The university student stood between two parked cars by the side of the broad Carlton street and look for his girlfriend in the distance. Just minutes before, he had driven away from the share-house that she lived in, on a kilometre or so away. She was only minutes away, he knew. It seemed silly to go inside only to come and out meet her in two minutes when she arrived on her push bike. Of course, he would have given her a lift to his place. They went most places together as it was. But she had wanted to have her bicycle at his place so she was riding it across.
There she was in the distance. He recognised her from her flowing dark hair and the green polka-dot dress that she looked so adorable in. He would also spot her over any distance just from the way she moved. As she came closer, bigger and clearer, he smiled broadly. He was not the sort of young man to be noticed by girls. That this particular young woman both noticed him and, for some reason, wanted to be with him was a source of steady bewilderment.
Soon enough, he could see her face, set in concentration as she pedalled along the road in the Sunday morning sunshine. If she had seen him standing there, she showed now sign of it. Unbidden, a mischievous thought flashed across his basically adolescent brain. He stepped out from between the car out onto the side of the road. Then, when she was only fifteen or twenty feet away, he leapt out onto the road and into her path. He lumbered towards he, arms flailing, and roaring like a lunatic.
“Waaaagh!”
Her eyes went wide with surprise and she lost all momentum. The wobbled to one side, then to the other, and then – with no further ceremony – feel sideways onto the road. He roared with laughter, doubled over. Of course, he had not meant for her to fall off the bike. But the sight of wobble, wobble, crash was just priceless and he laughed and roared.
Still laughing, he ran to her and helped her up off the cobblestones. Dark eyes were wide open with fright and surprise, tears welling in their corners.
“You,” she said, he voice shaking, “are a bloody lunatic.”
“Yes,” he said, still laughing. “You might be onto something there.”