The Girl with Green Eyes

Of  course,  the  man  in  the  brown  hat  said.  There  are  good  policemen  and  there  are  bad  policemen.  You  know,  you  right,  the  young  man  said.  Yes,  that's  very  true,  isn't  it,  Julie?  He  looked  at  the  young  woman  next  to  him.

Julie  didn't  answer  and  looked  bored.  She  closed  her  eyes.  Julie's,  my  wife,  the  young  man  told  the  man  in  the  brown  hat.  She  doesn't  like  trains.  She  always  feels  ill  on  trains.

Oh,  yes,  the  man  in  the  brown  hat  said.  Now,  my  wife,  she  doesn't  like  buses.  She  nearly  had  an  accident  on  a  bus  once.  It  was  last  year.  No.

No,  it  wasn't.  It  was  two  years  ago.  I  remember  now.  It  was  in  Manchester.  He  told  a  long,  boring  story  about  his  wife  and  a  bus  in  Manchester.

It  was  a  hot  day  and  the  train  was  slow.  There  were  seven  people  in  the  carriage.  There  was  the  man  in  the  brown  hat,  the  young  man  and  his  wife  Julie,  a  mother  and  two  children  and  a  tall,  dark  man  in  an  expensive  suit.  The  young  man's  name  was  Bill.  He  had  short  brown  hair  and  a  happy  smile.

His  wife,  Julie,  had  long  red  hair  and  very  green  eyes  the  color  of  seawater.  They  were  very  beautiful  eyes.  The  man  in  the  brown  hat  talked  and  talked.  He  had  a  big  red  face  and  a  loud  voice.  He  talked  to  Bill  because  Bill  liked  to  talk  too.

The  man  in  the  brown  hat  laughed  a  lot,  and  when  he  laughed,  Bill  laughed  too.  Bill  liked  talking  and  laughing  with  people.  The  two  children  were  hot  and  bored.  They  didn't  want  to  sit  down.  They  wanted  to  be  noisy  and  run  up  and  down  the  train.

Now  sit  down  and  be  quiet,  their  mother  said.  She  was  a  small  woman  with  a  tired  face  and  a  tired  voice.  I  don't  want  to  sit  down,  the  little  boy  said.  I'm  thirsty.  Here,  have  an  orange,  his  mother  said.

She  took  an  orange  out  of  her  bag  and  gave  it  to  him.  I  want  an  orange  too,  the  little  girl  said  loudly.  All  right.  Here  you  are,  said  her  mother.  Eat  it  nicely  now.

The  children  ate  their  oranges  and  were  quiet  for  a  minute.  Then  the  little  boy  said,  I  want  a  drink.  I'm  thirsty.  The  tall,  dark  man  took  out  his  newspaper  and  began  to  read.  Julie  opened  her  eyes  and  looked  at  the  back  page  of  his  newspaper.

She  read  about  the  weather  in  Budapest  and  about  the  football  in  Liverpool.  She  wasn't  interested  in  Budapest,  and  she  didn't  like  football.  But  she  didn't  want  to  listen  to  Bill  and  the  man  in  the  brown  hat.