Open Writing

I lay awake, unable to sleep, for I felt excited and happy. It was my last night at Southlands and tomorrow I would leave school for good.

I thought of my first term when Doreen had kept a sisterly eye upon me. She was in the sixth form and a prefect, so it was an honour when we met in the corridor and she laid an arm along my shoulders, asking, with interest and concern, how I was getting along.

It was not until we were away at school together that we appreciated one another. We were temperamentally different and often squabbled, and even fought on occasion in our home life, she being, in my opinion, bossy, as elder sisters usually are, and I being hot-tempered and independent. From this beginning a new relationship developed and I was to become her greatest admirer.

She was popular and good at games, very vivacious, with laughing blue eyes and the prettiest figure. I admired particularly her ease with people, there was none of the shyness which so plagued my existence, and when asked who I would prefer to be, I promptly replied "Doreen!"

I next thought of the presents which had been exchanged with vows of undying friendship. I had escaped having a 'pash' on any girl or mistress, but had an affection for a new English mistress, alas! only one term with me, but in that short time she had enthralled me by her reading aloud, particularly from "Lorna Doone", which had made me more aware of the beauty of the English language than at any previous time.

Now I listened, very attentively, for she had been in to say "good-night" and "good-bye". Mu, and her friend Lesley, slept on my right, each in her own small bedroom, for this privacy was a feature of the school, and one of the reasons why it had been chosen for us.

We three had debated whether the mistress would come and say "good-night" and also, whether she would kiss us as it was the end of term. We had arranged that if she did so whosoever was first visited would give a loud "ahem" to indicate whether this gesture were made.

My turn came, and I gave the promised slight cough, and now I turned my face into the pillow to smother my laughter as a loud, artificial "ahem" came clearly over the gap in the partition; Mu, in her turn, indicating to Lesley that our favourite mistress had not failed us.

I had enjoyed life at Southlands and was leaving unusually early, only a few days before my seventeenth birthday, as in the slump which followed the war, Daddy's business had declined, and he had found it impossible for me to continue. I was ready and eager to leave, for home was the centre of my being, and I looked forward to taking my part in the future of which Doreen wrote to me with enthusiasm.

I longed to be grown-up, with my hair up, and romance around the corner, and I felt I could not wait for the morrow to come.

All was lively activity as the taxis drove off, one after another, to the station. I travelled from London with a girl called Irene Smith who lived in Nottingham. She had sat in front of me in class and I knew her well, for she often turned to laugh, and to make remarks, when, in our free time, we all discussed events, and subjects of interest to schoolgirls.

It is strange to think that it was not until we said "goodbye" and my train gradually drew away, leaving Rene twirling her tennis racket above her head in farewell, that we both felt that we could not bear to part; and from that moment became lifelong friends.

Rene told me afterwards that she had felt drawn to me when she played hockey for the first time, bewildered, not knowing which goal to aim for. As we played inner opposite one another, I was able to guide her throughout the game. Perhaps this was the real beginning of our close friendship.

I had to change at Penistone, and from there the train stopped at each little country station, which had pleased me as a child. I saw Castle Hill in the distance, the narrow bridge at Springwood where we had dashed out of the smoke waving our hands before our faces. I observed the brightly painted red-and-cream trams passing along in the streets below.

So the train bore me homeward, and into the unknown future.