“At some point during the night, I woke up badly in need of a pee. Also, I was feeling very cold. Had I inadvertently neglected to close the window? I didn’t remember having opened one. And now I couldn’t find the switch for the bedside light. Floundering about in the dark in my pyjamas, I could feel a definite breeze coming from one side of the room, but it didn’t seem to be where the window was. The floor also felt cold and hard as I put my feet down. Anyway, I had better get to the bathroom before I wet myself. It was over that way, wasn’t it?”
Max Maartinesz is a history professor. He is single and lives alone. Make of that what you will, is what he would say.
His life is by and large ordered and very comfortable. But he always has the distinct impression that something is missing. Perhaps a bit of spice? Then, one day, in the week between Christmas and the New Year, whilst he is taking a break in London, he chances on a travel advertisement in Private Eye: Propitious Peregrinations ®. What follows is an adventure adding so much spice to his otherwise mundane life that he is left wondering if he has made the right choice in, for once, following an impulse, rather than a carefully crafted plan.
What do you think?
“And he turned back to his companion, who laughed along with him. I walked out as nonchalantly as I could manage, desperately trying to avoid the temptation to run, which, of course, given my particular build, wouldn’t have been possible anyway.”
“What do you do in such a situation, where you have no more than five hours left before you will be carted off to an unknown, but undoubtedly unwelcome, fate? Actually, I should not have minded contributions from the readership to that very question.”
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