Due to the great and unexpected comments I have had with my first little story I felt encouraged enough to write another. I hope that you have as much fun reading this as I had writing it.
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Finding life on unemployment street very boring, not to mention the fact of always been broke, I decided to go job hunting. In the job office were all the typical jobs on offer from the likes of the burger giants but then one caught my eye.
"A mature minded young person
required to work in local clothing
store. Wages and hours will be
discussed at interview."
Ok it wasn't something that an 18-year-old lad like myself would normally go for, but anything other than been up to my elbows in grease all day seemed pretty good to me. The woman on the desk gave me a strange look and asked me if I was really sure I wanted to work there. I was puzzled by her behaviour but nonetheless she set up an interview for the next day with the store.
The following morning found me in a freshly ironed suit and clean shoes walking through town to find the store. I felt a bit of a fool dressed up as I was and hoped that I wouldn't run into any of the guys. Eventually I found the store and nearly turned away to walk back home when I first clapped eyes on the place, but I needed the job, badly. The bell tinkled a cheery warning to the owner as I swung the door open and stepped inside. If the front of the store looked old fashioned then the insides of the place looked like I had just stepped back in time to the forties. Everything in the place seemed to be every shade of brown that could ever be. The clothes hanging on the racks, the big old heavy wooden counter top and even the old fashioned till with its big brass buttons.
"Hello young man may I help you?" a matronly looking woman asked me with some distain from behind the counter.
"Hello... yes... I am John Miller and I have come about the job." I stuttered and held out my hand.
She studied me with piercing blue eyes through her half moon glasses, refusing to uncross her arms from under her ample bosom to take my offered hand and shake it. Her grey hair was tightly knotted into a bun onto the back of her head and a black suit hugged her ample frame just as tightly. She scornfully pursed her bright red lips, and even though I don't like to admit it, she scared me.
What seemed like an eternity later she finally spoke. "You are a boy and this is a ladies fitting store. We only supply the finest clothing to the finest ladies so what on earth could you possibly offer me?" It seemed more like a demand rather than a question such was her authority.