From Bombay with Love

It was truly a Melbourne winter’s morning when Miss Aileen McInerney found herself hesitating on her front step. Rocking on the balls of her feet under a cold grey sky. In truth, she did not wish to leave. The thought of John, sleeping soundly in her old room, nearly drove her back upstairs to join him. She wondered at that thought. Why must she go?

The bell of the next tram car sang out from up the street.

She knew the answer, of course. The scandal that would follow her if she chose John over Freddie, she could hardly think it. Such a choice would likely bring Mother to her deathbed. No, her fate was sealed. She had promised herself to Freddie, and she did love him. She truly did. Yet still she hovered at the threshold - one foot in each world.

There were footsteps above her: John was awake. It was so kind of him to throw a farewell party for her last night, but she knew the real reason he had wanted to come. To be perfectly honest, she wasn’t confident that she could resist if John came after her and begged her to stay again. She had told him she would still be here in the morning last night to get him to calm down and go to sleep. She had almost believed herself at the time, but, in her heart, she knew it was a bluff.

The tram car trundled as it crossed an intersection. She had but a few moments to decide.

She heard the door to her flat open. "Aileen?" John called down.

Sounds of fumbling followed and she could only imagine John hurriedly pulling on his trousers. She smiled a wistful smile at that thought, then stepped out. She reached the curb and raised her arm to hail the driver, who waved back and began to slow his tram. She stepped onto the street and strode out to meet the car.

"Aileen, wait, please!"

John had reached the door. Aileen climbed aboard the tram as it pulled up, and turned to face him out the window with tears in her eyes. Words could not express how she felt, so she blew him a single kiss as the tram trundled off down St. Kilda Road.

Two months later, a postcard of ocean views met John’s mailbox. "From Bombay with love, Mrs. Aileen Holmes."