20
Mrs Joy Harvey
Outward appearance
Polished black woman. Huge coils of hair, like someone out of Dynasty. Burgundy business jacket, yellow sweater. She looks enraged and keeps pulling down on her sweater.Inside information
Works in a one-stop shop for the Council. Today her mobile surgery will be held at the Wasteco Superstore in the Elephant and Castle. The surgery was set up to provide information about local events and the Council's activities. But people want services instead of information. Joy has become a one-stop advocate for the illiterate who have received a final Council Tax demand, the aged who aren't claiming benefit, they young men who can't get a council flat, people who can't get their garbage collected. Etc.What she is doing or thinking
She is looking at the obviously homeless man next to her. She deliberately sat next to him in case no one else would. She takes in his stained, rumpled trousers; the tiny woman's coat; the thin shirt; the shoes with white water marks . Poor man, look, he's shaved and washed. He's spent money to clean himself up and he probably could have used it for food. And look at people, wrinkling their noses at him. Aren't they horrible."Are you all right?" she asks. He looks around at her in misery. "Are you all right?" she asks again, touching her new purse.
"No, no," he pleads, holding up his hands. "I don't need anything."
Good, she thinks, that's good. Pride. She receives an energizing jolt of anger that will see her through another day. She pulls down again on her sweater.
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