Matador Negro, "Azucar II"

Chester L. Simmons, Jr., formerly known as Matador Juan Negro, “Azucar” during his hellified year in the bullrings of Mexico, sat at the head of the oakwood boardroom table, looking bored. It was another meeting/audition time for the Simmons’ family owned Matador Corporation. Chester L. Simmons, Jr., President/CEO. Chester, senior, Vice President/Exec., in charge of quality control. Mrs. Lillian Simmons, executive business manager. Dondisha Simmons, public relations. Louise Simmons-Hammond, psychologist/consultant. Harold Hammond, sister Louise’s husband, Matador Corporation attorney. The audition section of their meeting was winding down. Mr. Percy Jackson was “auditioning” four of his latest inventions: a beautiful robot Chihuahua with a panting red tongue, a wagging tail and a musical bark. Plus big moon beam swiveling eyes. A large robot calico tabby cat who purred and meowed, with is tail flashing up, who rubbed his warm body against friendly cat loving legs. And finally, a beautifully dressed African-American doll couple who held each other in a warm embrace and danced smoothly in a precise circle. They could’ve been Barack and Michelle. “And all of these figures are powered by tiny solar panels, as I said before …” Chester, Sr. stood to signal that the audition was over. “Thank you, Mr. Jackson. “Each of these figures is environmentally positive, they require minimum maintenance. In addition, I would like to add …” “Mr. Jackson, thank you. We will examine your inventions and I promise you that we will be in contact with you before the end of the month. “And finally, I would like to thank the Matador Corporation for giving me this opportunity to present these inventions …” They all breathed a sigh of relief as the loquacious Mr. Jackson boxed up his wares and bowed out. Chester, Jr. doodled on a pad in front of him. Mrs. Lillian Simmons, the executive manager/accountant, read the minutes of the previous meeting/audition – “Sorry, Mr. Mixmatch, we’re not interested in gloryin’ the slavery era in America.” During the reading of the minutes from their previous meeting, Louise Simmons-Hammond leaned over to whisper to her husband. “Doesn’t seem like “the mata-dor” is too much interested in how much money he made in the last quarter…” “He’s been that way since he and your Dad got back from their last business/research trip to Spain.” “Well, my brother has always been a bit spaced, nowadays he just seems a bit more so…” Mrs. Simmons, executive manager/accountant (“it’s like takin’ care of a super house budget”) glared over her Ben Franklin specs at her daughter and her on-in-law, a nonverbal command to shut up! The meeting was winding down, with each of the participants offering updates of their specific sections of responsibility. Chester Simmons Sr., the vice president of the Matador Corporation, and the man responsible for the quality of the video products that they were placing on several boutique/niche markets, was not in love with meetings but he recognized the necessity of keeping everyone on the same page. “I’d like to start off by saying that our recently coined motto – ‘Playing with Technology’ – is resonating, our vendors like it. The public likes it and I like it.” Chester Sr. glanced around the table as though he was expecting someone to disagree with him. He took note of his son flipping page over on his doodle pad. “Aside from that piece of good news, I would like to call out other pieces of good news. ‘Our Tango’ video is selling quite well in, of all places, Argentina. I will have to let our staff psychologist explain what the turn on is about a Black couple, a gorgeous Black couple, doing the tango. Some people have suggested that the Argentines are using the video as a super role model/instruction video. Whatever. In any case, our sales have gone up by 25% since the last quarter. Ampée, the hop-shuffle girl’s game that Mrs. Betty Adule Kotey, of Accra, Ghana, helped us put together, is doing quite well in Scandinavia, Sweden and Denmark especially. They seem to like to see the dark-skinned girls jumpin’ up ‘n down.” A flash of smiles greeted his remark. They had talked about the impact that the sight of jumping African girls would have on the White male psyches. “The Capoeira videos of both styles of Capoeira; Angola and Regional, continue to be well received in Brazil, and we’re receiving upticks in Israel, Palestine and Greece. Also, looks like a good year ahead for us in Japan. Mancala/Wari, the African board/counting game, isn’t doing so well. We’ve flat lined after an entry surge every time; I think we should consider easing away from Wari/Mancala. Finally, as you all know, me and Chester, our ‘Mata-dor Sugar’, have just returned from a week in Spain. The Spanish have definitely fallen in love with ‘Matador Negro’, Azucar.” Chester, Sr. smiled in his son’s direction, hoping to pull a smile from him. Chester, Jr./”Matador Negro, Azucar” stared out of the window opposite his seat, obviously more interested in what was happening outside than what was happening inside. “That’s about it for the moment. I’ll be talking with our Mexican distributors within the hour. One of the things they’ve already told me is that they’re really glad that we locked up our video from pirates by adding that component that prevents the video from being duplicated. Uhh, Ches’, would you like to add anything to what I’ve said? Chester, Jr. nodded no in an absentminded way. “Well, I guess that brings us to the P.R. section … Dondisha?” Dondisha Simmons glanced at her husband. Wonder what’s on his mind? “Well, first off, I’d like to say that I completely agree with Chester, Sr., concerning the acceptance of our motto – ‘Playing with Technology’ – we’ve been able to convince a number of educational institutions that our ‘game videos’ are a great way to teach related subjects. I’ll give you two big examples.