George and Eternity and other short stories and fortune telling

Temporarily Placed

Teresa quite enjoyed her job at the employment agency. She worked on the temporary side and found it challenging trying to place her temps each week. It was very gratifying to finish a week having placed all her temps.

The office where Teresa worked was quite small, and she shared it with Marjorie, who ran the permanent staff. It was a pokey but well decorated little office, on the first floor above a shop in the High Street. Apart from summer, when the dust, heat and traffic noise occasionally rose above a comfortable level, the atmosphere was pleasant.
Ron, one of the directors and Teresa's boss, had an office of the same size next door, and the other two corners of the first floor contained the stairs and a little kitchen where a lonely kettle and the coffee mugs lived.

There was one problem however. Ron was a pig. A pure and simple male chauvinist and stuck-in-the-mud type pig. He was one of those middle-aged people who held on to the belief that what's been good enough for the last ten years is okay, so why change it? Teresa thought with a smile, that if they were in the field of computers, Ron would still be using the abacus.

So it was with a certain trepidation that she found herself in front of Ron one afternoon.
"Do sit down, Teresa," he said. "I wanted a word with you. As you no doubt know already, Marjorie is leaving soon."

Teresa knew this of course and was green with envy. Marjorie and her boyfriend were going on a six-month trip to South America. Not only was she envious of the marathon holiday, but also of Marjorie's rather handsome and sexy boyfriend, Rob.

"Well," cut in Ron, "I've decided that I'll move you over to the permanent side in place of Marjorie and get a new girl in to do the temp side. It'll give you a change and it'll be better for the new girl."

Teresa was quite excited as she drove home in her blue Volkswagen Beetle, which she called Herman.
"Well, Herman," she said aloud, "that I didn't expect. Ron even gave me a rise, quite out of character."

The next two weeks were very busy. Teresa was carrying on the temp work and also having lessons from Marjorie on the work involved on the permanent side. It was a time in which Teresa was unexpectedly happy. She had, she supposed, been getting a little cheesed off, as if being stuck in a rut. Now it was different. She seemed to have a new vitality. But if those two weeks had been bliss, the next two were to be at the other end of the scale.

On the Monday after Marjorie had left, Julia arrived. She was new to the job, so Teresa's first task was to show Julia the ropes. Safe at home in the evening after that first hectic day, Teresa summed up Julia: she was younger than Teresa, blonde, rather pretty she supposed, and completely useless.

That first day had been a nightmare. Julia just didn't seem to retain anything that Teresa told her. Then again, she might just be a slow starter. After all, it was her first day, and she'd never done this sort of work before. Better give Julia time to settle in before dismissing her as completely useless.

But the next day and the day after that were the same. Julia did not improve, and Teresa's work each day consisted of telling her what to do, step by step. Somehow, Julia didn't seem able to remember anything from the day before. For the whole week it carried on like that. At the end of the week she told Ron what she thought of Julia.
"How's Julia coming along in the job, Teresa?"
"Well, to be honest, Ron, not at all well. I have to explain everything every day — she doesn't remember from one day to the next any particular thing. Personally, I think she's a bit useless."
"Nonsense, Teresa. You have to give her time to adjust to a new job, and to pick up all the little things that are part of the job."
"But she doesn't seem able to pick up even the simplest thing," protested Teresa.
"Give her time. I'm sure she'll turn out a damned good worker and very adept at the job. I'm quite shrewd at picking good people, you know."
That was that. It was plain that Ron was very much taken by Julia's attractiveness. She could tell that by the fuss he had made over her all week. He hadn't done that before with anybody else who'd worked for him.