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| 'I could kill you as soon as look at you...' (pic: Channel4.com) |
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'...I'll take you in a cab,' he said. 'Where are you staying?'
'A sort of hostel - but don't bother. I'll walk. It's quite near.'
'Trying to get rid of me?'
'I'd like a bit of fresh air. Gives me a chance to see some shops,' said Clare.
'In the blackout?' he snorted.
Oh, how the hell do I shake him off?
'You can't walk by yourself,' he said. 'Not all alone.'
I can kill people, she felt like saying. I can make them die quite quickly with a hat needle, or a bit of wire. I can break their arm. Just stop fussing.
'Don't be silly,' said Clare, 'I'll be fine.
[...]Tony was a navigator on a B-24, based with his wing at Fakenham, in Norfolk. He was on his second tour of missions, and when he was drunk he always told her that he was living on borrowed time.
Maybe that was one reason she saw him from time to time. She felt secure. There could be no involvement here. He might not return from a raid. And if he did, eventually he'd go home. Far away. Thousands of miles away, to far off Denver. It couldn't come to anything, and she liked it that way. It was less complicated.
She had the number of the base, and she called the orderly room. Yes, he had said, he could get to London that evening. See you at Willow Run. After you've ditched your old man.
And there he was, in his Eisenhower jacket, and his battered hat.
'You look great, honey,' he said, and kissed her.
He always said that. It seemed to be a kind of password, to be used on meeting a date. Tell them they look great, and after that it's all smooth going...see also...
The Camomile Lawn ~ Mary Wesley, 1984 (adapted for TV)
Gravity's Rainbow ~ Thomas Pynchon, 1973
Catch 22 ~ Joseph Heller, 1961 (filmed 1970)
The Prisoner ~ Patrick McGoohan, George Markstein etc. (TV series, 1967)
A Canterbury Tale ~ Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger (film, 1944)
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