A Town like Alice

blue fumes enveloped them; every item of the structure creaked and rattled. "Why did Joe Harman go to England?" she shouted above the din. "What did he go for?"
    "Just took a fancy, I think," Mr Small replied. "He won the Casket couple of years back." This was Greek to her. "There's not a lot to do upon the stations, this time of the year."
    She shouted, "Do you know if there's a room vacant at the hotel?"
    "Oh, aye, there'll be a room for you. You just out from England?"
    "Yes."
    "What's the rationing like at home, now?"
    She shouted her information to him as the truck bumped and swayed across the landscape to the town. A wooden shack appeared on one side of the track, and fifty yards on there was another on the left; there was another some distance ahead, and they were in the main street. They drew up in front of a two-storeyed building with a faded signboard on the first-floor veranda, australian hotel. "This is it," said Mr Small. "Come on in, and I'll find Mrs Connor."
    The Australian Hotel was a fair-sized building with about ten small bedrooms opening on to the top floor veranda. It had wooden floors and wooden doors; the whole of the rest of it was built of corrugated iron on a wood framework. Jean was accustomed by that time to the universal corrugated iron roofs, but a corrugated iron wall to her bedroom was a novelty. She waited on the upstairs veranda while Mr Small went to find Mrs Connor; the veranda had one or two beds on it. When the landlady appeared she was evidently only just awake; she was a tall, grey-haired determined woman of about fifty.
    Jean said, "Good afternoon. My name's Jean Paget, and I've got to stop here till next week. Have you got a room?"
    The woman looked her up and down. "Well, I don't know, I'm sure. You travelling alone?"
    "Yes. I really came to see Joe Harman, but they tell me he's away. I'm going on to Cairns."
    "You just missed the Cairns aeroplane."
    "I know. They say I'll have to wait a week for the next one."
    "That's right." The woman looked around. "Well, I don't know. You see, the men sleep out on this balcony, often as not. That wouldn't be very nice for you."
    Sam Small said, "What about the two back rooms, Ma?"
    "Aye, she could go there." She turned to Jean. "It's on the back balcony, looks out over the yard. You'll see the boys all going to the gents, but I can't help that."
    Jean said, "I expect I'll survive that."
    "You been in outback towns before?"
    She shook her head. "I've only just come out from England."
    "Is that so! What's it like in England now? Do you get enough to eat?" Jean said her piece again.
    "I got a sister married to an Englishman," the woman said. "Living at a place called Goole. I send her home a parcel every month."
    She took Jean and showed her the room. It was clean and with a good mosquito net; it was small, but the passage door was opposite the double window opening on to the balcony, giving a clear draught through. "Nobody don't come along this balcony, except Anne-she's the maid. She sleeps in this other room, and if you hear any goings on at night I hope you'll let me know. I got my eye upon that girl." She reverted to the ventilation. "You leave your door open a chink, prop your case against it so that no one can't come barging in by mistake, and have the windows open, and you'll get a nice draught through. I never had no difficulty sleeping in this place."
    She glanced down at Jean's hand. "You ain't married?"
    "No."
    "Well, there'll be every ringer in this district coming into town to have a look at you. You better be prepared for that."
    Jean laughed. "I will."
    "You a friend of Joe Harman, then?"
    "I met him in the war," Jean said. "In Singapore, when we were both waiting for a passage home." It was nearer to the truth than her last lie, anyway. "Then as I was in Australia I sent him a telegram to say I'd come and see him. I didn't get an answer so I came here anyway. But he's gone walkabout."
    The woman smiled. "You picked up some Aussie slang."
    "Joe Harman taught me that one, when I met him in the war."
    Sam Small brought up her suitcase; she thanked him, and he turned away, embarrassed. She went into her room and changed her damp clothes for dry ones, and went along to the bathroom and had a shower, and was ready for tea at half past six when the bell echoed through the corrugated iron building.
    She found her way down to the dining-room. Three or four men were seated there already and they looked at her curiously; a