Read The Girl in the Hard Hat for Free Online

now!’
    Ethel narrowed her eyes. Her mouth curled in a manner that let Wendy know she’d gone too far.
    She waited.
    With painstaking slowness, Ethel put the nail file down, took her feet off the desk and turned to the pigeon holes behind her. She pulled some forms from the boxes and a set of beaten-up looking keys that for some reason were set apart from a pile of others.
    She turned around and slapped all this on the counter. ‘I got the penthouse just for you, honey.’
    Her grin was positively evil. But Wendy shrugged, refusing to buy into such tactics. She grabbed a pen and quickly began filling in her emergency forms. She skipped the television form and took the maps.
    ‘Enjoy.’ Ethel’s smoker’s cackle sounded in her ears as she swiped the keys off the countertop and left.
    She went back to her car first and grabbed the large duffle bag that contained her life. The key was marked B39 and the donga was easy enough to find with the aid of her map. Unfortunately it also kind of stood out from the ones around it.
    There was a sign hanging from the door knob. Out of service .
    Next to the door, the flyscreen from the window had obviously popped out, because it was under it, leaning against the wall. It had a couple of giant holes in it too. So a fat lot of good it would do if it was in anyway.
    For a split second Wendy thought that Ethel must have made a mistake and then realisation dawned on her. Okay, so the woman was more than a bitch. She was the devil incarnate.
    But there was no way in hell she was going back to reception with her tail between her legs to beg for a different room. It couldn’t be that bad, could it?
    It could.
    The door creaked open and she saw an unmade bed with ripped sheets. The donga clearly hadn’t been cleaned since the last occupant had left it. It smelled like feet and stale beer – a dreadful combination. The fridge was open but luckily switched off. There were empty cans spilling out of it and a rather suspicious looking puddle on the floor. She noticed, after further inspection, that there were some glass pieces in the puddle and looked up. The light bulb was not only blown, it was smashed. The leg of her desk was broken and the door of her wardrobe was hanging by one hinge. If she didn’t know any better she’d say a brawl had taken place in there. She left her bags outside and went in to switch on the air conditioner.
    Yep. Broken.
    Great.
    She was on the verge of swallowing her pride and returning to Ethel when she heard someone humming outside. Marching out of the donga she spied a trolley laden with fresh linen and some other cleaning products on the gravel across the way. A donga door a little way down from hers was open. It seemed housekeeping was currently moving through these parts.
    She crossed the gravel path and poked her head into the aluminium box. A small woman in her thirties with a net over her blonde hair was busy making up a bed.
    ‘Hey,’ Wendy said. ‘I’ve just moved into the donga that’s out of service. I was wondering if I could borrow your Spray n’ Wipe.’
    The woman straightened. ‘What? It hasn’t been refurbished yet.’
    Wendy’s mouth twisted. ‘I think Ethel’s refurbishing it with me.’
    The woman grinned. ‘Pissed her off, did you?’
    Wendy chuckled. ‘Must have.’
    ‘Come on then.’ The housekeeper came out of the donga. ‘I’ll help you. I’m sure we can do more than Spray n’ Wipe.’
    She pushed her trolley over to Wendy’s donga and together they cleaned out the bar fridge, closed the door and switched it on, wiped up the spill and a few other stains on the floor and replaced the bedding with good clean linen.
    As they completed the job together, Wendy found out the woman’s name was Alison. She was a recent Wickham local who had taken this part-time job as a means to earn extra money.
    ‘So what about the light bulb, the wardrobe and the desk?’ Alison asked when they were done.
    ‘I won’t use the desk.