Life of a Lady
The Story of Aveton Gifford
​
​
​
​
Aveton was always noticed. She was not a career woman. Her career was men, power and money. It was always what she had wanted, thought she had wanted. So, she had been a success.
The only one of them to leave school at sixteen, and she had left them all behind. She was the least ambitious and yet she was the most ambitious. Focused.
It was natural, she was a natural. It was a natural progression. Aveton had always been admired by men, desired. This man did not desire her, he did not desire any woman. He admired women, he admired beauty and so he admired Aveton – the way she held herself, the way she held back.
Aveton was working in a local pub, attracting and keeping the attention of the punters. She knew he was watching her. She couldn’t quite understand why. Aveton was confused, she thought she understood men, their desires. He was different. There was not the lechery that other men had. But he watched, observed, kept a close eye. Men had always watched her.
Mitchell spoke to her after three hours, three hours of a compulsion.
Aveton resigned that night.
The following day she joined Mitchell’s agency. The most natural of progressions.
Aveton became a model.
​
*
**
Life is short in the public eye. There is always somebody waiting in the wings, an understudy. Someone younger and someone more attractive. It didn’t last. It wasn’t a career, there are no jobs for life any more. Mitchell ended her contract in the same short way that he had started it, with no emotion and no desire. Averton was too old. A business transaction that was all. That was all her life had become.
She was twenty-five.
Aveton was a natural working in the casino. She had always been a natural flirt, a lesson learnt, one she could teach others. Men appreciated that, that she never gave them what they wanted. You always want what you can never have. She was therefore always tempting, tempting fate.
Averton dressed with pride. Immaculate clothes, immaculate make-up. Pride in appearance. She soon owned the room, the environment, she was in control. Aveton was always a presence. She was the one who netted the best prize. Power and money – he had both.
She didn’t need to work anymore. Aveton waited for the one career she had always desired.
It never came.
​
*
**
In a modest life with no income she had to go back to work. She had been careful but care had not been part of her life. There was no-one to support her. Aveton had not worked for sixteen years, not since the day of her marriage. You forget how to work, how to think, how to be part of society. She had no skills, only her natural ones – looking attractive and attracting men. She could still do that.
Part-time suited. An environment where there were mainly men, usually a bit older. She was a bit older. A booking shop. She encouraged them and supported them in hard times, usually the latter. She was a natural. Aveton found to her surprise that she enjoyed it. She had taken her gambles and now she was taking theirs.
You win, you lose.
Aveton was not sure which one applied to her.
The work payed the bills.
Paid for her garden wall to be repaired.
​
*
**
Aveton was still immaculate. Still a girly-girl after all these years. Some things change, some things do not.
She was now sixty-one, she was alone but she was happy because she was surrounded.
Still taking pride in her appearance. Her uniform was immaculate, white and starched – never a stain, she would never allow it.
Slipping her feet into brown brogues, flat. Comfortable, practical. They suited the job and, these days, they suited her.
Still the make-up but, looking in the mirror, she saw the grey, short hair. She was everything she said she would never be.
But she was still smart, she still had that pride, now more than ever.
The job she was born to.
Aveton needed to start the day, the routines. Routines are what define us.
Aveton was ready, she grabbed her equipment and set off.
Taking big steps, taking small steps – stepping down.
Stepping up to responsibility. Stepping down and walking out. She had never been middle of the road. The most responsible she had been in her life.
Aveton was proud, she was never prouder.
She was surrounded by the ones she had always desired.
Averton was surrounded by children.
​
*
**
Aveton Malindra Gifford was a lolly-pop lady.
​