders again what she’s thinking.
“What do you do there, Belinda?” asks Jack. His tone is polite, but this is beginning to seem like an inquisition.
“I work in new-product planning.”
“She’s head of new-product planning,” Matthew says. The pride in his voice surprises him; Belinda, too.
“Well, that’s not so much,” says Belinda. “When I began working there, I was new-product planning. I was also the customer service department. And personnel. And I helped in accounting. They used to keep their receipts in cardboard cartons. It was insane.”
Richard: “You’re kidding! They weren’t using their own software to run the company?”
“They didn’t have an accounting package then. They used — ah — a competing product.”
Matthew says, in a tone much like a proud papa’s, “Belinda actually designed the accounting software — ”
“No, that’s not really true. I — ”
“It really is true,” he insists. “I don’t mean that she wrote the program, or anything like that, but she wrote out a set of requirements accounting software ought to meet — ”
“I was really just reacting to the shortcomings of what I’d been using.”
“ — and that became the manifesto for ReCount. Zizyph commissioned somebody to write it, and it’s now their most successful product. They would have been a one-product company without Belinda.”
“Well — ”
In Topical Guide 450, Mark Dorset considers Name, What’s in a, from this episode.
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🎧 450: Richard asks . . .