The Life of Jane continued

                    The Life of Jane continued - Jane Meets Two Ethnics


      Jane had a conscience. She was also interested in the larger world, probably because she spent her childhood in India. So she joined the United Nations Club at McGill University and there she met students from European-ruled colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. One man she met at this club, shook up her view of the British Empire.
      "I've got no love for the British Empire," a brown-skinned man named Samuel Greenwich told her one night at the UN club."I come from Trinidad and I want to see us get our independence, just like Ghana in Africa has just done. "We need our freedom, not British rule anymore."
    These statements angered Jane.
   "I lived in India as a child," she said. "And the British did a lot of good there."
    "Oh come on," Samuel shot back. "They made a pile of money out of India and then when Gandhi and Nehru stirred up the masses, the Brits couldn't hang on to India anymore. So what did they do? They pulled out and left a hell of a mess behind them. Now India and poor Pakistan have to clean up the mess that the British left behind them. What good was that?
     "Nonsense," Jane retorted. "My father helped set up a health care system across India. The British established the first hospitals there. And where do you think Gandhi, Nehru and all their leaders were educated? In schools that the British set up, no less."
    And so the argument went on until Jane stood up and said, "It's getting late and I'm going back to the residence. I've got a class at eight thirty tomorrow morning."
     Jane was a little surprised when Samuel followed her out into the cold winter night, where  a  light snow was starting to fall. He walked her back to her residence she lived in and then said good night. She went out with him a few times, raising eyebrows of onlookers as they held hands and kissed in restaurants and on campus.
    But Sam , as she now called him, wanted to make love to her and Jane refused. "I don't  sleep with men," she told him one clear brisk afternoon after they'd seen a rerun at the local theatre of the movie 'Picnic' starring William Holden and Kim Novak. "I'll only sleep with someone I'm going  to marry and I'm not ready for that yet." Joan had told nobody about her promise tp John Tytherleigh.
     Sam, who was few centimetres taller than Jane smiled down at her as they made their way back to the women's residence. "Jane," he said in his Caribbean accent. "you'd be surprised at the number of girls I've slept with at McGill. There's only one problem though"
   "Which is? They got pregnant maybe?
   "No, they won't talk to me in except as workers. the daytime. they just want me as a nightime lover.
   "I wouldn't do that because I'm not going to sleep with you," Jane said.
    By now the couple had reached the women's residence where one or two other couples kissed and embraced in the cold winter afternoon air. No man was allowed in the residence except for male workers.
   "You can't come in here," Jane said sharply.
   "I know that," Sam said as he whirled around in the snowy sidewlak, like a brown top spinning on a white carpet. "See you again girl."
    But he never asked her out again.