You've got the job

The day started brightly, as well it would on an August morning in South London, Joseph sat in his front room looking out of the window at the bin men rolling the weelie bins to the back of the refuse lorry. Today was the day he was going to have his interview and he had already had five cigarettes. He looked back into the mirror and stood up, suited and booted, he adjusted his tie. It would take him forty minutes to get the tubes to the interview in Croydon, he had five minutes to nip out the back and have another cigarette.

Outside he lit up and gagged on the first drag of the cigarette, Jesus why did he do this to himself, his chest pains had been getting worse for a couple of weeks now and it was only a few minutes ago he had stopped coughing up the browny phlegm which had become his daily morning ritual. He took another drag, he didn’t gag that time that was progress. After a few minutes he finished the cigarette and went to leave the house. Checking himself one last time in the mirror on the way out, he picked up his keys and shut the door behind him. The dustmen were toiling away up the road, he turned and headed for the tube station.

At the tube station it was normal morning rush hour bedlam, people pushing their way to get to the trains with little regard to their surroundings, but then Joseph noticed her, she was black and looked like she didn’t belong, what’s more, she looked frightened. She had on a long skirt with a floral design on it which was partially covered by her long coat, she also had a neck scarf tied over her head. For all intents and purposes it was a fashion for an older lady from the nineteen seventies, however this was the twenty first century and the gentle looking lady was young and pretty. Joseph watched her from the side of the station, he noticed that she had at her feet a large cloth bag, he mused that it looked as though it carried all her worldly possession for indeed she looked as though she had just immigrated into this strange foreign city in which she seemed alien and lost.

Watching her he saw two men of eastern European appearance approach from behind, the milling throng swept backwards and forwards around them seemingly no-one noticed when one of the Europeans took the lady by the arm while the other picked up her bag and the two led her away out of the station. Joseph stood and watched, this didn’t look right. He looked around for a policeman, there were none to be seen. For a moment he hesitated then made up his mind to follow them out of the station. The two men walked swiftly some twenty feet in front of Joseph down the road, they seemed to be talking to the lady, she wasn’t struggling but she still looked frightened when Joseph caught a glimpse of her face from behind. They continued down the road with the lady between them, one hundred yards down the road away from the station they turned down a side street, Joseph approached the corner cautiously and looked, to his surprise the side street was deserted, he walked down the street looking in the doorways but could not find her anywhere. He doubled back on himself and had another look. After about fifteen minutes of searched he reluctantly started to walk back to the station, he looked at his watch and realised he wouldn’t make the interview and decided to go back to the side street and try some of the doors.

When he got back to the street he had just tried the first door when the two men appeared down the street from a black door, Joseph hung back and watched them, one was talking on his mobile while the other one smoked. He finished and the two men started towards Joseph. Joseph stood looking in a display window as the two men approached he could feel the fear welling up in his chest. As they approached Joseph coughed up some phlegm and spat it on the street, nonchalantly, the two men passed him and turned the corner back in the direction of the station. Joseph waited few seconds and then looked around the corner the two were some way down the street, they looked like they were leaving. Joseph made his way down the street to the black door. Outside he hesitated and then tried the handle, to his surprise it opened. He looked up and down the street and then went inside.
Inside the hallway was scantily furnished, no carpet, just bare unvarnished floorboards and a mattress leaning against the wall which hadn’t been painted for some time. From up the stairs Joseph could hear music and voices. Tentatively the climbed the stairs, on the first floor all the doors were shut and all seemed quiet, the music and voices were coming from the second floor, he tried one of the doors it opened, he looked inside on a mattress in the middle of the room was a women, she looked doped up and was groaning quietly, Joseph went over to her, she wasn’t aware that he was there, it wasn’t the women from the station. He went back to the door and closed it gently behind him and started up to the second floor. He got halfway up so he could poke his head above the landing and could see a man standing over a women who was sat on a wooden kitchen chair. It was her, the women from the station, she looked terrified.

Joseph looked around the landing for a weapon, leaning in the corner was a spindle that had broken off the staircase, he picked it up and stood against the wall next to the door of the room the two were in, he listened, the man was speaking some eastern European language, Romanian or Hungarian. The women did not speak. Joseph suddenly became aware of his situation, fear welled up in his chest again and a wave of anxiety swept over him. Then came the wave of adrenaline and he gripped the spindle tighter, steadying his nerve he stepped around into the doorway, the man didn’t notice him, he was too busy holding the women by the neck with his fist raised, he had a syringe between his teeth. Joseph stepped towards him with his spindle above his head and smashed it down on the back of the man’s head, he collapsed to the floor at feet of the women. She was crying and stood up immediately. Joseph stood above the man with the spindle in his hand, before he knew it she had grabbed her bag and was out of the door. Dazed he heard her running down the stairs and the front door slamming behind her. Gathering himself up he chased after her, back on the street he appeared from the doorway and searched up and down the street for her. She was gone. Joseph threw the spindle back into the hallway, closed the door and made his way back to the station.
For the next three days Joseph went back to the station every morning, but he didn’t see the lady again. He contacted the company for which he had the interview and rearranged it explaining that he had been ill that morning. The following week the interview was rearranged for a Thursday morning. Joseph got to the station forty minutes ahead of time again and he could not believe what he saw, the lady was standing in the exact same place in the station, he watched her for a few minutes and yet again the two men approached her. This time Joseph wasted no time, striding up to the three he starting shouting at them telling them not to move and fumbling for his phone, they all were smiling at him, then one of the European men then showed him his own wallet, in it was the emblem of Rightcorp International, the security services company Joseph had his interview with. At this point had just stood silent looking at the man credentials. The man extended his hand, Joseph shook it and smiling the man said. “Well done, you’ve got the job.”