After a week at Mrs Chapman’s store, I felt I belonged there. I did everything Mrs Chapman expected me to do and even more. She was grateful for anything I did, especially things she hadn’t asked me to do, for example cleaning the windows. Once my mum asked me jokingly, “Couldn’t you do the same in your bedroom, Jane?” I didn’t tell her that Mrs Chapman gave me a few pounds more whenever I did something on my own initiative. I was afraid my mum was going to think she should also give me money for doing the housework. This certainly wasn’t what I wanted. The truth was that I needed the money to buy her a surprise gift.

adapted from Red Sky in the Morning by Elizabeth Laird