Free The Other Side of Paradise by Margaret Mayhew Page B

wiping away her tears, and there’d be a gruff father standing behind her, hiding his emotion. Both so proud of their returning soldier son.
    ‘They don’t fuss, thank goodness,’ Roger was saying. ‘The trouble is I’m an only child, which makes it a bit tricky. Bit of a burden sometimes – being the one egg in the basket.’
    ‘I am, too,’ she pointed out.
    ‘Different for a girl. You don’t get sent off to war like us chaps.’
    She looked at his nice, eager face. ‘How old are you, Roger?’
    ‘I was twenty last month, actually.’
    ‘Well I hope you’ll be home in time for your twenty-first.’
    ‘So do I. Looks like we’ll be going across on to the mainland at any moment, though, so it doesn’t seem too likely. I’m not supposed to mention that, of course.’
    Later on, he asked if she would mind awfully going out with him again. It would be absolutely marvellous if she would, he said. She could see that he was badly smitten, which was a nuisance because she didn’t want to hurt him.
    She dodged the issue. ‘But you said you’d probably be leaving the island soon. You’ll be away on the peninsula.’
    He sighed. ‘That’s true. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.’
    Milly was standing on the steps at the entrance to the Tanglin Club, looking worried.
    ‘Geoff and Vin aren’t here yet, Susie. They must have got held up at the hospital.’
    They sat down in the hall and watched people coming and going. Milly kept jumping up to go and see if the Australians had arrived and Susan was just beginning to hope they never would, when she reappeared arm in arm with Geoff who had brought along, not the expected Vin but the one called Ray: Mr Know-All himself.
    ‘I’m really sorry,’ Milly whispered as they walked over to the courts. ‘Vin had to go on duty. But Geoff says Ray’s a good player so you’ll probably win.’
    They won easily because he turned out to be an
extremely
good player and because Milly was pretty hopeless. He had a serve like a cannonball and a forehand to match but he didn’t poach like Clive, or shout ‘mine’ when it wasn’t. Afterwards they cooled off with drinks beside the pool and she felt inclined to be gracious towards him.
    ‘Do you play a lot of tennis in Australia?’
    ‘A fair amount. We’ve got the climate for it.’
    ‘You’re rather good.’
    ‘You’re not so bad yourself, Miss Roper.’
    It was the first compliment he’d paid – if you could call it one.
    ‘Thank you.’
    ‘And this is a nice club.’
    ‘Yes, it is, isn’t it?’
    ‘Very English.’
    ‘It would be. It’s run by them.’
    ‘No Asians allowed?’
    ‘Not as members. Only as guests.’
    ‘Don’t you find that a mite odd?’
    ‘What’s odd about it?’
    ‘Not letting the natives in. It’s their country, after all.’
    ‘They have their own clubs, actually. They prefer it that way.’
    ‘Can’t say I blame them, with the welcome they’d get here.’ He was observing her from behind his dark glasses. ‘How’s the secretarial course going?’
    ‘All right.’
    ‘You don’t sound too thrilled.’
    ‘It’s hard to be thrilled by a typewriter and squiggles in a notebook.’
    ‘Do something else, then.’
    ‘You’ve already suggested that I go and drive ambulances.’
    ‘It was a good idea of mine. You can drive, can’t you? That’s what you said.’
    ‘I can drive a car.’
    ‘Then you could drive an ambulance. And you’ve plenty of spare time.’
    ‘But why would I want to?’
    ‘To do something useful for a change.’
    ‘Learning shorthand and typing
is
useful.’
    ‘I bet you’re lousy at it. You’ll be no help to the war effort.’
    Milly said loyally, ‘She helps already. She’s a Buy a Bomber girl.’
    ‘A what?’
    ‘A Buy a Bomber girl. They sell programmes whenever there are special performances of the latest films at the Cathay cinema. Everyone wears evening dress and all the money from the programmes goes towards buying bombers.