The Rose of Singapore by Peter Neville

The Rose of Singapore by Peter Neville

Author:Peter Neville
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789814358668
Publisher: Monsoon Books Pte. Ltd.


19

Whistling happily to himself, LAC Peter Saunders reached the sergeants’ mess kitchen at eleven o’clock in the morning on 1 April 1953 only to be confronted at the office doorway by a grim-faced Sergeant Muldoon.

“G’morning, Sarge. What’s up?” Peter asked.

“Jeez, Pete, have I got bad news for you,” the sergeant answered. “Bad news for me, too.”

“Bad news! What do you mean?” asked Peter.

“Have you looked at the noticeboard lately, like in the last day or so?”

“No. Should I?”

“You haven’t been keeping up with SROs? You haven’t read them recently?”

“No, not for months. Not since I began working here. Why?”

“You best go and read them,” said the sergeant, his face uncommonly solemn. “They’ve got you down for a posting to Negombo.”

“What!” exclaimed Peter, aghast.

“I’m just as shocked as you, Pete. Thinking a mistake may have been made, I checked with Movements. They’ve got you down to be posted to Negombo next Thursday. That’s the RAF station north of Colombo, the capital of Ceylon.”

Completely taken aback and confused by this dreaded news, Peter could only mutter, “Yeah, I know where Negombo is. But I can’t believe they’d do this to me.”

“Well, check for yourself,” said the sergeant. “Take a look at the lobby noticeboard.”

“I will,” said Peter dejectedly. Hurrying from the office, he passed through the kitchen without noticing the Chinese cooks and other kitchen staff preparing tiffin, and on through the dining room where white-coated Chinese waiters were laying the tables, until he reached the double-doored main entrance to the mess and lobby where the four-foot-square noticeboard was attached to the wall for all to see.

With pounding heart, his confused thoughts for the most part was on how to break the awful news to Rose. They just can’t do this to me, he kept saying to himself. Why do they want to send me to Negombo when there’s a shortage of cooks here at Changi? Quickly he scanned the many notices tacked to the board, seeing on it the usual roster of duty senior NCOs, guard and fire picket rosters, minutes of the last messing committee meeting, and a leaflet asking for volunteers to play RAF Seletar at cricket. Actually, the cricket match had already been played the previous Saturday, with Changi losing dismally, but the leaflet had not been removed from the board. The normal sheets of Standing Station Orders were also on the board, but Peter could find nothing relating to postings. Puzzled, he stood back and again studied every item on the board. No, there was definitely nothing on it that related to postings, for anyone to anywhere.

Totally perplexed, Peter returned to the kitchen office to find Sergeant Muldoon seated at the office desk awaiting him, a surprisingly different expression on his face from when Peter had seen him just moments ago. Then, he had seemed troubled by the news, but now his eyes were sparkling mischievously.

Puzzled by the change in the sergeant’s expression, Peter said to him, “I couldn’t find anything on the board to do with postings.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.