‘Is this our station?’ the little girl asked. She went to the window and looked out.
‘No, it isn’t. Now sit down,’ her mother said. ‘We’re going to
Penzance,’ the little girl told Bill. ‘For our holidays.’ ‘Yes, her
mother said. ‘My sister’s got a little hotel by the sea. We’re staying
there. It’s cheap, you see.’ ‘Yes,’ the man in the brown hat said.
‘It’s a nice town. I know a man there. He’s got a restaurant in King
Street. A lot of holiday people go there. He makes a lot of money in the
summer.’ He laughed loudly. ‘Yes,’ he said again. ‘You can have a nice
holiday in Penzance.’ ‘We’re going to St Austell,’ Bill said. ‘Me and
Julie. It’s our first holiday. Julie wanted to go to Spain, but I like St
Austell. I always go there for my holiday. It’s nice in August. You can have a
good time there too.’
Julie looked out of the window.
‘Where is Budapest?’ she thought. ‘I want to go there. I want to go to
Vienna, to Paris, to Rome, to Athens.’ Her green eyes were bored and angry.
Through the window she watched the little villages and hills of England.
The man in the brow hat looked at Julie. ‘You’re
right,’ he said to Bill. ‘You can have a good time on holiday in England. We
always go to Brighton, me and the wife. But the weather! We went one year, and
it rained every day. Morning, afternoon and night. It’s true. It never stopped
raining.’ He laughed loudly. ‘We nearly went home after the first week.’
Bill laughed too. ‘What did you do all day, then?’ he asked. Julie read
about the weather in Budapest for the third time.
