Chapter 10

It was Monday morning, the 14^th of August. Sixty-one years ago, Japan had surrendered to the Allies. Stan knew exactly how they felt. His body was battered by lack of sleep and his eyes were terribly gritty. He needed a shave, coffee, a shower, coffee, breakfast, coffee, some painkillers and coffee — and not necessarily in that order.

So he forced himself into action, putting on his underwear and grabbing painkillers and a glass of water first, then putting a very strong pot of coffee on. He headed into the bathroom, took care of business and padded back into the bedroom where he got dressed before wandering into the kitchen.

There he downed the first of his cups of coffee and made breakfast. He'd consumed two cups of the strong black coffee by the time he'd finished eating. He poured another cup and walked with a little more security into the living room. He switched on the TV, more in order to keep track of time than to actually watch it.

As he sipped his third cup of the morning, he took stock of how he felt. The tears of last night had eventually stopped but he still felt a deeper sense of loss than he had for quite a while. On the other hand, he had felt worse before, so he was still, he supposed, making progress. 'Of a sort!' he thought.

Well, moping wouldn't cure it. "You have to get over this sometime," he reminded himself aloud. He switched off the TV, put his cup into the sink and took himself off to work.

Elaine took one look at him as he walked in and said "Stan, are you okay? You look terrible!"

"Yeah, Just a bad night, that's all. How're you?"

"Oh, I'm peachy keen, thank you very much!" she replied, bouncing slightly on her chair. Her enthusiasm and good humour were infectious. Stan asked "So why your good mood this morning?"

Elaine settled back into her chair and blushed slightly. "Well, I kinda got woken up the right way," she said with a self-satisfied grin. Stan couldn't help himself, he said, "I'm glad someone did!" and smiled a little wanly before turning and walking towards the office. He stopped and turned before reaching the door.

"Heard any more from Denise?" he asked.

"No, not yet," replied Elaine. "I'm sure she's fine Stan, having fun. You know, like young people do?" she teased.

Attempting to hold back a grin Stan tried to look severe as he said "Now just you look here you little whippersnapper, young people should give their elders some respect!" but he failed dismally, bursting into laughter. He almost forgot how tired he was.

Elizabeth was, of course, already at her desk when Stan got to his. She too looked at him and asked, "Are you all right, Stan?"

"I might as well put a notice out, 'Stan is feeling tired, very, very tired, today' and be done with it," he grumbled. But Elaine's contagious good mood had got to him. Plus he had something to look forward to.

He leaned forward and spoke quietly to Elizabeth, "You know it's my dance lesson tonight?"

Elizabeth nodded. He continued, "And, it looks like I'll have company. Anne wants to learn, too."

"How on earth did you manage that, Stan?" she asked him in surprise.

Stan shrugged. "I dunno, just did!" he said, eyes down in front of him at his desk.

"Well done, anyway!" Elizabeth told him, with a grin.

Later that morning, Anne came to see him. She took his 'visitor's chair' and pulled it up closer to him. She wasn't that close, but Stan still felt a slightly guilty thrill.

"What are you wearing tonight, Stan?" she asked him.

"What? Oh, er, well I expect it'll be the same as I wore Friday night. I don't have special clothes for dancing."

"Oh. Okay then. I just thought you might have something more, well... glitzy."

Stan couldn't help but smile.

"No, nothing more glitzy, or glamorous. We're not talking competitive dancing you know!"

"All right then, what colour tie?" was Anne's next question.

"I beg your pardon?" came Stan's bemused response.

Patiently, Anne repeated, "Tie colour?"

Stan realized she was serious and wanted to match his colouring. He thought for a moment and said, "Blue. Blue tie."

Anne smiled. "See? Not so hard, was it? You were taught well."

Stan thought for a moment, and then admitted, "It was Caron. She tried hard, but little of it stuck. I can't colour-coordinate to save my life, really. I've never understood why 'Blue and Green should never be seen', after all if you look out of the window, you'll see grass and sky, which look fine together to me!"

"That's OK, just let me sort out what will work with you. Men!"

Anne smiled and finished with, "See you tonight then. What time are you picking me up?"

"Just before seven o'clock. It's a half hour drive and starts at seven forty five, and we want to get there a little before the start to get the paperwork for you done."

Sure enough, at ten to seven Stan was outside Anne's house. She'd needed to give him directions as he didn't know where she lived, although it wasn't all that far from his place.

Anne lived in a small house, but it was in one of the nicer parts of a very nice little satellite village just outside the town. Actually, it was more like a cottage. Her small garden was well tended and full of flowers, Stan noted. 'How in heck does she make time for that?' he thought.

He rang the doorbell and after a moment Anne opened it. Given the fact that she was an inch taller than him to start with, the effect of the doorstep and the heels she was wearing put him face to face with something other than her face! He blushed.

Anne's apricot coloured dress was cut low in the front. Once Stan had stepped back he could see that the skirt was long but made with wide pleats, allowing her to move. She'd adorned it with a small but very nice sapphire brooch, which matched her dangly earrings. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head. Finally getting himself together, Stan whistled.

Anne merely looked like she was anticipating something. "You look like a million dollars!" he finally managed. She smiled and coloured a little. "I thought a little effort was in order," she said. Stan's rejoinder was, "That's more than a little. You'll have the other ladies envious, and the men desperate to dance with you."

"Oh. It's not too much is it? I can change..."

"No you can't, we'll be late. Besides, why change? It's fantastic, Anne. Come on." Stan said, and took her hand. He opened the car door and closed it after she was seated, then went around to the driver's side, started the car, and drove off.

During the journey they chatted a little. Anne told a bit about her time at school in Bournemouth.

"It's called Talbot Heath School. They score very highly in the league tables for their exam results, and it's quite exclusive. I was lucky that I got a partial scholarship. Even so, my parents had to do without to send me there and I'm very grateful. How about you?"

Stan told about his school. Edward Driver School had been the former Grammar school in his town. Stan told her, "It was only single-sex because the headmaster there had stayed on after it lost Grammar school status. He didn't want 'distractions', so he found ways not to spend the money that would have been needed to go co-ed."

They were amused to find they'd both gone to single-sex schools. Anne had gone on to university at Imperial College in London. She'd got a "2:1" degree, which meant she'd just barely failed to get the highest class result. "I was so, so disappointed with that. I really wanted that 1^st Class degree, but I'd not put in as much study as I should have. Then I tried to make it up at the end and it just wasn't enough. So since then I've put more effort into my work, and it's paid off."

Stan told her that he'd never attended university. "I went straight to work. The company I was with sent me off to college one full day a week, I got my diploma that way. Aside from some courses I've taken at home on-line, that's it."

"Do you think you lost or gained out of going to a single-sex school, Stan?" Anne asked.

"A bit of both. In the short term, I think I gained; the Head was right about the fewer distractions thing. Had I been thinking then of university and so on it might have made a difference as to which ones I could get in.

"In the long term, it didn't gain me much academically and it really constrained my development socially. I needed a clear 'come ahead' to get the get-up-and-go to ask Caron out. She told me later it was one of the things she liked about me, that I was shy but not so shy as to be a social cripple.

"As I got older, I got a little bolder. I found that I could, sometimes, talk to someone I didn't know at a meeting or sales pitch or whatever. But although I like company, I'm still not comfortable in crowds, and strangers in social settings are definitely intimidating. What about yourself?"

Anne replied, "Oh, it wasn't a problem for me. Besides, Linwood School was only a short way away, and it was mixed. We weren't supposed to have anything to do with them of course, but I found that the older boys certainly wanted something to do with me, well, at least once these two," she said, looking down, "started arriving. I was flat as a pancake until I was almost sixteen. They're still not big though, are they?"

Stan, his eyes firmly on the road, merely said, "Big enough."

Anne smiled. "It's okay, Stan, I don't mind you looking at them. Well, I do mind now, you're driving. It's different at work. People treat me in a different way just because I'm a bit pretty and I've got a nice figure. I want to be recognised for what I've done, and what I can do, not because I've a nice face, blonde hair and a cute butt."

"Hmmm, have you had Quality Control check out that butt of yours for cuteness?" Stan said, grinning while he drove.

"Not yet, but I'm sure you'll be doing that tonight, now!" laughed Anne.