Thanks, Sheila, Doug. I was but eight. Lynn too, I imagine. Doesn't stop the lump does it, Andrew. Yours more a Casablanca-like experience? You say street but I see a railway platform ...
Bill
> On 16 Apr 2014, at 2:03 pm, Sheila Murphy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Pretty intriguing, as this very specific situation generates thought of
> many related ones. Nice, Bill.
>> On Apr 15, 2014 2:43 PM, "Bill Wootton" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Leaving Lynn in the lurch
>>
>> In the summer of 1964 I stood with Lynn Weavers
>> at the pedestrian crossing in front of Giles-Grigg's
>>
>> pharmacy in East Ivanhoe, ready to cross over
>> to Greany's chemist. Our family never used Greany's.
>>
>> I had arranged to go round to Lynn's after school.
>> There she stood, on one foot, then the other, licking
>>
>> her lips as she waited for the signal to change.
>> I say it was summer but when I think of Lynn now,
>>
>> I recall her winter uniform: dark grey school jumper
>> above darker grey pleated skirt, fully pulled-up socks,
>>
>> black lace-ups, neat fringed auburn hair, unwavering
>> eyes, pert, serious lips closing over even front teeth.
>>
>> On top of the clinker brick garage at Lynn's place
>> lay a concrete patio. I liked this region. I must have
>>
>> been there before with her. But this afternoon, after
>> pushing the red button on the red and white striped pole
>>
>> at the pedestrian crossing, when I saw my yellow bus
>> come streaming through the shopping centre, I knew
>>
>> I could not resist the pull to head home. I ran streaking
>> for that bus and caught it. I never looked back.
>>
>> I told Mum I had changed my mind. I did not tell her
>> that I had not told Lynn. I never went to Lynn's again.
>>
>> Probably, properly, I was never invited. I do seem
>> to remember that high patio above her garage,
>>
>> ringed with a low wrought-iron fence, don't I? A plum
>> tree leaning over it? Perhaps I never went there at all.
>>
>> All I know is that I feared, had I crossed that afternoon,
>> that Lynn Weavers would have swallowed up my soul.
>>
>> bw
>> 16.2.14
>
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