Free All the Way Home and All the Night Through by Ted Lewis Page B

her soft smelling hair. I bit lightly on the lobe of her ear. Her being swelled toward me.
    The door opened once again and Angela entered in all her glory, accompanied by one of her Ted-girl friends. She moved down the aisle of tables, looked at Karen and me (one for me and one for Karen then back to me), and sat down non-committedly with Matthew’s group. Shrieks arose from their table and they were off.
    Hilary and Gwen and their non-college girlfriends arrived. None of them looked at me. They, too, joined Matthew by drawing up another table.
    I had done a stupid thing the previous evening. During the interval at the Steam Packet, I had concluded that the girl situation wasn’t up to much. So I went and sat next to Hilary. And talked to her. So afterward, we got into the trumpet-player’s car and went off to the pub that Harry’s folks ran. Just the band and a few other girls. We stayed till about one o’clock, drinking and playing darts with Harry’s parents. Then I took Hilary off to my place, which was just up the road. She was in bed with me until half-past two. I had had to shoot a line to persuade her there. Give her hope. Afterward, I got her a taxi. Before she got in, I had made some vague promises. Then, this afternoon I had seen her in a café in town. Harry and I got as far as the door without being seen. I had looked back to see her pained face staring in my direction. We had then fled. So now here she was. I wondered what would happen.
    At the dance. No signs of Janet. Karen being happily proprietary round my piano. The hand stomping along, sweatily. Dim lights, a mass of breathing, steaming dancers filling the college hall. Shouts to and fro between the band and friends, and only nine o’clock.
    The band was set up on the floor, not on the stage, so it was easy for people to lean on the piano and talk to the rhythm section. The feeling between band and audience was intimate. I caught sight of Janet while we were playing “In a Persian Market”. She was standing at the back of the hall, looking in the direction of the band. She was with a girl I had never seen before. She saw I was looking at her. Her friend saw it, too. She said something to Janet. I thought she nodded, but I was too far away to tell. Karen was leaning against the piano. I looked up at her and smiled. We finished the number. I looked over to where Janet had been standing. She wasn’t there. Karen had gone, probably to the ladies. The front line were reclining in their chairs, dabbing the sweat from themselves. I turned back to the keyboard and lit a cigarette. Janet and her friend rounded the corner of the piano. Janet walked with her arms gently folded.
    â€œHello,” she said.
    â€œHello,” I said.
    She looked at the keyboard.
    â€œHow are you enjoying it?” I said.
    â€œIt’s quite good.”
    â€œWhat do you think of the band?”
    â€œYou all seem very good. You seem to enjoy yourselves.”
    My pulse was going in leaps and bounds. My chest felt as though it was turning inside out. No one said anything. She seemed to stand there forever without anybody saying anything. She looked like no one else I had ever seen. I sensed the slight perfume drifting from her cool flared dress, a dress so utterly feminine that it made me feel good just to be near it. She still had her arms folded. A soft woolen cardigan hung down from her shoulders, its empty arms swinging quietly at her sides. Don began announcing the next number and Karen returned. Janet and friend moved quietly away. A great shriek rose from somewhere on the other side of the band. I turned round to see what was going on.
    â€œI want Victor, Victor, Victor .”
    The last word ascended to the roof at screaming pitch. Hilary, sod me. Tears streamed down her face. Gwen was gripping her by the shoulders.
    â€œShut up, Hilary. Shurrup!”
    Hilary wailed again. She was very drunk. Her blouse had come half out