It's time for the dreaded interview!

Only two hours before my whole future and fate would be decided.

My heart did flip flops as I got up and struggled to the bathroom.

I hitched up my nightie sat down and relieved my aching bladder. I winced at the sound of my wee landing in the water below and resounded loudly through my pounding brain. My lack of tolerance to the few drinks the previous night meant that I couldn’t have an ounce of Australian blood in me.

After cleaning myself up, I had a look in the bathroom mirror. I was not impressed.

I was bleary eyed, and had traces of makeup on my eyelids and other crevices. My hair was a mess and I looked about 80, apart from that I was fine.

Sheila stormed into the bathroom, like some sort of tornado. I don’t know what she was on, but I could do with some of it.

‘Come on, you haven’t got all day. Have a quick shower and wash your hair. Get that gunk off your face while you are at it!’

I galvanised myself into action and slipped my nightie off, yawned and started scratching my bum.

‘TONY, GET MOVING.’

‘Yes Auntie Sheila.

‘And don’t be cheeky!’

I had my shower. It woke me up a bit, especially as some sod had set it to cold. Anyway to cut a long boring story short about how I got ready; you know, shaved legs, face, pits and other places, powdered some delicate bits etc. etc… I won’t put in the gory details.

I was soon back in the bedroom, relatively awake and raring to go. Well sort of raring; more quaking if I tell the truth.

I was so worried that I shook slightly every few seconds and I felt as if I wanted to be sick. It was a good job that Sheila took over, as my brain was not totally in gear.

‘Right, first things first, have a swig of this.’

She handed me a glass of yellowy, brown thick goo in a glass.

‘Hold your nose and swig it down in one.’

‘What is it?’

‘An old recipe my dear old Mum taught me about. It’s a pick-me-up.’

I looked at it doubtful but, being a good girl, I did as I was told.

It tasted awful and I nearly spewed it up, but after a few seconds, my eyes uncrossed and I was able to breathe again.

‘Bloody hell, what the **** was that?’

‘Now, now, Toni, well brought up girls do not swear like that.’

‘Mother Teresa would have been tempted to swear after drinking that.’

‘Do you feel better?’

Strangely enough, I did feel as if I was back in this world and after sucking a peppermint to get rid of the scum on my tongue, I started to get dressed.

Sheila had bought me some ‘office interview clothes’ without my knowing and they had been laid carefully on the bed.

She picked up the bra and helped me on with it as my hands shook too much to be any good at fastening the hooks.

In went my breast forms. I gasped at the coldness on my skin.

‘There’re freezing!’

‘I put them in the fridge for a bit. I thought that being a wee bit cooler might help you wake up a bit.’

‘Sadist.’

‘Yup.’

I pulled my small meat and two veg out of the way and slipped on the silky panties. Luckily, Percy was asleep; otherwise I would have had a problem.

Next I carefully pulled on some incredibly thin and fine stay up stockings up my smooth legs. I must admit, they felt fantastic.

Following that near heaven experience, Sheila helped me to slap on some war paint. She did it expertly and quickly and without causing me permanent eye damage.

Next, I slipped on a cream slip and then a satin cream blouse that sort of flowed on me, if you know what I mean.

After all that, I was in sensory overload, and I was somewhat distracted. Percy started to finally wake up and was in some discomfort.

Sheila then decided to torture my hair. She tugged and teased my poor tresses until she was satisfied with the look. I coughed a bit when I got a face full of hair spray; otherwise, I came out of it relatively OK.

I pulled up a very business like skirt that ended a bit above my knee and then slipped on a tailored jacket of the same fabric. I felt very smart. Next, went on some small silver hoop earrings, a fine silver necklace and bracelet and finally a dainty watch.

I was done and looking in the mirror at the final product, I saw a young but sophisticated looking woman that just oozed business; sort of a female Gordon Gekko.

Sheila had me walk through a fine mist of perfume (called Lust, I think) and I was done.

‘If you have finally finished admiring yourself, the taxi has just drawn up outside.’

‘Taxi,’ I said coming back to Earth. ‘I can’t afford a taxi!’

‘My treat. We can’t afford for you to miss your appointment. Come on. I’ll come with you and wait outside or something.’

2

‘I can’t really remember the taxi ride much, but it seemed like seconds before we drew up outside and impressive looking office building. You know the sort, all glass and strain your neck looking at how high it is and how do those windows get cleaned?

We got out and Sheila paid the man, who couldn’t stop looking at my breast region.

I’ll give you a tip, ‘Said Sheila to the taxi driver.

‘Thanks luv.’ He said holding out his hand.

‘Keep your eyes on the road and not on tits and you will live longer.’

We left the taxi driver staring at his hand with a bemused look on his face.

Anyway, there we were outside the place and all of a sudden I got stage fright. I mean, there was no way that I was going to get away with this.

‘Er, Sheila. I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think…’

Sheila firmly gripped me by the shoulder and virtually marched me through the automatic doors and up to the huge reception desk.

‘See you later. I’ll be in Starbucks across the road.’

Without another word, she left me to the tender mercies of the woman behind reception.

‘Can I help you?’ she said in that bright ‘have a nice day’ sort of voice.

‘Erm, I have got an appointment.’

‘With?’

‘Pardon.’

‘With whom do you have the appointment?’

‘Er sorry, it’s Mr Roberts.’

She looked down a list.

‘Ah yes. Mr Roberts is the CEO. Your letter was pp’d. You will actually see Miss Prendergast from HR.’

‘HR, pp’d?’

She looked strangely at me.

‘Yes H R. you know Human Resources, personnel.’

‘Oh yes sorry, not with it.’

She looked at me as if I was nuts and said, ‘Please take a seat and I will ring for Miss Prendergast.’

She picked up a phone and I went and sat on one of the black leather seats. The leather felt cool against my stocking sheathed legs and it was quite nice. It distracted me for a moment but soon my nervousness came back.

I picked up a magazine and flicked through it. However, to this day I couldn’t tell you what it was about.

‘Miss Summers?’ said a voice from above.

I looked up and there was a woman, staring at me. She had a smile on her face and looked quite pleasant in an efficient and business like way. She was wearing a suit similar to mine, but black and had sun glasses perched on her head. Strange, as we were inside and it wasn’t sunny.

‘Yes.’

‘Would you like to come this way please, OK Ya?’

She had an accent like cut glass. All Sloan Ranger and hockey sticks, rolled into one.

I followed her to a lift and we were soon shooting up to the 21st floor, whilst my stomach stayed on the 1st.

She led me through some glass corridors. I could see various workers beavering away. I didn’t think that this was such a large organisation. In fact, with horror, I did not even know what type of business this was.

‘Ah well,’ I thought, ‘No way will I get a job now.’
Miss Prendergast opened a glass door and motioned me to step inside.

It was a pleasant office with views of the next glass tower, across the road.

‘Please sit down,’

She waved her hand at a chair on the opposite side of the desk to where she plonked herself.

‘Can you give me a mo, while I look at your CV, Ya?’

I nodded my head as she read my meagre life history and a few sheets of paper.

She looked up and smiled.

‘OK Toni, can I call you Toni?’

‘Ya, I mean yes.’

Super. Well Toni. You are new to work I see so I can’t expect you to know too much about us. However, can you explain how well you feel you will fit into our organisation?’

‘Erm, well, to tell you the truth, I don’t know too much about your business and I was hoping that you will tell me a bit more about the job.’

‘Oh, sorry, didn’t we send you our pamphlet?’

I shook my head.’

‘Sorree Toni, bit of a cock up there. I tell you what, you read this and I’ll go get some coffee. OK Ya?

‘Thanks,’ I said taking the thin pamphlet from her.

Coffee, white sugar?’

‘Yes white with one sugar, please.’

She left the room and I sat and read the pamphlet.

It turned out that the business was a high class software firm. That was good. I liked computers and that would help me, I hoped.

The company had offices around the world and was involved in lots of different areas from games to business applications. They had a staff of two thousand and the company was expanding fast. Hence the recruitment drive.

Just then, Miss Prendergast came in.

‘Here we are. Coffee, white, one sugar. Sorree about the plastic cup/’

‘That’s OK. It’s very kind of you.’

‘No problemo.’ She said sitting down and taking a dainty sip of the hot liquid.

‘Now that you have read a bit about us, how do you think that you would fit in?’

‘Erm, well I am a good on a word processor. I know my way around Word and Excel and my Dad was a software specialist himself and I sometimes helped do reports for him.’

‘What is his name?’

I shouldn’t have said it. I had been lulled into a false sense of security. I hadn’t been clocked as a male and I was feeling rather pleased with myself, so I just blurted it out.

‘His name was Phillip Summers. He died in a plane crash two years ago.’

‘Oh, I am sorree… hey I knew him. He did some work for us. He was a nice man and I liked his wife, your mother, too. How is she?’

I was in shock and just babbled.

‘Erm, erm, she’s dead too.’

‘Oh, dear, you poor girl.’

‘Erm, I don’t like talking about it.’

‘Yes, I can see that it still hurts. Let’s get back to the job. OK ya?’

‘Yes; thanks for understanding.’

‘No worries. Now, I want you to sit at the desk over there and do a test.’

She got up and sat me down by a computer screen.

On the screen was the logo of the company.

She reached over and pressed the control button and up came a screen.

‘Right, just pop your name in the space provided and follow the screen instructions. You have thirty minutes for the test and I will leave you in peace while I do a few other things. OK?’

‘Ya.’

She left the room and I got down to it.

The tests were quite simple really. Typing speed, spreadsheet problems, formatting; stuff that I could do when I was 15. Anyway, I completed the tests in fifteen minutes and waited for her return.

I hoped that I had got way with the slip that I was my fathers’ child. I hoped that she didn’t know that my parents had a boy and not a girl. Worrying about it wouldn’t help, so I just sat and waited for the return of Miss Prendergast.

She came back a few minutes later.

‘All done? You were quick. Let me see the results.’ she said sitting at her desk and turning to her terminal.

She tapped a few keys and then smiled, turning to me.

‘Well done, one hundred percent. You certainly know your stuff. Right, the job title is personal secretary to one of the programmers. I know that sounds a bit demeaning, but we don’t go much on titles and we all sort of muck in and do things as and when needed.

The salary is 16K plus bonuses if we do well. Most years we get at twenty percent and last year it was twenty five. How does that suit?

‘Great!’

‘I thought you would say that. Anyway you get four weeks off a year and you are automatically put into the pension and health schemes. We also have an account with the local gym and all in all it’s a nice package. I could keep you waiting a few days and send you a boring letter, but you seem a nice girl and your test speaks for itself. And we mustn’t forget that you have a family history with us. So would you like to join us?’

Without thinking of the consequences, I just said. ‘Yes please Miss Prendergast!’

‘Great. You must call me Pippa, we are all friends here and you will be one of the family. I will send confirmation through the post but first, we need to see Mr Roberts the boss. He likes to say hello to everyone before they join. Follow me.’

I went down the glass sided corridor again in the wake of the enthusiastic Pippa. She pointed out the various offices and reeled of loads of names, none of which I could remember and soon we were back at the lift.

The door pinged open and we went up to the 32nd floor. Once again my stomach flipped as we rose silently but quickly through the floors.

The lift skidded to a halt and the door opened. We came into a huge carpeted lobby. The carpet was so thick that I found it hard to wade through on my fairly high heels.

On the other side of the room was another Pippa clone. She also had sun glasses perched on her head and wore a classy business suit.

‘Hi Pippa, Toni,’ she said brightly, ‘The boss is waiting for you now so go right in,’

Pippa led the way. She opened the heavy dark wood door and walked in. I followed meekly behind. This was where I get to see my new employer. I hoped that my luck would stay and that he would like me. I also prayed that he wouldn’t see through my disguise and realise that I was not quite as I seemed.

‘I could not see past Pippa as she said. ‘Hi Boss, this is our new worker Toni Summers’

She stepped aside and I could see my new boss.

My jaw dropped. I felt faint, my heart jumped into my mouth and I did in fact faint but before the blackness overcame me, the thought flashed through me that I was being employed by my own, hated, despised and disgusting step father.

To be continued.

Copyright Susan Brown 2006