Читать книгу Class of '79 - Chris Rooke - Страница 22

As regards the house itself, I managed to last out for a few more days sleeping on the sofa, but the situation wasn’t great and things all came to a head one morning as breakfast was being prepared. I was of course sleeping in the dining room, where we all had breakfast, and for the system to work, I had to be up and about before everyone came down for breakfast at 8.00am. Or, to be more precise, I had to be up and about before 7.45am when Mr Man’s daughter came into the dining room to lay the table.

One morning, I was bit the worse for wear and when the alarm went off, instead of jumping off sofa as usual, I lay there, slowly coming round. After a few minutes I was awake enough to get up and get dressed. Just as I was in the middle of doing so, at the most inappropriate moment possible, in walked the daughter to lay the table. The level of embarrassment between the two of us was palpable, especially as, both being young, we didn’t really know how best to deal with the situation.

What I ended up doing was collapsing back on the sofa whilst trying to cover my privates with sheets and blankets, whilst she, instead of retreating, covered her embarrassment by continuing to lay the table! The time it took her to finish her labours and exit the dining room became the longest two minutes of my young life.

The good news was that this incident made it abundantly clear that it was completely impractical for me to stay there any longer, and that I urgently needed to look for yet another place to stay. And so the search for my third place to stay in as many months began. As before, places were at a premium, and I think I rather went from the frying pan into the fire. This time I moved into the lino house.