You might say it was the perfect British Summer’s Day on the banks of River Usk in Newport. A perfection spoilt, from her perspective, by the fact that nearly everyone in town felt the same way as she did and decided to stroll along the river or sit on one of the benches the local council provided by way of justifying the outrageous local taxes levied on it’s citizens.
It was Monday 4th of June 2007 and the weather was a pleasant sunny 23 degrees Celsius, with one or two white fluffy clouds in the sky wondering aimlessly along the skyscape.
Riesling found her usual bench on the riverfront was taken by the Greenaway family who were on a day trip to Newport from Cirencester, Gloucestershire. They seemed to be out looking for trouble rather than to enjoy the sights of this ancient Welsh city. When Riesling got close enough to them, she could see they were having an argument amongst themselves. The mother; with a dotted-line tattoo with a pair of scissors icon along her throat had the word “Cut” on one side of her neck and “Here” on the other side; was saying to her fat and heavily tattooed 12-year old daughter: “Oi Sam, give your little bruvva one of your cigs or you’ll not ave any more beer!” Sam lost her temper, threw a cigarette in her younger brother’s face and said: “next time, get your own smokes, ponce!” and hit him on the top of his head with her fat fist so hard, it made his teeth rattle and forced a vinegar and chips flavoured belch out of his stomach!
Riesling decided to go and look for an alternative bench where she can eat her lunch in peace. She had to walk for a few minutes along the front before she could find a half occupied bench that she could sit on. The occupant of the other half of the bench was an elderly gentleman reading his Racing Post and making notes on a piece of paper. The man had a can of coke on the bench and he hastily removed it to make room for the hovering Riesling Damp. She sat down without realising that her old bench companion had spilled some of his drink on the bench. Riesling brought out her bacon butty feeling a little miffed that she couldn’t sit on her favourite bench and she wasted some 6 and half minutes looking for an alternative seat.
The elderly racing enthusiast finally stood up, carefully folded his newspaper, stuffed his notes in his pocket and walked to the rubbish bin to dispose of his empty can of coke and sandwich bag. Riesling followed him with her eyes for a little while and went back to her bacon butty guessing he was going to the betting shop in the High Street to try his luck at winning something on the horses.
As she was tucking into the last mouthful of her lunch, an absent minded, odd-looking gentleman in an old suit approached the bench and sat down in the space recently vacated by the elderly gentleman.
Walter Patch, on one of his rare days off work, had caught the X15 bus from his home on the outskirts of the city and bought himself a sandwich from a small bakery near the bus station. Walter took out his notebook from one pocket, balanced it on his left knee, took out a cheese and onion on brown bread from the right pocket and proceeded to scribble in his notebook with his left hand and eat his sandwich with the right. Walter ate his sandwich heartily making unusual noises in the process; he hummed while chewing and when he swallowed, he made a smacking noise before taking the next bite. This “hummmmm, smack, bite, hummmmm, smack” went on for a while; Riesling could not help but monitor the noise and was secretly impressed with the consistency of the pattern. Walter was completely oblivious to the world around him, including his future wife sitting not more than 1 meter away from him on the same bench.
Riesling took out a Turkish Delight bar from her bag and couldn’t help glancing from the corner of her eye at the noisy eater next to her, she wanted to see what he was scribbling. All she could see were lots of diagrams and symbols and decided there was no point in trying to guess what the scribbles were all about. For all she knew, it was Chinese, Martian or Moonese. Checking her watch, Riesling began to calculate how soon she needed to return to make up for the longer journey back to Marks & Spencer. She decided she had just about enough time to finish her Turkish Delight bar.
I think the precise moment Walter fell in love was when Riesling stood up, adjusted her M&S uniform and walked away to his left. Involuntarily, Walter lifted his head and watched her walk away. The view he had of her was her back in general and her bum in particular. There, in the middle of her uniform and over the area where the two cheeks of her buttocks met, was a damp patch roughly in the shape of a heart! He couldn’t take his eyes off that damp patch; he felt his pulse racing, his breathing get heavier, and his forehead perspire. The sight captivated him like no other in his whole life. He didn’t know what to do or think. He wasn’t to know it then but, it was love at first sight!
It is fair to say that Riesling was totally unaware of the pair of eyes following her, or to be more precise, following the heart-shaped damp patch imprinted on her uniform. Had she been aware of Walter’s eyes following her, she would certainly have felt self-conscious and might have tripped and fallen over. As it was, she went straight to her workstation behind the sausages and hams and said to the next customer: “yes Madam, can I help you?”
Having had to change her lunchtime routine, Riesling was pleased with herself for arriving back at the store bang on time. She decided to be more adventurous in the future and go a little further along the riverfront to see if she can still return to work bang on time again.
To read the next chapter, please click here: Chapter 2
