All the Way Home and All the Night Through by Ted Lewis Read Free Book Online Page A

part we were in was partitioned off from the canteen and we were amusing ourselves watching the tentative way new students would round the end of the partition and try not to look embarrassed when they found all the easy chairs occupied and had to retreat into the canteen in ignominy, trying not to slop tea into saucers.
    â€œSized any fruit up yet, then?” I asked.
    â€œCouple of dollies worth keeping in sight.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œWell, one of them’s that Janet, and the other’s that one who was hanging round the mob all summer, you know just on the fringe, never actually talked to any of them, just seemed to be in the Kardomah of the Picadish whenever the mob was there. Always with some tall, blonde dollie.”
    â€œDid I ever see her?”
    â€œI dunno. Must have done, I suppose.”
    â€œWhat’s her name?”
    â€œJenny, I think. Dead cute, she is, you know, all coy smiles when you look at her. Looks like she could be an amusing chickadee.”
    â€œWell, she sounds all right, but I wouldn’t include the other one. I don’t think she’s that much, really.”
    â€œHave you seen her today?”
    â€œYeah, I saw her in the meeting this morning.”
    â€œWhere was she sitting, then?”
    â€œThe other end of the row behind us. All on her own, right at the end. She’s got her hair in a ponytail since that dance.”
    Harry started to laugh.
    â€œWhat’s up with you?”
    â€œWhat was she wearing?” he asked.
    â€œWhat do you mean, what was she wearing? What is this? How should I know what she was wearing?”
    â€œYou notice a lot seeing as how you don’t find her attractive.”
    â€œDon’t be bloody daft. All I was doing was being objective about her. I finished up finding her unattractive. That all right?”
    â€œYes, Victor.”
    â€œHonestly Harry, I don’t reckon she’s anything special.”
    â€œYes, Vic. Anyway,” said Harry, “Here they are now, the two of them together.” Janet and the other girl that Harry fancied had come into the easy chairs part, carrying their cups of tea. There were no chairs for them to sit down in, so they moved to a long, low, table-like piece of furniture which was attached, flush, to the brick wall, below the windows which opened on to street level.
    As they moved across the small space, I noticed how cool and unaffected Janet looked. Not cool in the sense that she had observed coolness in others and had learned the essentials, but just naturally, properly reserved, unwilling to thrust her presence into the spotlight. She moved as a young girl of sixteen or seventeen should move—like a young girl of sixteen or seventeen.
    They sat down together as girls sit down, smoothing their skirts beneath them, heads looking from side to side and to the rear, looking for who knows what kind of interference with their sitting. Harry and I stared at them until they caught our eye, then we carried on drinking our tea.
    â€œThey enjoyed that part,” said Harry.
    â€œWhat part was that?”
    â€œThe part where they saw we were looking at them.”
    â€œYes, it’s pretty exciting for them having us look at them on the first day. Although that Janet looked as though why we were looking would have to be explained to her.”
    â€œNaw. Don’t be soft. She knew all right.”
    â€œDid she, heck.”
    â€œCourse she did. She’s just clever, that’s all. She looks a pretty sensitive and clever bird. She looks as though she’s got things taped all right.”
    â€œI’ve never heard such a lot of balls. She’d run a mile.”
    Harry sniggered and said no more on the subject. Angela came in trying to look like Olivia de Havilland in Rebecca , glancing indifferently at the characters about her. She saw Janet and the other girl and went over to them, all smiles and the gracious lady.
    â€œLook at that.