THE ACCEPTERS

“My poor Lucy.  I’d be in bits if I were her,” Caroline said, “but she’s so stoical.  Every day she goes to the job centre and looks, but there’s nothing for her.”

Paula looked across at her friend sympathetically, “It’s the same with my son.  He spent years studying and now he can’t get work.  He doesn’t complain, he just does everything he’s told, like a robot.  He’s done extra courses, an internship ...”
“Lucy did unpaid work – a contract for a supermarket that only paid her expenses ...”
“Jack did 40 hours a week for that internship and at the end of it, it was ‘see ya’ ...”
“It was the same with Lucy and the supermarket.”
“It’s scandalous!”
“They just accept it though.  When we were young we went on protest marches.”
“Remember the poll tax riots?  We were there, we didn’t break any shop windows mind, but we marched.”
“It felt so good when they changed the law; because of direct action by the people.”
“We’d have been up in arms about zero hours contracts and wages being so low.”
“Absolutely.  Lucy and Jack just accept it though.”
“And if they accept it, we should too.”
Caroline looked at her watch; “It’s time.”
The women left the cafe and crossed the street heading towards a white building, the sign outside it read; “THE ANTI NOSTALGIA PROGRAMME”.
“Good of the Government to do this for free,” Paula said as they walked through the door.
“It’s best if we don’t remember how things used to be.”
The two women hugged and wished each other luck.

Two years later, Jack returned from his zero hours contract cleaning job.  His mother was in the kitchen muttering furiously to herself.  She was trying to get the oven to light, it had been faulty for weeks.  She clicked the ignition then suddenly swore and slammed the door shut, kicking it repeatedly; “Stupid fucking thing!  Stupid fucking thing!” she yelled.

“Mum!” exclaimed Jack, “why are you so angry?”
She turned to him, her face collapsing into tears; “I don’t know Jack, I really don’t know.”