The Tall Girl from Somerset 15

JENNY

It was in mid-October, soon after the term had begun and when the freshmen were beginning to know their way about Oxford and to feel that they belonged there. In mid-October, then,  Anne invited Harvey's sister, Jenny, for a meal.  Although Anne was in the middle of an essay and had lot of work of her own, she asked her round for supper one evening.  She made a chicken curry.  Harvey had always liked it, so perhaps his sister would.

Jenny arrived, exactly on time (‘Punctual, perhaps she is different from her brother’) and seemed younger and more vulnerable than Anne had expected.  But then as the years pass, university students, like policemen, do look younger and younger. To Anne, she was more like a schoolgirl than a university student, and Jenny was keen to listen to everything that Anne could tell her.  (‘I never knew whether Harvey was listening to me or not. But no, that’s not fair. He listened when it was important.’)  They talked about book lists and lecturers, and then Anne asked Jenny about Harvey.

'How is he?'

'Fine, but he doesn’t go into details.'

'But he does write, then?'

'He writes to Mum.  She insisted on that before he went.  She knows where he is.  She’s the only one.'

'So where is he now?'

'He’s in Greece.  I think they should be in Athens now.  They are going to visit the Acropolis.'

'Ah yes, the Acropolis.'

So he is in Greece  Among the olive groves.  In the land of Aphrodite. Wait though.  She was from Cyprus, wasn't she?  Aphrodite coming from the waves. And here am I, alone, braving the mists and rain of October as the nights draw in. Ah well.  On we go.  We have to go on.

When Jenny left, Anne went into her bedroom, walked over to the large world map on the cork board on the wall by her bed, took a red pin from the dish of red pins on her desk, and put one in Athens. 

She saw quite a bit of Jenny as the weeks went by.