City of Spades by Colin MacInnes

My boy did not know you wasa friend of Johnny Fortune’s. He is a nice boy, Johnny. Too nice for this city, I expect. I hope he may soon go back home.’ He turned to a half-caste girl upon the bench. ‘This is Barbara,’ he said. ‘She likes to dance with you.’
    ‘I don’t dance.’
    ‘She teach you. Barbara, go with this man on to the floor.’
    We went. The girl said, ‘Why did you tell him you saw Jimmy at the station?’
    ‘Why not? Wasn’t he caught up in that raid like everybody else?’
    ‘He can’t have told Billy he was there … I can see Billy suspects him of something. It looks like trouble to me.’
    ‘But Mr Cannibal’s his friend.’
    ‘Cannibal’s slippery. We all know that.’
    She spoke with a Cardiff accent. It came oddly out of her half-African face, the sound so ill assorted with a physical beauty that had reached her from thousands of miles away.
    ‘You come here often?’ I said.
    ‘I’m a hostess here.’
    ‘You work for the management?’
    ‘No. For Billy Whispers. He controls most of the hostesses here.’
    ‘The management let him?’
    ‘These West Indians are frightened of the Africans. They don’t interfere. Can’t you dance any better than that?’
    ‘No. You were going to teach me.’
    ‘Just hold on to me, then. Bring your body close and don’t think of your feet. You like coloured girls?’
    ‘I think so.’
    ‘You ever been with one?’
    ‘No.’
    Barbara glanced up at me with mild surprise. We passed Theodora and Mr Karl Marx Bo. ‘Come and sit down,’ I said to Barbara, ‘and meet my friend Theodora.’
    ‘That fish-face woman? Isn’t she a copper?’
    ‘Not to my knowledge.’
    ‘Are you one, by the way?’
    ‘Heaven forfend.’
    ‘Eh?’
    ‘What difference does it make what I say, Barbara? Just think what you like about us. Time alone will show.’
    ‘Tell your friends to come to Billy’s table, then. I have to get back to him.’ She stepped across the floor, professionally swinging her magnificent bottom.
    I said to Theodora as we followed, ‘Where did you learn to dance so well? You’re a perpetual revelation.’
    Lowering her voice, she said, ‘I was at one time in the Wrens, and lived a rather rackety life. It’s a period I prefer to forget about, and I’ll thank you not to refer to it again.’
    Billy waved us into his corner with a comprehensive smile. With him now there was an enormous coloured GI, and holding both the GI’s hands a lovely, harsh-faced white girl.
    ‘Is Dorothy,’ said Billy, ‘and her good friend Larry.’
    ‘Hi, man. You American or British?’ Larry asked me.
    ‘British.’
    ‘Oh, that’s all right, then.’
    ‘Larry doesn’t like Americans,’ Dorothy explained.
    ‘But isn’t he one?’
    ‘Oh, yes, but not an American , if you see what I mean.’
    She hugged him, then let out a sudden shriek. ‘Look there!’ she cried. ‘It’s my brother Arthur!’
    A tall gold-skinned boy came gangling gracefully across the floor, grinning with imbecile guile, his lower lip pendent, his eyes flashing dubious charm. He kissed Dorothy, shook hands with everyone, sat down and put his arms round several shoulders.
    ‘I come out this morning,’ he told everybody. ‘An’ hitch-hiked up to town. An’ I called at back home and found Muriel. An’ she told me about our new brother Johnny. Have you seen him, Dorothy?’
    ‘Johnny? Yes, I seen him. He’s a fresh boy, just like you.’
    ‘Ma wouldn’t take me in, I’ve no place I can go, and I’d like to ask my new brother Johnny to help me with some loot until I can get settled. Unless you can help me, Billy, or you, Dorothy, or someone.’
    He gazed lazily around, exuding animal magnetism and anxiety.
    ‘Larry,’ said Dorothy, ‘you won’t mind if I have this dance with my little brother?’
    But Mr Cochrane, the resident manager, who’d been standing by like a janizary, stepped up. ‘I’m sorry,gentlemen, and ladies too,’ he said, ‘but I cannot