The unopened shop

Source: an original fiction extract.

“For six weeks, the new shop had displayed a sign saying OPENING SOON. Every morning, Farah passed it on her way to the bakery and looked through the gap in the paper covering the window. At first she saw ladders. Then shelves. Then nothing changed for several days. On Monday, a second sign appeared beneath the first: STAFF WANTED. Farah stopped so abruptly that a man behind her nearly walked into her bag.

She had been looking for work since July. At home, application forms lived in a folder beneath the television remote, close enough to be useful and easy enough to cover. The shop was five minutes from her flat. She pictured walking there in the morning with a key, knowing where to put her coat. By the time she reached the bakery, she had imagined three different versions of the interview.

At lunchtime she returned with a printed CV. The door was unlocked. Inside, a man was sitting on an upturned crate, staring at a burst pipe near the sink. Water had darkened the new floorboards. Farah held out the envelope, then lowered it. The man said the opening would have to be delayed. He looked past her at the hopeful sign in the window. She asked where the stopcock was. He said he did not know.

The plumber arrived twenty minutes later. Farah had stayed to move cardboard boxes away from the wet floor. She had not stopped the leak; she had found the emergency contact on a notice beside the back door and helped clear the room. The owner thanked her, then said he could not promise a job. Farah felt her face become hot. 'I know,' she said, more sharply than she intended. She put the CV on the dry end of the counter.

On Tuesday, OPENING SOON was still in the window. The staff notice had been taken down while the wall behind it dried. Farah passed without looking through the gap. At the bakery, her phone rang. It was not the shop owner. She answered another employer's questions, asked about the hours and wrote the details on the back of a receipt. On the way home, she bought a new folder large enough for more than one possibility.”

Consider the whole source. Analyse how the writer structures the text to create a movement from a single imagined future towards wider possibilities. You could consider the opening focus, changes in focus or pace, the order in which information is revealed and the ending. Support your explanation with references to the source.