Free Nurse Jess by Joyce Dingwell Page B

entails love, and love is as old as the hills. ” Margaret hesitated, then, “ And I believe I possess that. ”
    ... And I believe you do, too, Ba was thinking. He took his eyes off the instrument panel a brief moment to look at her eyes. They were soft and gentle and brown. He liked this sweet quiet girl.
    “ What time do we get to Crescent? ” she asked. He shrugged. “ Hours earlier than my dad did it, days sooner than my grandfather, but later, I fear, than the Tourist Bureau will make the trip. ” His tone was sarcastic. “ Their craft, also, being a sea-plane, will land right in front of the pub, which will be a tremendous attraction to the guests. This poor old bus has to take you to the little air-strip on the other side of Lopi. ”
    Margaret put in eagerly, “ Jessa ’ s beloved volcano. ”
    Ba nodded. “ You take the Station waggon then into the town. ”
    “ How much of a town? ”
    “ One store, one mission, one copra-drying yard, one bamboo factory for wicker furniture and the Jessamine Hotel. Oh, and a jetty. There must always be a jetty. ”
    “ I think it sounds lovely. ”
    Barry said offhandedly but proudly, “ It is. ”
    Margaret looked down beneath them on the diamond clarity of a Pacific morning. Sydney had looked like a goblin landscape in comparison with this vast seascape of endless blue.
    She glanced over her shoulder, reluctant to leave here, feeling perhaps she should support Jessa who had taken upon herself the duty of tea.
    “ You don ’ t have to go, ” said Barry a little gruffly. That is ” —awkwardly— ” if you ’ d like to stop. ”
    “ Oh, I would. It ’ s beautiful, it ’ s magic. ”
    Ba waved an arm to a stool. “ Sit down, ” he said.
    * * *
    Tommy Swinson was returning from boarding school for his holidays. His nose was in a comic. He was a lugubrious boy and showed no more emotion at returning home than going to school. The only difference, thought Jessa watching him over the flame of the spirit stove in the minute galley, was that he swotted history coming and read Funny Cuts going. Assuming, being a boy, he preferred Funny Cuts to history, she gave him the benefit now of being pleased to be coming back.
    The missionary ’ s wife with her latest baby was the only other passenger. She had been thrilled to know she would have two nurses with her. “ It ’ s like a royal escort, ” she beamed.
    “ King Baby should have a royal escort, ” Jessa had declared.
    She now slipped two biscuits beside Mrs. Flett ’ s tea and took it along to her. The baby slept in the Moses basket in the gangway. Jessa edged carefully round it when she took two cups out for Margaret and Ba. She opened pop for Tommy, poured her own cup of tea and went to sit beside the mother.
    “ Did you want a boy, Mrs. Flett? ”
    “ I just wanted a picani n ny, ” smiled back the mother. She, too, looked down on the blue water, the occasional coral atoll with its fringe of white sand and reef with foam breaking over it. She said, “ It ’ s good to be coming home. ”
    Jessa had the same feeling some hours later, as, ten minutes ’ flying time from Crescent Island, the Lockheed began to lose height in a series of planned small falls.
    She knew Ba ’ s landing procedure now by heart. She knew that within thirty minutes she would be home.
    She saw the earth clothed in trees, rocks and umbrella palms coming up to meet them.
    She rose automatically to do the things she always did for Ba, folding rugs, putting away magazines, taking down hand luggage. Tommy Swinson ’ s nose still did not move out of the comic.
    “ Tom, we ’ re there, ” she called indignantly.
    “ Where? ”
    Jessa ’ s eyes met Mrs. Flett ’ s despairingly. The missionary ’ s wife glanced proudly at her son as though to say, “ This one will grow up a different sort of picaninny. ”
    The Lockheed rose a little, banked delicately, the wings tilted, the wheels touched down.
    Benjamin was sitting proudly in