Free Shattered by Teri Terry

at the back, and everyone visibly relaxes.
    Over an hour the scheme is explained in detail. Representatives and apprentices are here from each Section today, and we can speak to them and ask any questions. The Sections seeking new apprentices are Administration, Hospitality, National Parks, Transportation, Education, Enforcement, Communication, and Sanitation. Tomorrow we must come in and sign on the dotted line to commit to CAS for five years. We can ask any questions, pick our favourites, and then we do aptitude tests.
    On Monday we find out which four we get to trial. Then follow week-long placements with each, and finally a section is chosen for each candidate. He doesn’t say who does the final choosing, and I’m guessing, not us.
    So, without any guarantee where we’ll end up, we must first commit to five years? That sounds forever.
    When he’s finished, doors are opened to an adjacent room, with areas set aside for each Section. Everyone spills out and seems more interested in getting a cup of tea than speaking to the representatives and apprentices. Then I notice waves and hellos exchanged here and there. Do they already know what they want to pick? More, do they think this is just a formality: has everyone already worked out who will go where?
    A woman at the nearest table – Education – catches my eye and smiles, and there is something about her that makes me smile back. I walk across.
    ‘Hello,’ she says. ‘Have you thought about working in schools?’
    ‘No,’ I answer truthfully.
    ‘Honesty! An excellent trait.’ She looks at me quizzically. ‘I never forget a face, and there is something familiar about you, but I’m stumped. You’re not local?’
    I shake my head, careful to hide alarm: could she see Lucy in me despite the changed hair and eyes, after so many years? ‘I’m from Chelmsford.’
    ‘I didn’t think I recognised you, and every child in Keswick goes to my school. But that doesn’t matter to me, and it shouldn’t to anyone because place of origin is not admissible criteria.’
    ‘Really? I was thinking I was heading for Sanitation, for sure.’
    She laughs. ‘Well, in case you’d like another option, we’re looking for three apprentices in Keswick Primary School. You start as a teaching assistant, and if all goes well can move on to teacher training after a year.’ She starts enthusing about inspiring young minds, and I think of the smiling boy on the train, taken off by Lorders.
    ‘Is everything all right?’ she asks.
    I start. Am I that transparent? ‘I’m not sure about Education; I haven’t been around little kids much, and—’
    ‘Well, that is the whole point of this scheme. If you pick Education, you get to spend a week with us in the school, and we’ll both soon know if it is for you.’
    ‘Thank you,’ I say, and it isn’t just for what she has said, but the warm way she has said it.
    She seems to know what I mean, and smiles again. ‘Go on, talk to everyone else: none of us bite!’ She leans in closer, and lowers her voice. ‘Except maybe Enforcement.’
    I straighten my shoulders and start at one end of the room, visiting each section in turn, but skip Enforcement. The latter aren’t Lorders; they are the local force that deal with parking and minor matters, but anything that says authority says keep away to me, and besides: they’d work with Lorders, wouldn’t they?
    It soon becomes apparent by foot traffic that there are two main points of competition: Hospitality and National Parks.
    At the latter there is now a small crowd. An unfriendly crowd, as I find when I try to inch my way into it.
    ‘Heh, it’s ES,’ Finley says, tall enough to see over everyone that I’m there and not making progress.
    Finley grabs me to the front and soon I’m face to face with his boss, who looks at me and raises an eyebrow. ‘Considering a career with the National Parks Authority?’
    ‘Of course.’
    He sighs. ‘It isn’t all mountain trails in holiday