Watching. Jeff Edwards

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СКАЧАТЬ Yes,’ said Jade, extracting the small envelope. She smiled as she read the message. ‘It’s from Walter Groom. He’s welcoming us, and wanting to know if he can take us to supper this evening.’

      ‘Both of us? Where are my flowers!’

      Jade laughed. ‘He probably meant them for both of us. Will we go?’

      ‘A handsome man ... or Mrs Petri. Not much of a choice. We won’t get much chance to eat out when university starts. Let’s go.’

      Walter’s romancing of Jade began slowly. He had no intention of scaring her off, by being too forward.

      Rani was invited along on their outings, to act as friend and chaperone. However, as soon as university began, Rani was no longer able to afford the time for a social life. Granted her dream, she threw herself wholeheartedly into her studies. The years of private study she had undertaken at Wilton, had placed her in an advantageous position, but she was determined to remain at the head of her class, no matter what.

      For her own part, Jade was in a unique position. A university education, for her, was merely a whim. She had no financial need to either study or find employment. Consequently, Jade selected for herself a lighter burden of studies. She chose an accountancy course as her most taxing. Jade was as clever as Rani, but was more focused on the classical things in life, rather than the practical.

      She loved the course in Classical Art, and promised herself to pursue more courses in this direction, in the following years.

      For their first outing, Walter had taken the girls to the cinema, where he was delighted to seat himself between the two women, attracting jealous looks from the surrounding males.

      Afterwards, he took them to supper at a small Italian restaurant where he appeared to be known. The staff were very friendly and assisted the girls when, for the first time, they attempted to eat spaghetti. They had been fed nothing but plain, English food at the college, and found themselves at a complete loss in trying to capture the slippery noodles. It didn’t help that they were laughing so much that whenever they did manage to secure some food on their forks, it fell straight back off again.

      Following their uproarious dinner, Walter walked them toward the Thames, showing them the sights, and entertaining them with colourful anecdotes regarding the places they were passing.

      Slowly, the character of their surroundings changed, as they approached the working area of the city, not far from the busy docks. The buildings became a lot older, and shabbier, with less lighting, giving the entire area a dismal feeling, and they could now smell the river itself.

      Jade glanced at Walter, but he appeared oblivious to the changes around them, and seemed to be quite at home.

      Rani noticed not only the buildings becoming shabbier, but also the people. Women with hard faces, coloured with garish makeup, wandered listlessly. Their eyes followed the trio up the street, assessing their new clothes, and wealthy appearance.

      ‘Not far now,’ Walter assured them.

      ‘Where are we going?’ asked Jade.

      ‘The Golden Stag,’ smiled Walter. ‘It’s one of the few pubs that are still open at this time of night. You’ll love it. It has loads of atmosphere.’

      They turned a corner, and Walter led them toward the lights at the end of the block, where the sound of jazz music filled the air. As they strode toward the music, Jade noted that the number of women lounging against walls and streetlights, had grown.

      ‘They’re prostitutes, aren’t they?’ Jade whispered to Walter.

      ‘Nah! We’re the Queen of bloody England and her hand maidens, you stupid bitch!’ Snarled one of women, her companions laughing as Rani and Jade moved closer to Walter.

      ‘Now, now ladies. Be nice,’ called Walter to the lounging women.

      On entering the Golden Stag, Jade found that the ‘atmosphere’ Walter had spoken of, consisted mainly of cigarette smoke. Thick clouds of it formed a fog that they had to make their way through, to get to one of the few empty tables. Jade noticed that it was located near a dark, narrow passage that led to the toilets, and on the opposite side of the room to the small stage. A jazz combo occupied the stage, and it looked as though the number of people vying for space to play their instruments would cause the stage to collapse at any minute.

      After seating the girls, Walter made his way to the bar, leaving Rani and Jade to survey their surroundings.

      They found that the smoke helped to disguise the shabbiness of the place. Scarred furniture attested to the many fights that had taken place, while the table surface itself had been used by bored drinkers as a place to make their mark on the world, in the form of gouged messages, and initials.

      The inmates of the room seemed to be a continuation of those found on the street outside, however, as Jade looked more closely, she noted that there were several tables occupied by well-dressed couples.

      Walter returned with three glasses of ale. ‘No champagne in this fine establishment, I’m afraid.’ He laughed, placing the drinks before them. ‘Drink up.’

      Rani and Jade, lifted their glasses, and sipped at the frothy head. The yeasty taste was nothing like the bubbly sweetness of the champagne they had drunk earlier that evening. Both turned up their noses, and grimaced as they looked at one another.

      ‘Now, now. Don’t be a snob. Give it a chance,’ chided Walter.

      Jade placed the glass down before her, determined not to have another drop. Rani followed suit.

      To divert Walter, she waved at the room, and asked, ‘So, what sort of place is this?’

      Walter took a deep drink from his glass, and licked the froth from his top lip. ‘Like I said; it’s one of the few pubs still open this late at night. It has great music, and I like to come down here to watch the world go by. You get a wide variety of people here. For instance,’ he said pointing to a couple in a far corner, ‘over there, you have a well-known couple. He’s a film star in ‘B’ grade movies, and she’s a well-known author, while sitting next to them is a heavily made-up young man in a silver gown.’

      ‘I thought that was a woman!’ exclaimed Jade.

      ‘No, that’s Barry. I went to school with him,’ said Walter, waving to the gowned figure, who returned Walter’s salute with a cheery wave of his own.

      ‘Truth be told, it was Barry that actually told me about this place. He loves his jazz.’

      Shocked, the girls examined the occupants of the pub more closely. True, most of the drinkers appeared to be from the local area, but those that weren’t were very well-dressed, as though they had come from the theatre or more lavish parties.

      ‘One of these days, the poor working girls won’t be welcome in here anymore. It’ll be completely taken over by the city’s snobbery, but, until that happens, I’ll come here to watch and learn.’

      Just then, one of the streetwalkers entered. Crossing the room, she made her way to a table nearby, where a handful of crumpled notes was passed to one of its male occupants. Without looking, he thrust the notes into his coat pocket, returning immediately to his drink, ignoring the woman completely. With a vacant expression, she shrugged her shoulders, and returned to the streets СКАЧАТЬ