Snippets 12

When Desmond was a medical student he was approached one day by a fellow student called Paddy, who suggested that they should go to the faculty ball, adding that he would like to introduce him to his girlfriend’s sister, a really lovely girl that he was bound to like. When Desmond hesitated he added “you would do me a great favour as I am very keen on my girl friend, Anna, and her parents wont let her go unless her sister goes as well, and you will really like Una anyway. Desmond agreed to meet Una that week and found her quite pleasant, so Paddy arranged for the two of them to meet the girls at their parent’s house to formally ask the parents permission to take the girls to the ball. The parents gave permission with a proviso that they would use taxis, have no more than two drinks, and have the girls home by 1am, half an hour after the end of the ball. The two boys spruced up their evening suits, which were worn in those days rather than dinner jackets, and counted their money carefully, finding that between them they had just enough to buy the tickets, have two drinks each, and pay for a taxi there. However there wasn’t enough for the taxi home so they went down earlier that evening and locked their bicycles to the railing behind the hotel intending to give the girls a lift home on the crossbars. The girls of course had no objections as long as they got to the ball somehow. Fortunately it was a lovely evening when they arrived at the family home and the two young ladies looked beautiful in their ball gowns and the parents were very happy seeing them all off in the taxi giving the usual last minute instructions. Everything went according to plan, the food was great and they had a wonderful evening dancing even if they had only barely enough to drink and they were all sad when they had to start for home. The night had clouded over but there was no problem getting the girls on the bicycle bars. They had covered the first mile of the two mile journey home when it started to rain so the young men tried to move faster, but unfortunately Una’s dress caught in the bicycle chain and she and Desmond crashed to the ground right in the middle of a large puddle of water and her dress was torn from the top to the bottom exposing her under garments and a lot of skin. Una started to cry and couldn’t be stopped and tore her dress more in trying to release it from the chain smearing oil over everything. When Anna tried to help she got oil all over her clothes so she cried too. The girls refused to get back onto the bicycles so they walked the last mile home getting soaked to the skin with hair ruined, dresses beyond repair, and the two girls almost in hysterics. On arrival at the house Paddy rang the doorbell and when the father opened the door he almost bundled the two girls into the house and without waiting to give explanations he and Desmond hopped onto their bicycles and rode away to the sound of some choice language from the father. Needless to say they never saw the two girls again and that was the end of Paddy’s romance.