APPOINTMENT WITH ALICE
( A tale of disorganisation by Philip Charles)
Bill and Ben
are playing the computer video soccer game FIFA 2015.
Bill shouts
“goal! Match over I win again.”
“One more
game.” Suggests Ben.
“No can do”
replies Bill, look at the time its 1am, I’m suppose to meet Alice in the
library tomorrow at 11am.”
“Is Alice your
girlfriend?”
“No she’s my
partner; the tutor put us together to do an environmental project.”
“How did you
ever get roped into that?” questions Ben.
“Fred and I are doing a football project.”
Bill
eventually leaves Ben’s house and gets home at about 2:30am.
11:30am Bill
is awakened by his mobile, he looks at it and sees he has 7 messages from
Alice. He quickly phones Alice,
apologises, makes up some excuse about a family crisis and reschedules to meet
Alice in the library on Wednesday at 11am.
Tuesday
evening, Bill gets a phone call from Ben.
“Hey Bill the
soccer game FIFA 2016 is out. They’re
going to start selling it at the big superstore from midnight. Are you coming along?”
“Sure” says
Bill, “I’ll be there.”
The two young
men get to the store at midnight, only to find a lengthy queue outside the
store. They were finally able to
purchase the soccer video game at about 1:30am.
Ben left the store said goodbye to Bill and got home at about 2:30am.
11:30am
Wednesday morning. Bill is awakened by
his mobile; he looks at it and sees he has 7 messages from Alice. He quickly phones Alice, apologises, makes up
some excuse about flooding in his home and promises on his mother’s grave to
meet Alice in the library on Friday at 2pm.
Friday
morning, Bill gets a phone call from Ben.
“Hey Bill the
blokes from the next block have challenged us to a footie match. It’ll take place in the park, this
Friday. We’re looking for players, will
you join our team?”
“Yes”, says
Bill “that sounds like fun.” “Oh no I
can’t, I promise to meet Alice in the library, Friday 2pm.”
“Don’t stress”
says Ben. “The match kicks off at 10am;
we’ll finish long before 2pm. You’ll
have plenty of time to meet up with Alice.”
Bill agrees
with Ben and goes along to play football in the park with him. During the match, Bill hurts his ankle, and
cannot continue playing so he is substituted.
He decides to stay and watch the end of the match to find out who
wins. He starts feeling cold so he picks
up a jacket he sees on the park bench and wears it. The match ends in a draw. Bill waves goodbye to Ben and catches a bus
heading towards the library.
As Bill gets
off the bus and starts to walk towards the library, he is stopped by a
policeman.
“Hey young
man, somebody robbed a convenience store this morning and a man with a jacket
like yours was seen running away from the shop.
You better come with me to the station to answer a few questions.”
Bill is
utterly dumbstruck, “no way it was me officer, I was playing football in the
park this morning.”
“Have you got
any evidence to that effect?”
“Yes,” says
Bill “my friend Ben can vouch for me, I’ll just give him a call.”
He rings Ben
but Ben’s phone isn’t switched on.
The policeman
says “okay, we’ll have to go and find Ben to check out your story.”
Bill replies
in the negative, “I can’t, I have to meet Alice in the library.”
“Is Alice your
girlfriend?”
“No she’s my
partner; we’re doing an environmental project together.”
To Bill’s
dismay, the policeman turns down his plea.
“I’m afraid Alice will have to wait, this robbery is more important.”
Reluctantly
Bill returns to the park with the policeman, where they meet Ben, who’s just
about to leave the park.
“I tried
calling you,” says Bill accusingly
“Did you? my
battery must have died. Anyway what are
you doing back here, aren’t you suppose to be meeting Alice?”
“I am” says
Bill annoyingly,” but this policeman wants to cross me off his list of
suspects.”
After
pretending not to know if Bill was with him this morning, Ben assures the
policeman that Bill was indeed playing footie with him that morning.
Bill asks Ben
for a fiver to catch a taxi to go to the library to meet Alice.
“it’s your
fault I’m in the park in the first place” he accuses Ben.
“I want the
money back,” Ben tells Bill, as he hurries off to get a taxi.
After what
seems like ages, Bill manages to hail a taxi.
“Take me to
the Central Library, as quickly as possible.” Bill instructs the driver.
The driver says,
“why the rush?”
“I have to
meet Alice there”
“Is Alice your
girlfriend?”
“No she’s my
partner; we’re doing an environmental project together.”
Bill arrives
in the library and looks all over the place but there is no sign of Alice.
The librarian
sees Bill in a confused state and calls him over.
“You look lost
young man, can I help you?”
“I’m looking
for Alice,” says Bill.
“Is Alice your
girlfriend?”
“No she’s my
partner; we’re doing an environmental project together.”
“Oh” says the
librarian, “you must be Bill, a young lady left this note for you.”
Bill was
downhearted as he read the note. It was
a note of dismissal as plain as could be.
It simply stated that Alice had been let down by him too many times, and
now she was going ahead with the environmental project by herself and wouldn’t
include him in the credit.
The librarian
knowing already what was in the note, offered to give Ben some advice.
“If you don’t
mind me saying so, you need to get yourself more organised. We have a seminar in the library on Monday;
it’s about ‘Time Management’. You should
attend, you might benefit from it.” As
Ben was leaving the library, the librarian handed him a leaflet about the ‘Time
Management’ seminar,
“remember it’s at 2pm in the library don’t
be late!”
The End
I would like to say a big thank you to Philip for writing this for me. Great way to show how as a young person you can let others get in the way their hopes and dreams. I think it really highlights the importance of making sure you put the things you want into prospective.
Cedainne Hart
Centre for Leadership and Management Development
18-36 Wellington Street
Woolwich
SE18 6PF
02083177380
Website www.clmd.org.uk
Facebook.com/CLMDUK
Instagram: Clmdrecruit
Twitter:CLMD123
No comments:
Post a Comment