The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3385 by Angharad Copyright© 2023 Angharad

---

This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
~~~~~~~~~
I had practically forgotten about the shop work I did that one summer. It nearly killed me getting up at four o'clock but I thought it would he good practice for all sorts of projects later including bird watching and watching other wildlife like otters which were starting to come back to our rivers, certainly in Scotland and Devon.

I took my mother's advice and wore bra and panties over which I wore some girl's jeans and a tee shirt over which I had on a thicker jumper. Even in summer it tends to feel cold at that time of the morning.

After a few days I got to recognise several regular callers, they'd often have a newspaper and a packet of fags as well. After a while I'd see them and be reaching for the appropriate brand of ciggies for them. Occasionally they'd want something else, but mostly I was quite right in my recollection. I didn't approve of smoking but kept my thoughts to myself, all they wanted really was their usual order and a smile as I served them. None of them twigged I wasn't a girl and they seemed contented to see my smiling face and a cheerful greeting. It taught me a lot about dealing with people, especially the sexist way that people still react thinking that a pretty face is probably stupid but they like it to acknowledge them and smile.

It is probably misogynistic but it also meant I could get away with a number of things that I'd never be able to do as a boy. My employer was delighted with the response of his customers that he asked me to work extra hours. He wanted me to work until 5.00pm but I needed to be back before my father was and he sometimes finished early at work. It was practically my last week when it happened. My dad came into the shop to buy a stamp to post something on the way to work. We weren't a post office but Royal Mail had allowed shops to stock stamps for a few years. .

He usually kept some at home but he'd run out, just my luck. To make matters worse, my boss was at the cash and carry, getting the list of things that I'd drawn up the day before.

I had to try and list what we were running short of and based on it he'd make an order of supplies and then go and get them, so quite quickly I was being trusted and given extra responsibility and I was learning the business of retail which quite complex. Once a week he disappear into the office to do the balances and see how much we owed in VAT and other taxes, he loathed paying the accountants anything he could avoid doing but he tried to stay within the law. I assumed he would pay me cash in hand, instead he wanted my national insurance number so he could deduct taxes from my salary. I put him off for a few days but he really wanted it.

I was at a complete loss, I'd either have to come clean with him or somehow try and see how I could get round it or give it up. I was getting used to the early mornings so I wanted to try and stick it out. I spoke to someone on a helpline for National Insurance saying that I was transitioning and needed to change my name on my NI form. They told me I had to get an official change of name form from a solicitor and the cheapest way was to so a statutory declaration. The next day I left work early and while still dressed as a girl I went to a solicitor's in town and asked to do a stat dec. It cost me a fiver I think and involved a solicitor doing a quick paperwork plus me actually stating that my new name would be Charlotte instead of Charlie and I wanted it registered as female.

I went to the local tax office and local employment exchange and explained what I thought they wanted to hear and showed them the legal name change, they didn't bat an eyelid and promised to do the changes for me as quick as they could, all they wanted was for me to submit the original declaration which they photocopied and various forms arrived about a week later. I was officially female for certain parts of government bureaucracy and my boss got my tax and NI details.

Back to my dilemma, Dad was about to enter the shop and it so happened a family followed him in so it would be unlikely he would make a scene of it. I was busy serving one of the regulars only he must have had time on his hands because he wanted to chat. Normally, I didn't mind because it made the day go quicker but today I could see my father bristling behind as he was going to be late for work.

He coughed and the older chap looked around at him in his suit and carrying an unstamped letter, "Want a stamp mate?" he indicated the letter.

"Yes, I do, sorry to interrupt your chat but I'm in a bit of a hurry."

"'Ere, lass serve him next I can wait a moment for my order."

I didn't say anything but look towards him and a loose wave of hair which had escaped my ponytail elastic draped over my face partly obscuring it. "First class stamp, please," requested my dad, "oh, give me a book of four instead," he requested so I took one out of the till and placed it on the counter. He placed a fiver down and I took it and gave him his change. "Thank you," he said and was about to turn and leave when he thanked the old boy in front.

"Pleasure," he replied, "I just like standing here talking to a pretty girl, makes me miss my Doreen less, for a few minutes."

"Quite," said Dad without looking at me and he turned and left, obviously the letter was important and he popped it in the pillar box just outside the shop and was back to the car a moment later. He can't have failed to notice who served him, so I expected another tongue lashing tonight and possibly my mother would get one too for allowing me to pretend to be a girl. A rivulet of sweat ran down by back and under my bra strap. I had survived for the moment.

The old chap waved on the younger woman with two kids to make their purchases, the kids apparently wanted sweets so when they had chosen their favourite tooth-rot and she had selected a Daily Wail, I served them and then tried to look interested for the old boy's story. He went on about his Doreen and I muttered my apologies assuming she had died.

When he challenged me it transpired she had gone on a coach trip for the day to Weston Super-Mare with her bingo club and he was going to have to buy a fish and chips for his lunch. I blushed like mad at my wrongful assumption and I felt another drop of sweat run down my back, perhaps I needed to take my cardigan off? At last he left so I started to try and tidy the shelves a little before any other customers came in or the boss came back. I was still worrying that Dad had noticed me but he gave no sign of it, perhaps me being out of context made him not see me, I didn't know. At least I'd be home well before he was, I was supposed to finish at three today.

I noticed the boss was taking longer than usual at the wholesalers. I couldn't complain he was the boss and if he ran some other errands while he was at it that was his prerogative. It gave me more time to tidy up the shelves, which I did.

A while later Sîan came by and the time simply flew as she talked to me while I tidied the shelves and put out the Echoes for sale in the shop and carried those for the paper rounds to the back of the shop. After a rush of customers Sîan left, I'd hope to go with her but that depended on the return of my boss. He didn't come and at quarter to three I was beginning to think he'd have trouble in marking the Echoes for the paper rounds. Just then the phone rang, I answered it, well, there was no one else. "Hello, Galbraith's Stores, Charlotte speaking how can I help?"

"Hello, Charlotte, look I'm having to wait for a delivery can you hang on until I get there?"

"How long will you be?" I enquired.

"How long is a piece of string, look I'll pay you for your time but can you start doing the Echoes for the kids and their rounds, there's a book on the desk in the office, get John to help when he comes in, he knows most of them."

"Can I ring my mother and say I'll be later, she's expecting me back for dinner?"

"Course you can, Sweetie, I do appreciate it."

There was no one in the shop so I dialled my home number and Mum answered it. "Looks like I'm going to be late and you'll never guess who came in this morning?" I explained it was Dad and he must have seen me but as there were other customers there he didn't say anything. She accepted my warning and told me that if he said anything she help defuse it. I thanked her and took the paper-rounds book off the desk and a pile of Echoes with me from the back of the shop. It would have helped if customers didn't come in the shop while I was trying to mark the papers but they did and they kept disrupting me. When John arrived he told me it was out of his pay grade and until the boss came back I was in charge. I hadn't thought of it like that but I suppose I was.

I was left doing my best but I had several disgruntled paperboys just loitering while I tried to make up their rounds. It was nearly five before I finished and even then they didn't thank me, just grumbled because my slowness kept them waiting. I learned as a woman I was always going to lose the argument with men over timekeeping because they are much more time oriented.

Galbraith arrived at nearly six and he needed me to stay while he unpacked the van. My tummy thought my throat had been cut and I knew my Dad would be home before I was. Finally, he said I could go after he added three more hours to my schedule and he handed me a ten-pound note for my trouble. I ran home removing my distinctive cardi before I went in the house, I walked into the kitchen and threw it in the washing machine, I'd have to find something for tomorrow but at the moment that wasn't my priority.

Mum greeted me and I whispered what I'd done with my woolly and she told me he was in the study and he hadn't said anything about it so far. Both of us were on high alert for nothing, he never did raise the matter and we were both happy to let sleeping shop assistants lie.

The next day with just one more before I finished and Galbraith asked me when I was starting university, I naïvely told him and he asked me to work for another three weeks. I was planning on having a few weeks off before I went to uni but I sold my soul for two fifty an hour and three pounds fifty when I worked longer. It meant I could save another fifty or hundred pounds before I went off to uni and that meant I could buy a dress or something for when I did. So, all in all, it could have been much worse.