Page 211 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd
P. 211

On Canberra’s bridge with Winsome and Christine



                   I descended the gangway to await the taxi, and it duly arrived. What arrived,
                however, was totally unexpected. Out of the car stepped one of the most beautiful
                girls that I had ever seen! I had thought the fringe an unfortunate choice of hair-
                style, but it was apparent that she had that afternoon spent some hours in the care
                of a master hairdresser; she was now a lovely sort of slightly gingery blonde with
                what could be described as a ‘pixie’ hair-style, she had a lovely face, and eyes that
                themselves could turn heads. Further, she was wearing a flowing but simple long
                black dress, quite demure with bare shoulders, and wore it with great elegance. I
                have described her as ungainly; now she was as gainly a girl as I have ever seen.

                   I brought her aboard and could sense the stares that I was getting, for most
                of the officers had selected as partners either passengers recently on the ship,
                or female (or male, in the case of the FAPs and others) officers. In a city like
                Sydney I certainly was not alone in having a guest from ashore, but I might as well
                have been (how could a homunculus like Frost find such perfection? – actually
                that was me asking myself the question). We had a great evening, and she gladly

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