Lucky Star (standard:romance, 4014 words)
Author: zepboy6	Added: Jul 29 2011	Views/Reads: 2747/1980	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A binman is asked to assist in the production of a film featuring refuse collection. To his surprise he ends up in the film. Other surprises follow. The story is written in the form of an interview with flashbacks.

Interviewer: I'm talking with the star and co-star of Karen Carragher's
‘Dirty Work', her first film since she finished the seven film series 
of ‘Scholarship Girl'. Karen is also co-producer on this new project. 
So, I hear you two met before the film was even properly scripted? 

Karen Carragher: Yes, that's right. I was doing some research into waste
collection and I came across a blog on the net by Dave. It was very 
articulate and thought-provoking with a lot of insight into the job he 
was doing. When I read his profile and found out that he had been doing 
the same job... 

Dave Gerrard: Or variations of the same job! 

KC: Yes. Doing the same job for over twenty years, I thought maybe he
would be able to provide me with the depth I needed for the role I was 
going to play. 

Interviewer: The young woman determined to succeed in a job dominated by
men? 

DG: I'd just like to point out that women aren't discriminated against;
they just don't like the job. Probably the smell, or thought of it, 
puts them off. That's only my opinion though, don't take it as gospel. 

I wasn't sure what to say when I was told by my supervisor that some
film people wanted to come and pick my brain about my job. It was just 
my job, and although I thought about it a fair bit and even put those 
thoughts into a blog I'd started, that's all it was. I didn't consider 
myself the fount of all knowledge regarding waste collection. In any 
case, I agreed and was pleasantly surprised when the only person that 
turned up on the appointed day was Karen Carragher, the film star. I'd 
watched her grow up throughout her films in the ‘Scholarship Girl' 
series, we all had. From a cute ten year old to a highly attractive 
twenty year old, all under the eyes of the world. I was almost 
expecting her to be aloof, just going through the motions, but I was 
wrong. She wanted to learn about what life was like collecting people's 
rubbish. The first day she just sat in my RCV with me as I drove around 
and asked questions: about the attitude of the public, about the 
attitude of other bin men to women who worked on the collections. Just 
background stuff really. She made copious notes and I was expecting 
more of the same on her second day with us. Karen however asked if I 
could show her how we worked, she wanted to load bins. To help her out 
I ceded my driving seat to my second driver and worked the lifts with 
her for the day. I explained how to load a bin and tried to explain how 
to load two bins at the same time. 

“You just line them up.” 

“But how? Not everyone can do it, I can see that.” 

“I can only tell you how I think I do it. It's been so long since I
started I can't remember exactly what process I used in the beginning.” 


“Okay, go on.” 

“All right. I line up the right hand bin so that the right hand corner
is up against the right edge of the lift and then the left hand bin 
should be about the width of a fist away from it. If everything is 
correct, when you tip them forwards they should both go up together.” 

“Sounds simple.” 

“Well, to me it is, but I've had a hell of a lot of practice.” I smiled.
“Not so much these days though, as my loaders will tell you.” I watched 
as she painstakingly tried to follow my advice. To her joy and my 
surprise it worked first time, and then second time. In fact it was 
nearly ten minutes before she failed to get two on at once, 
overconfidence finally striking. 

Karen was wonderful to work with. She didn't moan once in the three days
she worked with me, even when it rained on the third day, soaking all 
of us. I'd shrugged and said that was something we all got used to, 
even if we didn't like it. When we finished that day I wasn't expecting 
to hear from her ever again. I thought that meeting her for three days 


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