Stories on the English

The girl with green eyes.

‘Of course,’ the man in the brown hat said, ‘there are good policemen and there are bad policemen, you know.’ 

‘You’re right,’ the young man said. ‘Yes. That’s very true. Isn’t it, Julie?’ He looked at the young woman next to him. 

Julie didn’t answer and looked bored. She closed her eyes. 

‘Julie’s my wife,’ the young man told the man in the brown hat. ‘She doesn’t like trains. She always feels ill on trains.’ 

‘Oh yes?’ the man in the brown hat said. ‘Now my wife — she doesn’t like buses. She nearly had an accident on a bus once. It was last year … No, no, it wasn’t. It was two years ago. I remember now. It was in Manchester.’ He told a long, boring story about his wife and a bus in Manchester. 

It was a hot day and the train was slow. There were seven people in the carriage. There was the man in the brown hat; the young man and his wife, Julie; a mother and two children; and a tall dark man in an expensive suit. 

The young man’s name was Bill. He had short brown hair and a happy smile. His wife, Julie, had long red hair and very green eyes — the colour of sea water. They were very beautiful eyes. 

The man in the brown hat talked and talked. He had a big red face and a loud voice. He talked to Bill because Bill liked to talk too. The man in the brown hat laughed a lot, and when he laughed, Bill laughed too. Bill liked talking and laughing with people. The two children were hot and bored. They didn’t want to sit down. They wanted to be noisy and run up and down the train. 

‘Now sit down and be quiet,’ their mother said. She was a small woman with a tired face and a tired voice. 

’1 don’t want to sit down,’ the little boy said. ‘I’m thirsty.’ 

‘Here. Have an orange,’ his mother said. She took an orange out of her bag and gave it to him. 

‘I want an orange too,’ the little girl said loudly. 

‘All right. Here you are,’ said her mother. ‘Eat it nicely, now.’ 

The children ate their oranges and were quiet for a minute. 

Then the little boy said, ‘I want a drink. I’m thirsty.’ 

The tall dark man took out his newspaper and began to read. Julie opened her eyes and looked at the back page of his newspaper. She read about the weather in Budapest and about the football in Liverpool. She wasn’t interested in Budapest and she didn’t like football, but she didn’t want to listen to Bill and the man in the brown hat. ‘Talk, talk, talk,’ she thought. ‘Bill never stops talking.’ 

Then suddenly she saw the tall man’s eyes over the top of his newspaper. She could not see his mouth, but there was a smile in his eyes. Quickly, she looked down at the newspaper and read about the weather in Budapest again. 

The train stopped at Dawlish station and people got on and got off. There was a lot of noise. 

‘Is this our station?’ the little girl asked. She went to the window and looked out. 

‘No, it isn’t. Now sit down,’ her mother said. 

‘We’re going to Penzance,’ the little girl told Bill. ‘For our holidays.’