Beauty Read Online Free PDF Page A

referred to us by the Jobcentre, because it has been identified that there are barriers to your employability, barriers that you need support with. In most cases that will mean help with yer reading,writing and numbers, and some of you with yer Wider Key Skills: Improving Yer Own Learning, Problem-Solving and Working With Others. And everyone will do their Jobsearching, CVs, and Best Practice for Successful Interview Techniques. At the end of the day that’s what we do here at RiteSkills, as well as helping you to actually find a job.’
    ‘I do’ want a fookin’ job!’ a voice rang out.
    Laughter erupted and Beauty looked up to see who had spoken. A white boy sat leaning back on his chair, swinging his legs and grinning at the room. His face was tanned, or unwashed; his clothes and trainers shapeless and dirty. He caught Beauty’s eye and smiled, his uneven teeth discoloured by nicotine and lack of brushing. She looked down quickly.
    The Employability Co-ordinator laughed with them. It was too early to lose them. Especially not to this gypsy half-breed.
    ‘Stewart and I go a long way back, don’t we?’ Colin said.
    Stewart ignored him.
    ‘Well, sit properly and don’t use that kind of language or I’ll be speaking to yer adviser. You may get sanctioned and lose yer benefits.’
    ‘Nah man, my adviser fookin’ loovs me,’ he said. ‘She’d get it ’n’ all, trooss me.’
    Beauty looked in his direction again and he winked at her. She lowered her glance, covered her brow with her hand and touched her cheeks three times alternately with the tip of a finger so that God would forgive her for hearing sinful words.
    Toba, toba astaghfirullah.
    Colin stood up and handed out forms and pens.
    ‘I’ll explain some of the new sanctions procedures in a moment. Firstly, I need everybody to fill in this DH21 New Client Start-Up Notification.’
    Some of the people in the room showed alarm at the prospect. Colin enjoyed their discomfort.
    Beauty picked at the corners of the green and white form on her desk, her forearms shielding it from the men sitting next to her. She was sure of the first two questions, and wrote her name carefully. The nine little boxes on the line underneath she guessed were for her National Insurance number, which she knew by heart. She sounded out D-A-T-E from the next question to herself, but together the letters made no sense. The rest of the form, too, was a mystery, but she kept her pen over the page anyway. She glanced sideways at the black guy’s form. He’d filled in one box more than she had, but had stopped and seemed to be thinking about his next answer. She put down her pen in irritation and folded her arms.
    One by one the others stopped writing. Colin walked slowly round the room collecting the forms, scanning each in turn and asking its author a detail here and there. Beauty kept her head down but could feel him drawing closer.
    As he stopped at the black guy next to her she tugged her scarf down and left her hand there to cover her face. But she sensed Colin in front of her and saw his liver-spotted hand pick up the form from the desk.
    ‘Beauty?
Is that your real name?
’
    There was silence and his question hung there, waiting for an answer.
    She looked him up and down. ‘You never heard the word before?’ she said in a clear voice. Faces turned towards her.
    ‘Sorry, it seemed like an unusual name …’
    ‘For an Asian?’ she interrupted. ‘So, an Asian can’t have a name like that?’ She sucked her teeth. ‘Thass a typical Bangladeshi name,’ she added. Like Lucky, Fancy, Simple, Polly, Colly, Sweetie … She thought of hercousins back home and the girls in the village, and wished she’d been given a holy name instead.
    If someone cusses your name you’ve gotta say something, aynit?
Colin didn’t reply. He didn’t want another Equal Ops situation on his hands. He spent a few seconds pretending to read the rest of the empty form, before moving on. The noise