Nat put down her knife and fork and pushed the plate away from her. She didn't suppose it would kill her.

She looked around the table. Cleo was explaining some surgery technique and all of the others were giving her their un-divided attention. All except Pranoo. She was looking past Cleo and out over the Dallas skyline.

At least it gave Nat the chance to look at her.

She had an interesting face. Dark brown, almost black eyes. A nose a size too big for her face and a mouth that seemed a year in advance of the rest of her.

She turned her head towards her and Nat hurriedly looked away.

She'll be thinking I fancy her next. Nat thought.

Nat picked p her disposable cup of what had jokingly been advertised as coffee and took another sip. She wished she took sugar now.

Nat looked down the table to where Cleo sat. She was thirty now, she thought, and seven years older than she was. A qualified doctor and surgeon. She had really made something of her life. Nat thought of her own life. A degree in music. But was she going to do with it? Become a pop star like her brother? She had tried that life and it wasn't for her. Teach? Give piano lessons?

Marianne, David's girlfriend wanted her to go into a recording studio with her and cut some tracks. That was after the baby was born. She'd be an aunty then. Her father would be a grandfather. Her mother had said he had never really come to terms with being a father so she thought this might hit him hard.

Pranoo was standing up opposite and walking to where another, older woman was standing. The family resemblance was obvious.

They seemed to be arguing about something. Then she returned to the table.

Cleo stood up and went to speak to the lady.

"Who is that?" Nat asked.

"My mother." Pranoo replied. "She is head of the surgery department here."

"Does that mean she's Cleo's boss?"

"Doctor Mc Toomb." The tall blond boy said as if correcting her.

"Sorry." Nat stood corrected. "Doctor Mc Toomb."

It felt strange using her title. She couldn't ever remember calling her Doctor before.

"Yes." The blond boy said. "She's a very important person."

Nat looked at him. He was hardly a boy. She thought. He would only be two or three years younger than her at most. He was well built already. Wide shoulders. She could feel her hole start to moisten.

She needed a man. It had been so long since the last one. But there were no one she fancied.

She had made up her mind. She was going back to England. She could teach music at the local primary school where her mother was the head teacher. If only up until Christmas. Her mother had suggested she organise and run the children's nativity play for that year. That was if her mother could get the board of governors to allow the name of Jesus to be spoken at Christmas time.

"Sorry." Somebody had spoken to her. "What did you say?"

"I said we have to stay here tomorrow afternoon." Pranoo spoke. "We have a chemistry exam. My mother could have changed the time but she won't."

"I see."

"Some of us have tickets to the concert." The blond boy said. "But if we have to stay here until five then we will miss the start of the show."

"That would be a pity." Nat could see how going to the show would appear more important than medical studies.

"Pranoo was elected to speak to her mother."

"It was Mitch's idea. I don't even have a ticket. She said no anyway."

"You had to get them inside the first couple of hours." Mitch smiled a very self-satisfied smile.

"I was at an exhibition in Houston with my mother and father." Pranoo said, glum-

faced.

"It will be on pay per view." Mitch pointed out.

"It's not the same. That's what my mother said."

Cleo sat down at the head of the table.

"You will all be pleased to know that your exam will be starting at nine-thirty tomorrow morning and will finish for one."

There was a low cheer from the students. Nat noticed that Pranoo didn't join in. She resolved to see if she could do something about it.