Chapters (10)

2.

Several years later. A hat makers.

JOAN and TODD. are sitting at a workbench. They have each just started making a hat.

TODD		There’s plenty of blue.
JOAN		I think I’m starting with black.
TODD		Colour always wins.
JOAN		I will have colour, I’m starting with black to set the colour off.
TODD		I did one last week that was an abstract picture of the street, blue for the buses, yellow for the flats, red for the leaves, grey for the sky. Nobody got it but I knew what it was. There’s little satisfactions to be had.
JOAN		Don’t you enjoy it?
TODD		You’re new aren’t you?
JOAN		This is my first hat. My first professional hat.
TODD		Did you do hat at college?
JOAN		My degree hat was a giraffe six feet tall.
TODD		You won’t have time to do something like that in the week.
JOAN		I know.
TODD		We used to get two weeks before a parade and then they took it down to one and now they’re talking about cutting a day.
JOAN		So we’d get an extra day off?
TODD		We’d get a day’s less money. We wouldn’t make such good hats.
JOAN		Can they do that?
TODD		You’d oppose it would you?
JOAN		I’ve only just started.
TODD		You’ll find there’s a lot wrong with this place.
JOAN		I thought it was one of the best jobs.
TODD		It is. Do you know where to go for lunch?
JOAN		I think there’s a canteen isn’t there?
TODD		Yes but we don’t go there. I’ll show you where to go.

Next day. They are working on the hats, which are by now far more brightly decorated ie the ones they were working on have been replaced by ones nearer completion.