‘I can tell you is new here, ain’t ya, sweetheart?’ the woman said. She picked up a pencil and small order pad on the side of the table that Jane hadn’t noticed. Still smiling she explained you had to write down what you wanted, along with your shoulder number or name, and hand it in at the serving hatch next to the kitchen door. When it was ready they’d shout out.
‘Tell yer what, dear, seein’ as it’s yer first day, I’ll take yer order, but yer can fetch it yerself when it’s ready.’
After a delicious lunch, much better than the food at the station, Jane felt a bit more settled and cheerful. She returned to her room, where she stuck up her Janis Joplin poster and cleaned her teeth. She got out her police instruction manual to do some studying for her next continuation training exam and lay on her bed resting her head on her arm. She turned to the chapter on the Vagrancy Act of 1824 about ‘street beggars’, which she had to learn ‘parrot fashion’.
It felt strange because other than Hendon she had never lived anywhere else but with her parents. Her old alarm clock’s loud tick had never really bothered her until now, so she shoved it inside the bedside-cabinet drawer and turned on her little Zephyr radio. It wasn’t long before she fell asleep.
She woke with a start to the sound of doors banging and loud voices coming from the corridor. She sat bolt upright and looking at her watch was surprised that she had slept for nearly four hours as it was 6 p.m.
Wondering what was happening she peeked out of her door and saw two women chatting. They had large rollers in their hair and were wearing dressing gowns and holding drawstring plastic cosmetic bags. She decided she’d have a relaxing hot bath, get changed and then go and see what was on TV.
The bathroom had four toilets, two bath cubicles and two showers with white plastic curtains. As Jane entered a very tall woman in a shower hat, a towel wrapped round her, emerged from a bath cubicle.
‘Hi, if you’re wanting a bath the water’s not that hot at the moment, so I’d give it another half-hour or so to warm up. Or you could have a quick shower.’
‘Thanks, but I’ll wait and have a hot bath later.’ Jane smiled.
‘I’m Sarah Redhead and fairly new here myself – been here five months. I worked in Luton for four years before I transferred to the Met. I’m based at Leytonstone, what about you?’ She had rather a cut-glass, high-pitched voice and a forceful personality.
Jane introduced herself and said she worked up the road at Hackney Station.
‘My God, you’ll be in the thick of it. I’ve heard this is a rough area with some pretty ghastly, nasty villains,’ Sarah remarked loudly.
‘I’m still a probationer so I haven’t really come across them yet.’
Sarah started to walk off then stopped and turned back. ‘There’s a pub over the road we all use called the Warburton Arms. There’s a few of us meeting up there at half eight and you’re welcome to join us.’
‘That would be nice – thanks,’ Jane said, but she wasn’t sure if she’d actually go.
‘Good, I’ll meet you downstairs by the warden’s desk at half eight. Okey-dokey?’
By the time Jane returned both baths were being used and she had to wait for over fifteen minutes before a girl wearing looped earrings came out. Jane recognized her from the Harker lecture, but the girl hurried past whilst draping her bath towel around her.
‘Hi, I was at the Dr Harker lecture. You were there, weren’t you?’ Jane said.
The girl stopped and looked at Jane. ‘Oh, yes, sorry, yeah. I had a terrible hangover that day… It went on for ever, didn’t it?’
Jane gave a smile, not wanting to say that she had enjoyed it, but the door banged shut before she could say anything else.
The water was tepid and Jane suspected most of the hot had been used up by the other two girls. It reminded Jane of home and how her sister Pam would sometimes hog the bath and hot water. She found it a bit distasteful that the girl she had recognized had not wiped around the rim of the bath and from the occupied one came a loud voice singing Elvis Presley’s ‘Hound Dog’, very badly and out of tune.
Jane washed her hair in case she decided to go to the pub. Having got out of the bath she wrapped a towel round her hair and waited for the bath to empty before using her soapy-water remains to carefully clean it. Wearing her towelling dressing gown, she returned to her room and realized she’d forgotten to pack her hairdryer. She sat on the bed and rubbed her hair vigorously to dry it off and then combed it out. Because it was long enough to reach just below her shoulders it would be a while before it was dry.
