Chapter 42: A Well-Rounded Education

Primrose

2086

"Have you told your mother?" asked the voice at the other end of the phone line.

"Of course not, Gran," replied Primrose. "What do you think she'd say?"

"She wouldn't be pleased," said Karen to her granddaughter. "But such an innocent name: Empire Cleaning Services. Who would have thought?"

"It's a career," said Primrose.

"What's wrong with teaching, dear? Your mum's a teacher. I was a teacher. Isn't that a career?"

Primrose cast her eyes around Trafalgar Square where she was sitting on a bench. Lord Nelson was gazing down on her. Chinese and Vietnamese tourists were snapping photographs of the grand historic sites. Surrounding the square were bicycle rickshaws and a few hydrogen powered buses. She'd had this conversation with her grandmother so many times before.

"There aren't many opportunities any more, Gran," she said. "No one can afford to send their children to school these days. The fees and everything are too high."

"Whatever happened to free compulsory education?" her grandmother wondered. "What's this country coming to?"

"There aren't the jobs anymore," said Primrose. "There's hardly anything that can't be done by robots or computers. Most office jobs have disappeared. For what jobs there are you don't need a degree to do them."

"Like your job," said Primrose's grandmother bitterly. "All that education your mother's paid for. Do you think you'll ever be able to pay off your student loans?"

"I will now, Gran," said Primrose. "It's good money. And there are some management opportunities as well."

"It just doesn't seem right."

"You never had any objection to having sex with whoever you wanted," said Primrose.

"No one's ever paid me for it, dear. And I'm too old now to have more than the one man in my life. If it wasn't for the wonders of modern medicine, I wouldn't be able to have sex at all any longer. I'd just be an old spinster watching TV all day."

"You don't do doing badly, Gran," said Primrose. "You're not going to tell Mum, are you?"

"I don't betray confidences, dear. Why is it you can tell me all this and not your mother?"

"I guess because she's my Mum."

"Fair enough."

Primrose continued her chat while she also enjoyed the warmth from the spring sun on her bare arms and watched a gang of town pigeons that were pecking the ground about her feet. Rats and mice scurried about amongst the crumbs that tourists had scattered to feed the pigeons. They were much bolder than Primrose remembered them being when she was a child, but nowadays there was a lot more rubbish blowing about the streets since the council could no longer afford to employ street-cleaners. Most of Central London was filthy and shabby and only the attractions that wealthy tourists frequented were in anything resembling a good condition. In any case, such places were far too expensive for people like Primrose. Only tourists and the wealthy could afford to visit museums, art galleries and the privatised London parks, which were ringed in by barbed wire, surveillance cameras and scurrying security robots.

Primrose bid her grandmother goodbye and scrolled through the display on her tablet. She idly perused her list of engagements for the rest of the day. She felt better for having spoken to her grandmother about her job. She didn't expect to be commended for it and it wasn't what she'd have chosen if there'd been much choice, but Empire Cleaning Services did offer reasonable prospects for a well-educated, presentable woman with an attractive body and an appetite for sexual adventure. There might be some clients whose needs and requirements Primrose had no intention of ever satisfying, but she didn't worry about them. The type of women who would agree to address such clients' expectations tended to be illegal immigrants and asylum seekers of which there was absolutely no shortage these days. She also had little intention of pursuing this career for very long. This was a young person's occupation, but it was one which would enable her to pay off her loans and help gather together the capital to invest in other more respectable business ventures.

It was a month now since Primrose began working for Empire Cleaning Services. It was one of a number of similar businesses throughout England, though she was told that her employer was at the service of the more prestigious and exclusive client. She'd been lucky to get through to the second interview. Such was the competition for available positions that a university education was almost essential. This was a contrast to even a decade or so earlier when such a business would more or less have to employ whoever it could find. Lesser candidates would have to work for rather less estimable escort agencies.

The interview required Primrose to demonstrate her suitability for the work she was expected to do and not surprisingly this was what she'd been most nervous about. It wasn't exactly something she could revise for. She understood from the friends who'd recommended her the company that prostitution was something you either had a talent for or didn't. Primrose had had a good number of lovers over the years for which, like her grandmother, she had not once expected to be remunerated, but she was sure that her sexual boldness would put her in good stead. She'd had a wide range of lovers of both sexes in several combinations at the same time and all her orifices had been tested many times.

No, she was able to say in her interview, she wasn't troubled by the fact that the majority of clients were middle-aged or older. Yes, she would be willing to work with one or more other employees if that was what the client requested. No, she didn't object to mild spanking, choking or bondage. Yes, she would consider satisfying some of the clients' more peculiar fetishes. And yes, there were limits to how rough and how abusive a client could be with her. Was that a problem?

"Not at all," said Katrina Haussmann, the German woman on the interviewing panel who'd introduced herself as a dominatrix. "There are several employees willing to go the extra mile, but few are quite as good-looking and well-educated as you."

Primrose now knew that for sure, though she could hardly be described as a veteran after having only worked in her new job for just over a fortnight. Several women employed by Empire Cleaning Services were obviously not employed for their youth or good looks. Most of these were immigrants of one kind or another who feared the very real threat of deportation. Many now came from the Holy Land from which there still came a steady stream of evacuees. There were many Arabs, several Indians, a few Africans and many from the irradiated Republic of Israel.