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.Zoe shrugged and took another drag.'You know what the bastards did to me.A piss-poor salary and then, eleven months into the job, they bin me - because they know if I reached a year with them, I'd actually have some rights.As it was I got a “thank you, Miss Webster, here's a week's pay and your P45.Now fuck off.” Left me feeling really appreciated, it did.’ Her voice was now quivering slightly.'I tell you - they'll shit all over you.' Biting her lower lip, she stared angrily at a fly buzzing against the glass of the living room window.'That bloody thing has been pissing me off all evening.' She reached for the recruitment section of the local paper on the table in front of her and began to roll it up.'Don't kill it,' said Clare, jumping to her feet and opening the window a few inches.The insect continued battling against the impenetrable surface, unaware its way to freedom was inches away.'Go on, shoo.Get out!' said Clare, nose wrinkling with disgust, pushing delicately at it with the back of one forefinger.Suddenly it flew to the side and disappeared through the gap.Shuddering, Clare closed the window and returned to her seat.'Anyway, Zoe, you've got a year's experience now, haven't you? Your foot's in the door.''Ha! And there's also the next wave of eager young Graphic Design graduates just entering the job market, too.All of them sussed on the latest editions of Quark, Photoshop and Illustrator, all of them desperate to work for what I started on – or less.You know what really gets me? When I landed that job, I probably bumped out someone just like me.Used is what I feel like.'Clare picked up the recruitment section of the local paper and smoothed it back out.It was folded over at the media part, various jobs circled.'So how's the job hunt going?''Not too bad,' answered Zoe with a sigh.'I've got a few to call back on Monday.Hopefully to arrange an interview.''That's excellent,' said Clare.'They won't be able to resist you, you'll see.'Zoe smiled, eyes averted, 'Yeah well - fingers crossed.' She reached for the telly guide, dropping ash on the floor.Clare put the recruitment section back on the table, picked up their plates and carried them through to the kitchen.She turned on the taps and, as she stood waiting for the sink to fill, she heard the TV go on.The sounds of a chanting crowd filled the tiny flat for a second before the channel switched.'Excellent! Blade Runner - have you seen it?' Her friend called through from the other room.'Yeah - about five times,' she called back, wiping a cloth over the plates.‘It's a class film,' Zoe informed her anyway.'Ridley Scott at his best.And the music.who did it? Someone quite famous.'A rumbling sound outside suddenly increased in volume, higher metallic notes now mixing with the train engine's deeper roar.As it sped past, every window began a minute rattling in the warped wooden frames and Clare actually felt the air shift against her face.And then it was gone and instantly forgotten.'.do you know what I mean?' concluded Zoe from the other room.'You what? I missed all that,' replied Clare, leaving the kitchen.Zoe was excitedly jabbing the last third of the joint towards the screen.The marijuana had heightened her convictions, creating a certainty that her insight was genuine.'It illustrates my point perfectly.I mean who are the only sorted people in the film? Apart from the ones at the very top of the big corporations, it's the few lucky enough to be working for the state, of course.The cops and that.The old police boss, Bryant, even says it to Harrison Ford."If you're not cop, you're little people." Everyone else is just scratching out an existence down on the miserable, litter-strewn, rainsodden streets.''Yeah, but Zoe, half the Social Studies Department is probably closing soon.That Professor Maudsley will probably be on the scrap heap in another year.''Maybe,' said Zoe, struggling to make this information fit her theory.'But with a nice index-linked pension and a fat pay-out too, no doubt.Name me a private company who is expanding their pension schemes.''I don't know.''I'll tell you then.None.They're all closing them to new employees as fast as possible.Too much of a drag on their profits.And that shit-heap place I wasted a year at didn't even have one.I'm telling you there's a lot of people in this country heading towards a poverty-stricken old age.No one I know is saving for their pension, and they say the state one will be non-existent by the time we retire.Get yourself into that Patricia's department and hang on like grim death.''OK, OK, I hear you.In fact, I'm covering my arse and applying for any positions in Maudsley's department too.Just in case.''Good on you, go for it.Either department will do.''Cheers.Anyway, I'm going to wash this stuff out of my hair and go to bed.Can you turn the sound down a bit?''Sure
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