From Coal to Sand

Rose had been subsisting for a month on a diet of two pounds of carrots or two pounds of apples per day, priced at one shilling, from a market stall near college. She was beginning to feel the strain of such a restricted diet, so decided to get a part time job. Leaving college to attend an interview for a barmaid at a pub at the far end of the King's Road, she almost ran into a tall, bespectacled man in a heavy overcoat. The man seemed confused as the door was not signposted for entry or exit to the college, so Rose asked a fateful question: "Can I help you?" The man took the opening gambit, turned right around and accompanied her to the underground station, chatting all the way. Rose found his banter unusual: he asked if she would teach him French, when his distinctive accent suggested he was French. For her pub interview she was wearing her burgundy corduroy miniskirt dress, with Marie's Baker's Boy burgundy velvet hat and Charles Jourdan patent leather shoes. Twiggy was the idol of the time and Rose had maintained her own thin frame thanks to a period of anorexia, then bouts of compulsive eating and bulimia starting in her final university year. Also, she had paid for tinted lenses in her spectacles to prevent fluorescent light triggered migraines, with a secondary aim of making the thick lenses less noticeable. So she felt confident in her appearance, and noted with approval her companion's trendy leather jacket with a small, knotted silk scarf at his neck. His hair was longish and wavy, his complexion fair and he had the panache of a bohemian Frenchman. They entered the tube station and the Circle/District lines together but travelled towards their destinations in opposite directions, Rose towards Sloane Square, her companion towards Gloucester Road. As they parted the man thrust a coin and a piece of paper into Rose's hand. She looked at the sixpenny piece and the name and number on the paper in amazement. "That's so you can call me," he said. "I know I can't call you, but you can't avoid calling me now." Rose laughed. Obviously she had made an impression on him, though she was more focussed on the upcoming interview than on calling this stranger. To her pleasure Rose got the pub job and started work the next day. She could work two or three weekday evenings. The following Monday the young man she had met came back to college. She recognized him at once in the huge restaurant at coffee break. He rose and greeted her. "Do you remember asking me if you could help me?"