The Shadow of War by Jack Murray (latest ebook reader txt) 📗

of something else. Another type of life. Heglanced at Tom. Their eyes met and they smiled.

‘Bit different from LittleGloston,’ said Tom.

‘Just a bit,’ agreed Danny.‘C’mon, let’s go.’

They strolled along the highstreet, saluting back to people who saluted them. Children seemed to befascinated by soldiers and they stopped time and time again to speak to star-struckyoungsters. By now the boys had worked out that many had older sisters and theymade extra efforts with the boys who were accompanied by young women.

‘Look at this’ said Danny,pointing to a photographer’s shop, “Arnott’s Photographs”. ‘Do you fancygetting a team photograph?’

The boys looked at one anotherand then Carruthers said, ‘Well I’m game.’ That appeared to swing the doubtersand moments later they were climbing a narrow staircase to a small studio.Danny knocked on the door and they all trooped in. The photographer in questionwas a young woman,in her mid-twenties.

‘Hello,’ she said introducingherself, ‘I’m Lucy Arnott. What can I do for you?’

Politeness constrained a moretruthful answer from the boys.

‘We’d like a team photograph,please,’ said Danny, ‘And individual ones. Then if you can send prints to ourhome addresses, please.’

‘Certainly,’ said Lucy, leadingthe men to a studio behind the counter. The studio was small, but they wereable to line up in two rows before a plain grey backdrop. Lucy apologised forthe basic set up.

‘There’s a war on.’

For the next ten minutes Lucytook photographs of the boys. It would have taken less time, but the amount ofjesting interrupted the poses. At one point, Lucy threatened to insist they allstayed out of the studio while the individual shots were being taken. The behaviourimproved.

The session completed, theyleft the studio and returned to the high street.

‘She was all right,’ commentedArthur.

This brought a predictably ribaldresponse as, to a man, the others pointed out his marital status.

‘Can still look, can’t I?’pointed out Arthur. ‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘When you reach the elevated stateof happiness that me and the missus have...’ The rest was left unsaid as therest of boys began to hurl abuse in Arthur’s direction. He concluded, ‘I wasjust saying she’s a nice girl. You lot could do worse, and knowing you, probablywill.’

-

‘I’m not sure I want to goback,’ announced Tom when they found a pub that wasn’t already packed with boysfrom the barracks they had left. The girls, the sun, the feeling of freedom were in stark contrast to the monotony oflife in the barracks. Like Danny, he recognised how limited his life had beenthus far. The presence of so many attractive young women also made him thinkabout his own Rosie. She was his first and only sweetheart. It was the way ofthings in the village. They were engaged and talking of marriage before heleft. Now, he was not so sure.

He watched Danny make his wayto the bar. It was fairly crowded, and Danny had to wait a few minutes to beserved. This was unusual in his experience. So different to the village. He orderedhalf pints of bitter all round. Helped by Bert, he brought the drinks outside,where the group had stationed themselves to have a better view of the girls. Theyoung women in the town were on their parade ground. Conversation was muted asthey drank the freedom down in huge gulps.

‘How long have you old men beenmarried, anyway,’ asked Danny after a while.

Carruthers raised his eyebrowand looked at Danny in mock seriousness. Then he admitted, ‘Fourteen years now,no, fifteen in July.’

‘What about you Arthur?’ askedHugh.

‘You won’t laugh?’ askedArthur. He was met by the inevitable response, which started him off too. ‘seventeenyears, next year.’

‘Bloody hell,’ said Danny, ‘Youmust have married late.’

‘Get out of it,’ laughedArthur, smacking Danny on the arm.

Then he heard it again. Thatsong. Al Bowlly was singing ‘The Very Thought of You.’

Arthur noticed the change inDanny’s features as they all listened. He nudged Tom in the ribs and his brow furrowed in a question. Tomshrugged, bemused. Soon the others were singing along. As the song drew to aclose, they all surrounded Danny and crooned the words to him, laughing as theydid so.

As the evening wore on, thenumber of the group diminished in search of dancing and female companions. Theremaining boyswere Danny, Bob, Carruthers and Arthur. All were in a jolly mood bolstered byhalf pints of cheerfulness. The sing-song in the pub was in full cry as thepianist and singer led the crowd in ‘If You Were the Only Girl in the World.’

Closing time saw the boys troopback towards the bus stop. When they reached it, they saw a hundred otherrecruits waiting for a bus that would barely take fifty.

‘Bloody hell,’ said Danny,giving voice to everyone’s thoughts. ‘How far is it to Caterham?’

‘Thirty miles at least,’ saidArthur, with his heart sinking.

‘This is ridiculous,’ said Carruthers.‘Why on earth don’t the army have something organised?’

‘Army? Organised?’ repliedArthur. ‘Where have you been for the last two months?’

As he said this, a lorry camepast, and then stopped suddenly. Sitting in the front passenger seat was Tom,grinning broadly.

‘Hello boys, bit of walk by thelooks of things,’ he shouted. ‘You’d better get in.’

Danny noticed that there was ayoung woman sitting between Tom and an older man, who was driving. It was Lucy,the photographer they’d met earlier. He gave Tom the thumbs up and he ranaround to the back and hopped on with the other lads. Inside the back of thevan were the two Gissing brothers. Both looked like they’d had such a great eveningthey would bitterly regret it the next morning. Bert was semi-conscious; Hughout for the count.

When they arrived back at thecamp, they carried the Gissing boys into the barracks and undressed them. Alongthe way Tom related how their night had gone.

‘We met up with three girlsleaving the park. They were heading into the town to a dance. We asked where itwas taking place and they suggested we join them. It suited them because theywere getting a bit tired of fending off some of our lot. They said we were morepolite. Have to thank Bert for that. He remembered to take off his cap when wemet them.’

Danny knocked Tom’s cap off ashe said this.

‘Anyway, the dance was at