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Show 6 the applications, filling them in as neatly as possible. Lying, of course, on her weight. How she hated that box on the forms! She cut off twenty pounds, entering herself at one-sixty, that would be safe enough. But she did not lie on her age, afraid that would come out. She didn't have any luck at the first two stores, not even an interview. And the secretary who took her last application-after it had been so painstakingly filled out-glanced at it but a moment, and said flat out that the store didn't employ anyone under eighteen. No one under eighteen. The secretary herself was a middleaged woman- she had never been under eighteen in her life. And thin. With the kind of body which had never carried an extra ounce on it. No one in the center hired anyone under eighteen, either, she said. She had quick, cold eyes-like a bird-a chicken. Sharon stood across the desk from her, trying to think of something to say. "I'll file this," the secretary said, "in the event store policy changes." "Thank you," Sharon tried to keep the disappointment from her voice. "Is there anythnig else?" The secretary glanced with her quick eyes over at her typewriter-she had interrupted a letter to look at the application. Now was her chance. Something should be said. But what? No one under eighteen. Sharon shook her head no, turned and walked out of the office. Just beyond the opened door, out in the deserted hallway, she |