Behind the Mirror by Robin Maugham

Author:Robin Maugham
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Valancourt Books
Published: 2016-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

12

The club was an assembly of refurbished Nissen huts with two tennis courts and a garage. When I parked my car beside Bill’s truck it was eleven-thirty, and the dance had started two hours earlier. We walked up the drive toward the main block. Luckily it was not yet raining. I noticed that Bill was fingering the ends of his bow tie. He, too, had now become nervous.

“They haven’t half put on a good show,” he muttered as we turned the corner.

Rows of little Japanese lanterns flickered along the concrete terrace. Even an attempt at floodlighting had been made with disused headlights. And into the African night, a phonograph blared music that had sprung from the African continent and was now being wafted back again via Paris, Harlem, and Hollywood. Through the open windows of the reading room, which had been cleared and festooned with paper streamers for the occasion, we could see about thirty couples gliding around on the polished floor. From Iringa to the north and Dodoma way they had come, from Mufindi to the south and beyond Mbeya, prepared to drive several hundreds of miles over wretched roads for the sake of one bright crowded evening. In little huts by the light of kerosene lamps, in farmhouses and in the large brick bungalows of retired officials, while the auxiliary lighting plants chuffed and wheezed, they had put on their best clothes and sallied forth into the darkness along greasy sodden roads, prepared to spend more money than they could afford for the sake of this one evening which they would discuss for months afterward, rehearsing each event, describing yet again the dress and mannerisms of one and the gaiety or drunkenness of another. The Christmas dance would be remembered as a comet streaking across the monotony of their lives.

We pushed our way into the crowded hall. All the women were in long dresses of a kind, I noticed. Most of the men wore dinner jackets, the rest blue suits.

“Let’s head for the bar,” Norman said.

The barroom was even more crowded than the hall. We moved toward the far corner where two large red-faced men with white mustaches were leaning against the counter, ordering drinks for the two women who stood behind them.

“Evening, Hart­leigh,” the taller of the two men said curtly.

Norman took my arm.

“I want to introduce David Brent, who’s visiting the Southern Highlands,” he said. “This is Brigadier Cobb, our secretary.”

After that it was inevitable that I should be introduced to the Brigadier’s wife and to her companion, who was married to Colonel Anstey, the other tall man. Fortunately, they were all determined to be affable. I saw the two women look for an instant at Norman’s waistcoat and then fix their stares on Bill.

“You’ll find sufficient officers of field rank up here to staff an army corps,” Norman murmured to me as I ordered three brandies.

The Brigadier’s wife was now whispering something to her friend. Mrs. Anstey giggled and looked at Bill with greater interest. Bill blushed and moved uneasily toward me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.