Seventies Bound – The Typing Pool
“Once upon a
time, there were three little girls who went to Secretarial School. One in
London... One in Manchester... The other in Glasgow... And they were each
assigned very important but menial duties... I took them all away from that and
now they work for me. My name is Charlie.”
“Yes I know
who you are Mrs Brigham,” the stern looking man at the other side of the fence
said, “but will they be able to meet our standards?”
“Of course
they will, Mister Jones,” Charlie Brigham said as she crossed her legs. The managing director of Jones Engineering
was a tad uncomfortable with the woman sitting opposite him, wearing a pair of
grey flared pants and a matching jacket over her white blouse, who smiled as
she looked at him with her clear grey eyes.
“I guarantee
it,” she said, “so when would you like them to start?”
“Tomorrow –
it’s pay day, as we need the extra staff.”
“Very well –
I will arrange for them to be here at eight in the morning – and thank you
again for choosing Brigham Secretaries,” Charlie said as she stood up and
walked out of the office. Leaving the
ornate Victorian building, she waved down a taxi and jumped in, saying “Compton
Street” to the driver as he headed off.
“Well, we’ve
been in worse places,” Agnes said as she looked at the austere exterior of the
building. The young scot was wearing a
burgundy red blouse with a white floral print, a matching knee length pleated
skirt, as well as a pair of shoes in the same colour of leather, the sole and
stack heel adding two inches of height and a strap round her ankles.
“True, but
not much,” Joy said as the trio walked into the main lobby. She was wearing a similar outfit to Agnes,
save hers was dark green as opposed to burgundy red, and she had a long string
of pearls hanging round her neck. The
only other addition was the dark green knee length socks on her feet.
“Good
morning,” the third girl said as they stood at the reception desk, “we have
been sent from Brigham Secretaries?”
“Oh yes – one
moment,” the man behind the desk said as she looked at the other two. Unlike the red headed Agnes and the brunette
Joy, she was wearing a crimson red blouse with a floral print, and a flared
knee length blue skirt. A silk scarf in
the same shade of blue was tied round her neck in a band, and she had on black
shoes in the same style as the other two.
“So this is a
one day job,” she said as she checked her short cut chestnut hair in the
mirrored column.
“Probably
Cass, but at least it pays for the weekend,” Joy said as a grey haired, stern
faced woman appeared. She wore a grey
jacket and skirt, over a white blouse with a frilled front, and stared at the
trio through horn rimmed glasses.
“This way,”
she eventually said, “I will show you your workplaces and assignments.”
“Gonna be a
long day,” Joy said with a sigh as the trio followed her.
“My name is
Miss Grant,” she said as she led them to the typing pool, “and you will do
exactly what I tell you to do today – is that understood?”
“Yes Miss
Grant,” Agnes said as she led them to three tables, typewriters sitting on
them.
“Good – get
started on the documents by your machines,” she said as they at themselves
down, and got to work.
As the day
wore on, the girls kept to their tasks, each looking to the others as they
other girls moved in and out.
Eventually, glancing up at the clock, Cass looked round and said “did we
miss the lunch bell?”
“I don’t
think so,” Agnes said, “why don’t we find that Miss Grant and find out where we
need to go.”
The three
girls stood up and walked to what looked like an office door. Knocking on it, Joy heard the woman say “What
is it?”
“Apologies,
Miss Grant,” she said as she opened the door and walked in, “but we were
wondering where...”
“Oh you
stupid little girl,” Miss Grant said as she looked at her, and then picked up a
gun and pointed it at her. “You and your friends, in here now?”
“Oh god,” Joy
whispered as she, Agnes and Cass came in, hands raised as they saw the empty
safe, and the doctor’s bag with notes sticking out of it.
“I guess
you’ll have to do more than I was going to tell you,” she said quietly, “close
the door, and then keep those hands in the air.”
“What the
hell’s going on,” Agnes said as Mrs Grant closed the door, and looked at the
three women.
“Good thing I
came prepared, in case that bastard Jones turned up,” she said with a sneer as
she looked at them. “Right, all three of
you – take those shoes off, and you,” she said as she pointed at Joy, “take
those socks off as well.”
The girls all
looked at each other before they slowly unbuckled and removed their shoes, Joy
slipping her socks off before they all stood on the floor in their bare feet.
“We can start
by making sure you can’t tell anyone what I’m doing,” Miss Grant said with a
sneer as she looked at Joy. “One sock for each of your friends – roll
them up and push them into your mouth.”
“WHAT!”
“Shout again
and I shoot,” she said quietly, “now, roll those socks up, and stuff one into
the mouth of each of your friends. Don’t
worry – I’ll make sure you get keep quiet as well.”
Both Agnes
and Cass stared at the gun, before Agnes said “just do it Joy – it’s not worth
getting hurt or worse over.”
“But
they’re...”
“I know –
we’ll manage,” Cass said as they watched their friend roll up the socks, and
then opened their mouths, trying not to gag at the taste as they rested on
their tongues.
“There’s a
roll of Sellotape on that table,” Miss Grant said
with a smile, “cover their mouths. We
don’t want them spitting those socks out, not do we?”
“Whruddngths,” Agnes mumbled as Joy tore wide strips of the
clear tape off and pressed them down over the lips of her friends.
“Why
else? I’ve earned my reward, and that
bastard kept refusing. So I’m taking
what I’m due and nobody’s going to stop me.”
As she
pressed the last strip of tape over Cass’ mouth, Miss Grant looked at her and
said “nice scarf – take it off and put it in her mouth now.”
“Mrellsreee,” Cass said as she untied her scarf, and then
pushed it into Joy’s mouth, the young woman nodding as she was forced at
gunpoint to cover her mouth with the clear sticky tape.
“That’s
better – now, all three of you, kneel down in a row, Indian line style.”
She watched
as they did this, Agnes first, then Joy, then Cass, before she looked in the bag
and took out some coils of rope.
“You tie her
hands behind her back,” she said as she passed on length of rope to Joy, “and
you get the joy of tying her ankles together while she does that.”
Cass nodded
as she put Joy’s ankles together, wrapping the rope around them as Joy crossed
Agnes’ wrists behind her back and started to tie them together.
“Make sure
you take the rope between the limbs – I want it nice and tight,” the grey
haired woman said with a grin, before she picked up another two lengths of
rope.
“Tie her
wrists now,” she said to Cass as she knelt behind her, putting her ankles side
by side and securing them together as Cass tearfully tied Joy’s wrists
together. She then tied Cass’ wrists,
before making both girls lie face down on the floor.
Agnes soon
joined them, as one by one she pulled their bound ankles back and secured them
to their wrists. “Can’t have you been
immodest however,” she said as she moved their skirts to cover them, before
picking up the brown bag and closing it.
“Sorry girls,
wrong place, wrong time,” she said with a smile before she left the office,
closing and locking the door as they heard her clip-clip footsteps receding in
the distance.
“Whtruggnndd,” Agnes said as she turned her head and looked
at the other two.
“Gtthssffstrtrs,” Joy said as she started to rub the edge of
the tape over her mouth on the shag pile carpet, the other three following her
example before the tape finally came away from Joy’s mouth, allowing her to
push the scarf out of her mouth with her tongue.
Looking at
the other two, she said “hold on” before she moved herself over to Agnes,
picking on the knot holding her wrists to her ankles with her teeth as she
tried to move the tape away from her lips.
“Joy your
feet...”
“Complain
later,” Joy said as Agnes felt her feet drop to the floor, “can you get me
free?”
“I’ll try...”
“All right John, let’s get the...
what on earth happened here?”
“Robbery,”
Joy gasped, “call the police and cut us free, will
you?”
“Ten
thousand? A good day for the enterprising Miss Grant,”
Charlie said as she sat behind her desk, the three girls sitting on the other
side, now wearing jumpers and slacks.
“Sorry
Charlie,” Cass said, “I guess we failed on this one.”
“No harm done Cassandra – how were you to know someone else planned to rob the safe at the same time we were going to? No, you played your parts well – and there will always be other factories...”
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