The party for high school girls and boys was up some stairs in a hall on the island but when we arrived there we were already late; somebody had hung a wooden sign from the lintel ‘No Boys’ with an ‘X’ underneath. Presumably girls were still allowed and they were trying to stick to a quota.
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So, me and a few other sixth formers went to the café next door to wait until the entrance requirements would change. A monk with egg stains on the front of his black habit ushered us in. He showed our group to a table next to a claw foot bath filled with water by a window that overlooked the harbour. I lay fully clothed in the bath and a boy in a blue golf shirt took a shine to me. He was on the fat side and the monk sniggered when the boy lay on top of me in the bath and tried to kiss me.
I told the boy that I wasn’t interested or that it was not my thing even though he tried again; then I pushed him away and got out of the bath to see if the club had opened up.
I walked next door and this time the sign had been turned around to allow boys. The sign next to the door indicated that girls would not be allowed. So, I went back to the café to tell them it was alright to go up.
When we went to the hall it was dark and kind of empty. A disco ball cast mirrored lights on the dance floor but there was no one dancing.
Then another boy ran up the stairs to tell us that the the boats back to Hong Kong would be stopping now because of the storm. And sure enough when we we got to the pier the wind and a cold spitting rain lashed my face and only one metal hulled green boat with only a simple roof and an accompanying tug boat was there to take us back.
Rain water gathered at the bottom of the hull, and the boat looked kind of flimsy. I wondered whether to get on it.
The other boys, too, were looking at the options. Was this the last boat?
Then another boat, a little bigger than the green one—a wooden boat with side windows and an inner cabin—pulled up, so we got on that one instead.
And the wind and the rain continued to lash our faces.
Photo by John Salmon via WikiMedia Commons.
