The Woolworths Girls Read Online Free

applicants, surely there wouldn’t be enough jobs?
    Sarah was given her forms along with the other girls.
    ‘I’ll take you all through to the staff canteen while I leave you to complete your applications. I have to attend to an urgent staffing matter.’ She looked at her wristwatch. ‘I’ll be back in half an hour. We can discuss your duties then.’
    ‘So we all have jobs?’ Freda asked hopefully.
    Miss Billington turned to look at the young girl standing before her. She was aware that many of the applicants in front of her had responsibilities and needed to take home a wage packet. However, she required staff who would work hard for the company and not need watching every five minutes. ‘There are three vacancies. Whoever is taken on will have to work a one-month trial. It does depend on how you complete the arithmetic test. We have just three weeks until Christmas, our busiest time of the year. We’re short-staffed. I require three extra workers on the shop floor by tomorrow morning. I hope I will find suitable candidates among you.’ She glanced at Maisie and sighed.
    The three girls found a table away from the others and pulled off their coats. The room was warm. The windows were steamed up from the kitchen area, which was behind a counter, and the smell of baking made Sarah’s stomach rumble. She had been too nervous to eat the sandwich Nan had made for her lunch.
    The girls scrutinized the paperwork in front of them.
    Maisie chewed the end of her pencil. ‘At least I know how to spell my name.’ She was thinking that she’d blown any chance of obtaining one of the three available vacancies. She’d always been one who ‘dressed to impress’, but perhaps this time she’d gone a little over the top. It was obvious that Miss Billington didn’t approve of her outfit, or the way she spoke. She glanced at the two younger women sitting with her. The one called Freda looked as though she was down on her luck. The sleeves of her shabby coat were a little too short and worn threadbare at the cuffs. She reminded her very much of her little sister, Tessa, after . . . Maisie shuddered. No use in dragging up sad memories. She had a new husband and a new life now. No point in looking backwards. However, she’d make it her job to look out for the kid. That wouldn’t hurt anyone.
    She peered closer at the form in front of her. ‘Blimey, I didn’t realize that we’d ’ave to be so blooming clever just to work in a shop.’
    Sarah giggled to herself. ‘Woolworths expect their staff to be able to count and do basic arithmetic, as we have to add up and give the correct change. It said so in the advertisement in the newspaper.’
    ‘I didn’t see no newspaper,’ Freda chirped up. ‘Someone told me about the interviews. I’ve helped out on market stalls since I was knee-high to a grasshopper and can add up anything in my head and give the right change. I just don’t know what to put on the paper here.’
    ‘It’s the same for me, ducks. I’m a dab ’and with adding up darts scores and serving behind a bar, as well as charging the right price for a round of drinks, but all this paperwork near on does me ’ead in.’
    Sarah thought for a moment. ‘Look, why don’t I call out the questions and you both tell me the answers? Then I can show you how to write them down correctly.’
    Freda beamed. ‘Would you really do that for us? I’d be ever so grateful.’
    ‘Me too,’ Maisie added. ‘Cheers, love. I owe you one.’
    The girls spent the next ten minutes adding up pounds, shillings and pence, and working out change from ten-bob and one-pound notes. Sarah was pleased to see that her idea worked well, and before they’d reached the last sum, both Maisie and Freda were writing down their own answers on the sheets of paper.
    They were still poring over the application form when Freda let out a big sigh that made Sarah look up from checking she’d completed the form correctly.
    ‘What’s up? You sound