“It’s like feeding time at the zoo,” thought Colleen as she watched the seething mass of men and women pushing and jostling for a place near the front of the counter.

“For God’s sake stop pushing me in the back!” shouted an old man at the front of the crowd.   As he turned to yell at the people behind him, an old lady, barely a metre and a half tall, squeezed past him to reach the front of the counter, where she had to stand on tiptoes to be able to be seen by the people behind the counter.

“Hey lady, I was here first,” insisted the old man.

“Just wait your turn,” ordered the tiny woman, refusing to be perturbed.

“But I was here first,” insisted the old man.

Colleen wondered if she would have to go through this every week.   Certainly she had no intention of jostling with the others.   She would wait until the crowd had thinned out, even if it meant waiting there all day.

“Look, who’s next for God’s sake?” demanded a flustered teenage girl behind the counter.

“I am,” called out the little old lady.

“I was here before her,” insisted the old man.   “Look, I was here first, I haven’t got all day, you know?”

“Just shut up and wait your turn!” ordered the tiny woman.

In a bid to stop the argument, the teenage girl led the little old lady around the counter and took her toward one of the interview booths.

“I was here first!” insisted the old man.   Then he rushed forward just in time to prevent a black-haired youth from stealing his place at the front of the counter.

*      *      *

“Well, everything seems to be pretty much in order,” said Allan Juchster, gazing at the small card in his hand, and then stealing a glance at the shapely thigh of the teenage girl, who sat across the desk from him.   “I don’t see any obstacle to you receiving payments.”

“Oh that’s great,” said Colleen, beaming at Juchster, “I only moved away from my parents a few months ago, and I’ve been staying with some friends.   They can’t afford to keep me much longer, and so I’m looking around for a place of my own, I managed to get eight weeks work from Christmas through February, but nothing since, so I would be in big trouble if I couldn’t get the dole.”