Hey! My short story The New Job is in Not So Popular’s latest zine Objects.
Also in there are some great poems by Jo Hauge, who is one of my faves.
The New Job
We were just there because it was a busy time for the place, and the others had gone away, for a bit. They didn’t like me because of my habit of putting whatever I could get my hands on, in my mouth. This included things like staplers, the tickets and once the tanned, American hand of the C.E.O. Everyone laughed at me about this last incident especially.
The bosses said that if I carried on doing this they might have to let me go. I had let them down; I had lowered things. I wasn’t particularly worried about this, as I didn’t believe them for a number of reasons. I knew that they only needed us new people temporarily and that they’d hired just enough of us for the company to survive, with no-one left over. Still, it was a shame. I didn’t have many friends at work anyway because of my loud feminist critique and the way I rolled my own cigarettes. Hand to mouth.
I was paid every month for three months. In the third week of the first month I came on my period. I had to decide whether to buy tampons or breakfast for the next week.
When I was crying in the kitchen you came in and looked at me.
“Why have you got those tissues in your mouth?’
Now, I was embarrassed about everything. I tried to hug you, but you wouldn’t let me because, really, you know what I’m like.
Catherine Madden 