I arrived at the place I’d been told about. They all stopped for a moment and just looked at me, and then quickly looked away. They didn’t want to have to explain to the new kid on the block how things worked around here.

No one made any eye contact, so I just stood there dumbly for a while, put my stuff down and assessed what my next move should be. I decided to just sit quietly and not draw any attention to myself, like they were all doing. They’d all been new here once, but now they knew the pecking order and who had gotten there first.

I’m not sure how much time had passed since I’d first arrived, but someone else came. We all looked at her, and then looked away, just as they’d done when I 'd arrived except that I was one of them now. I now knew the pecking order; I knew the rules of service and how things worked around here. I wasn’t going to explain how it worked to the new girl, I’d had to find my own feet and so should she. It would do her good.

How long will I be trapped in this place for? Until they fix my problems, I suppose. Just being here was punishment enough without having to explain to my family where I’d been all this time.  I guess I was never going to meet my friend as we’d arranged before. Before I'd ended up here that is.

The woman in the uniform looked up at me and signalled for me to approach. I gathered up my belongings and made the intimidating walk to the front of the group where I was going to plead my case to her. They could all hear what I was saying and were probably snickering behind me. I didn’t care, they weren’t my friends. I owed them nothing.

I told her my story and how I’d only been here about a month ago, but I’d been forced to come back. She rolled her eyes and then started on my paper work. The only sound now was the click, click, clicking of the keys on the keyboard she was seated behind. The metal bench I was sitting on dug uncomfortably into my spine - a timely reminder of just how long it would be until I sat on a couch or something more human again.

The woman looked at me over the top of her glasses and handed me a form, indicating she wanted me to sign at the bottom next to my name. It was a list of all the property they’d taken from me.

“So um, your phone should be fixed and ready to be picked up in 2 days time, ma’m” she said.
“And sorry to have kept you waiting so long too, we’ve got a lot of people to get through today as you can see!”  she chirped.

I practically skipped back to the door, passing all the other poor sods who'd arrived after me and were still waiting their turn. They almost snarled at me with jealousy as they were still trapped whereas I'd finally freed myself of the Nokia customer care centre.

I’m hoping that I will be forever free of that prison, and that they finally manage to fix my bloody mobile phone this time too!