“So you didn’t finish the course.”
“That’s right. The first decision was that I was to be dismissed from the Air Force altogether. I took it badly. The doctor who examined me in London recommended I be given a chance to serve just the same. But not as aircrew, only in an office. They said that it was improbable that I would be sent abroad either. I’d be a risk.”
“Then why did they send you here?”
“Because they thought other fits would follow. But since they took me off active duty and stuck me in front of a typewriter, I have never had another fit. Maybe it was all a gigantic fluke. Maybe all those men who said I was girly were right. The truth is ...” Peter looked downwards, fidgeting with his pockets, as if searching for a long-lost object. “The truth is that I was scared.”
“Everybod
