Mr Starlight. Laurie Graham

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       SEVEN

      I didn’t see Hazel again till our last night at sea. After showtime I always went to the Pig and Whistle with the rest of the boys. It was nice to wind down with a cold beer and a game of cards, or a sing-song round the piano, but Hazel didn’t seem to socialise.

      ‘I haven’t had time to draw breath,’ she said, when I did run into her. ‘Pulled threads. Duck grease. You name it, I’ve had it this trip. Coty pancake on the neck of Mrs Vansittart’s beaded silk.’

      I said, ‘You want to be careful, cooped up with cleaning products.’ I told her about Sel’s episode with DabAway.

      She said, ‘I wouldn’t mind having a few visions myself. But I don’t use a lot of chemicals. Guess what I use to lift pancake make-up? A heel of stale bread. Never fails. See, I have to be careful. I can’t have my clients collapsing or going up in flames if somebody lights a stogie near them. Bread. That’s the answer. And a slow gentle rub.’ She brushed a bit of fluff off my shoulder.

      ‘Hello, hello, hello,’ I thought. ‘Cledwyn, your luck is in.’

      The question was where to take her. Last night out was cleanup night below decks so the place never went quiet. We went up on top to where you could have your dog walked by a bellboy. There wasn’t anybody about. She had a smell of soapsuds when I kissed her. It was lovely, after days of Feifer’s onion breath and Wilkie’s socks. I only got as far as unbuttoning her cardie, though.

      ‘That’s enough,’ she said. ‘You’ll be waking the dogs.’

      ‘Funny you’re Welsh,’ I said. ‘I’m hundred per cent Welsh myself.’

      She said, ‘Well, you don’t sound it. You sound Birmingham to me.’

      We got a two-day lay-over in New York.

      I said, ‘Got any plans, after we dock?’

      ‘Sleeping,’ she said.

      I said, ‘We could go dancing.’

      ‘No,’ she said. ‘Perhaps another time. You go and enjoy yourself. There’s nothing like New York, especially the first time. And don’t bother going to bed tonight. The pilot comes aboard about four o’clock. You should bring Sel up here, watch the sun come up over the city.’

      I couldn’t persuade her to stay there with me.

      ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m going to tidy my work table, soak my feet and go to sleep.’

      Playing hard to get.

      So I had to make do with Sel for company. We stood on the starboard side, like Hazel had said, and watched New York appear. First everything glowed red and then it turned pale green, and by the time we were coming into the pier, everything was sparkling in the sunshine. The whole place looked like it was made of glass.

      ‘I’ve arrived, Cled,’ he said. He was looking radiant for a person who wasn’t usually up before dinner time.

      ‘No, Sel,’ I said. ‘We’ve arrived.’

      But the ship’s whistle blew, so he could pretend he hadn’t heard me.

      We’d had a plan of campaign. Test the water with some booking agents, see a few sights, send postcards to Mam and Dilys. And we were going to watch what we spent.

      I said, ‘We should always have something put by for a rainy day.’

      ‘Yes, Cled,’ he said.

      I said, ‘And business before pleasure. We should do the agents first. You got your list?’

      ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘But I’m not settling for any old ten percenter. It’s got to be somebody who can bring in quality venues and a record contract. He’s out there now, Cled, shaving, sipping his coffee. No idea that this is going to be his lucky day.’

      He was only a few places ahead of me in the queue, but by the time I’d drawn my pay he’d disappeared.

      Somebody said they thought he’d gone ashore with Mother Carey. Somebody else said he’d left with a bunch of boiler room boys. He was gone, that was all I knew, and he hadn’t taken his good jacket with him.

      Two of the clarinettists were going off to get one of those big American breakfasts. I said, ‘I don’t know what to do. I suppose СКАЧАТЬ