Another story of love and possibly foolishness to give us succour in this world of hate.
I went to the bank on Shepherds Bush Green this afternoon. I passed a phone box and there had been a message stuck to it. No, it wasn't the kind of message that you're thinking of (at least I hope not). It was a photocopied A4 sheet with a few words and a photo (it really wasn't that kind of message)
It said " !!!Sergio!!!
We have met in WalkAbout.
I have lost Your number.
I really wanna meet You again."
Then there is a photo of a smiling, attractive girl and it continues,
"Please call"
and gives a mobile phone numer and an email address (which suggests that the girl is from the Czech Republic originally)
and it is signed "Pavla"
As I continued round the green I saw that these sheets were stuck up everywhere, on hoardings, on pillar boxes, on passing dogs, on to the faces of tramps (OK, not the last two). Pavla had gone to a lot of trouble to try and track down Sergio in a massively romantic gesture, that bordered on being seen as overkeen!
She had met a man she had fallen for, been careless and stupid enough to mislay his number (she can't have liked him that much then) and was not trying to rectify the damage by mounting an advertising campaign that would unfreeze the heart of an evil snowman. You know a snowman who had someone broken the snowman moral code of standing still and being made of snow.
She had also consequently given her name, phone number, email address and picture to everyone in Shepherds Bush.
I thought that this was possibly a slightly naive thing to do. I imagine she's had a lot of calls and emails from people who aren't called Sergio.I know she's had one. Because I emailed her.
Usually I would be delighted to see the hope and love of a young couple dashed into oblivion, usually I would laugh at her smiling, innocent face and her failure to see the world as a cold and evil place of selfishness, where it is foolish to give your personal details to strangers. Why should Sergio and Pavla experience happiness when I am miserable and alone? I will not rest until the whole world is as misanthropic as I. Until everyone hates love.
But something in her bright, unquestioning eyes softened this bitter old man's heart. I wanted to help. I wanted to find out what happened to these star-crossed lovers and to see if they found the happiness they deserved. I hoped that I might get some vicarious comfort from the shining beacon of their love (or lust if you want to be cynical. You'll never be involved in a whorescue - a word I inadvertently invented yesterday by accidentally missing my space bar, but which was picked up by one correspondent who liked it and claimed it successfully described the entire plot of Pretty Woman)
I told her I'd mention it on here.
She hasn't replied yet. I suspect she's got quite a few emails to wade through. Not all of them as polite and helpful as mine.
So if you're Sergio and you met Pavla in the Walkabout, or if you know a Sergio who did, then tell him to go down to Shepherds Bush and pick up one of the hundreds of love notes that are pinned everywhere for him.
I reckon he's on for at least a definite shag.
And hooray for love and best luck to all the young and hopeful lovers out there, who will learn that all dreams just turn into dust, but just not yet. Enjoy those dreams before they start to crumble.
Pavla 4 Sergio 4ever.
