Fallen From Grace

What Is Wrong With Him!

After the sixth form, I got myself signed up on the doll, and now I had money coming in each week. Part of that money i bought cigarettes in which i respectfully smoked in the garage and not through my bedroom window. Mom and Dad were a little more accepting of the fact I did smoke, but Mom at first said she wanted to watch me smoke, which was a bit unnerving.

"Dont take too long of a drag," she commented, worried. "Exhaile!"

I guess I was used to stress smoking where I could do that.

"When I light one up in a morning, that first drag sends me light-headed," she explained. "And you faint."

I nodded, and that explanation was understandable.

My weekend job that I had originally started when I was fifteen had now moved me to the shop floor because the cafe wasn't doing so well and was closing. So I was on the shop floor working with two other girls in women's fashion. In the week, I took up a cashier course, and I ended up doing really well. This was in a special needs place designed to help students who needed a bit of help to navigate through work. I remember they asked me if I would pose for a photo as they told me I would be on a leaflet for the company and I thought fabulous, I was more than happy to pose behind their till with all plants around me which was perfect for the picture. The reason for all the plants around me was because this experience was at a Nursery selling pots and plants.

I would arrive early in the mornings just as any one would on a real job and waited around for the place to open before we all got to our courses. There was a catering course in the kitchens going on with Sharon, a woodwork course further down the other side of the building but I can't think who that was run by and I was actually by myself to do a retail course because I was the only person to choose to do till work which was under the influence of Helen. I quickly realised how Nursery's got frequented by from the public. They really liked to buy a pack of plants with six of them in one container and they liked to buy them in twos. We did have a few statues over to my left closer to the door, and we had rows upon rows of long plant tables. Then, we all collaborated together at breaktimes and lunchtimes. There was a male receptionist Cliff with big tinted glasses and walked with a walking stick. Cliff would sit at the bottom end of the table with a cup of tea and he'd often say what he liked to do to me in my white coat each morning when I arrived and where he'd like to put his hands in a speech impaired voice and I'd watch him and his face light up with plenty of ideas as he'd think of more things to say.

"That's enough now, Cliff," Sharon would call out. "Let's stop talking."

Cliff was harmles, but if you were silly enough to get too close to him, he'd give you a whack with his walking stick. The only people who got involved to tell him anything were the two bosses of the place, who were a man and a woman, Elaine and Tony, along with Sharon the Cook.

I got on really well with Sharon, and she really was an excellent cook. I tasted her meals like something as simple as a cheese and potato pie at a lunch time, and it was beautiful. She was old school, with forty years of talent whipped around into making everything home made. From meals to pastries, she was the best at what she did.

I started in early September, and I befriended a young girl called Samantha, and I really liked her. Samantha had shoulder-length fair hair and was a little reserved but a great talker as I got to know her. I found out she suffered with epilepsy and that tugged at my heart strings. I would phone her after my placement at home and chat to her in the evenings. One time she had a small attack in the building far from the main building and a support worker a lovely blonde haired woman rushed over to her but at the time I thought she was alright just because I don't think I understood very well the early symptoms of epilepsy. I understood the falling to the floor and fitting but that didn't happen but now that I think about it she was starting to shake. I tried to stay by her as I was a friend and worried to death...