On The Beach

He rang off and went on with his work, while Mary settled down to her besetting sin, the telephone. She rang up Mrs. Foster down the road who was going into town to a meeting of the Countrywomen's Association and asked her to bring out a pound of steak and a couple of onions. She rang the doctor who told her that a baby could get measles and that she must be very careful. And then she thought of Moria Davidson who had rung her up the night before to ask if she had any news of Scorpion. She got her at teatime at the farm near Berwick.

"My dear," she said. "They're back. Peter rang me from the ship just now. They've all got measles."

"They've got what?"

"Measles-like you have when you're at school."

There was a burst of laughter on the line, a little hysterical and shrill. "It's nothing to laugh about," Mary said. "I'm thinking about Jennifer. She might catch it from Peter. He's had it once, but he can get it again. It's all so worrying…”

The laughter subsided. "Sorry, darling, but it seems so funny. It's nothing to do with radioactivity, is it?"

"Oh, I don't think so. Peter said it was just measles." She paused. "Isn't it awful?"

Miss Davidson laughed again. "It's just the sort of thing they would do. Here they go cruising for a fortnight up in parts where everyone is dead of radiation, and all that they can catch is measles! I'll have to speak to Dwight about it, very sharply. Did they find anyone alive up there?"

"I don't know, darling. Peter didn't say anything about it. But anyway, that's not important. What am I going to do about Jennifer? Dr. Halloran says she can catch it, and Peter's going to be contagious for three weeks."

"Hell have to sleep and have his meals out on the verandah."

"Don't be silly, darling."

"Well, let Jennifer sleep and have her meals out on the verandah."

"Flies," said her mother. "Mosquitoes. A cat might come and lie on her face and smother her. They do, you know."

"Put a mosquito net over the pram."

"I haven't got a mosquito net."

"I think we've got 'some somewhere, that Daddy used to use in Queensland. They're probably full of holes."

"I do wish you'd have a look, darling. It's the cat I'm worried about."

"I'll go and have a look now. If I can find one I’ll put it in the post tonight. Or I might bring it over. Are you going to have Commander Towers down again, now that they're home?"

"I really hadn't thought. I don't know if Peter wants to have him. They may be hating the sight of each other after a fortnight in that submarine. Would you like us to have him over?"

"It's nothing to me," said the girl carelessly. "I don't care if you do or don't"

"Darling!"

"It's not. Stop poking your stick in my ear. Anyway, he's a married man."

Puzzled, Mary said, "He can't be, dear. Not now."

"That's all you know," the girl replied. "It makes things a bit difficult. I'll go and look for that net."

When Peter arrived home that evening he found Mary to be somewhat uninterested in Cairns but very much concerned about the baby. Moira had rung up again to say that she was sending a mosquito net, but it would clearly be some time before it could arrive. As a makeshift Mary had secured a long length of butter muslin and had draped this round the pram on the verandah, but she had not done it very well and the liaison officer spent some time on his first evening at home in fashioning a close-fitting cover to the pram hood from the muslin. "I do hope she'll be able to breathe," his wife said anxiously. "Peter, are you sure she'll get enough air through that?"

He did what he could to reassure her, but three times in the night she left his side to go out to the verandah to make sure that the baby was still alive.

The social side of Scorpion was more interesting to her than the technical achievements of the ship. "Are you going to ask Commander Towers down again?" she inquired.

"I really hadn't thought about it," he replied. "Would you like to have him down?"

"I quite liked him," she said. "Moira liked him a lot. So funny for her, because he's such a quiet man. But you never can tell."

"He took her out before we went away," he said. "Showed her the ship and took her out. I bet she leads him a dance."

"She rang up three times while you were away to ask if we had any news," his wife said. "I don't believe that was because of you."

"She was probably just bored," he remarked.

He had to go up to town next day for a meeting at the Navy Department with John Osborne and the Principal Scientific Officer. The meeting ended at about noon; as they were going out of the office the scientist said, "By the way, I've got a parcel for you." He produced a brown paper packet tied with string. "Mosquito net. Moira asked me to give it to you."

"Oh-thanks. Mary wanted that badly."

"What are you doing for lunch?"

"I hadn't thought."

"Come along to the Pastoral Club."

The young naval officer opened his eyes; this was somewhat upstage and rather expensive. "Are you a member there?"

John Osborne nodded. "I always intended to be one before I died. It was now or never."