Atkin
I was going to the pictures with my girl at 7.30, got there first and started queueing
on my own
By 9.15 she still had not arrived and so I walked around the block and then I thought
I'd telephone
I let the phone keep ringing for ten minutes perhaps a quarter of an hour then concluded
she's not home
I thought I'd walk around the block again but soon got fed up wandering aimlessly around
all on my own
It was then the thought occurred to me she might have been there all the time just
let the phone keep ringing on its own
In order that I might be led to think that she'd gone out or for some other reason
wasn't there at home
Now if for any reason this should prove to be the case I couldn't help but wonder what
the cause might be
Perhaps her budgie Goldie had escaped out of the window but in any case I thought I'd
go and see
Well the truth is by the time I'd caught the bus down at the corner and arrived the
time was nearly half-past ten
So in order that I shouldn't seem a fool I went into the phone box just outside her
house and phoned again
Just as I dialled the number I perceived an upstairs window in her house become
illumined by a light
Immediately I replaced the receiver on the bracket and once more I stepped outside
into the night
Now I knew her mum and dad had gone to Scotland for the weekend and that she was
in the house all on her own
So I presumed it was her brother's motorbike what stood outside the gate although
it's eighteen months since he left home
I felt compelled to cogitate on what was most appropriate in circumstances previously
unknown
I reasoned that if she felt tired she wouldn't thank me if I woke her up and so I
caught the bus back home