Wednesday 6 February 2008

Una Ragazza Bella

I was going to write about the absurdities of "Political Correctness" but thought, "Hang on, I've only been doing this blogging for 5 minutes, better not write anything too controversial!" So instead, I am writing about something fairly unusual (for us) that happened on a bus a few nights ago.
Harry and I had been out for a lovely evening with friends.
As we knew we would be having a couple of drinks and we never drink & drive, we left the car at home and caught a bus to our city centre. No problems going ...........
Coming home, just before 11 pm, we waved friends off, as they boarded their bus. We were now back on our city centre, not a good place to be late at night, but it still wasn't that late.
We were faced with three choices. We like walking, but that was not an option as we would have to go through a most unsafe area to get home.
We could get a taxi or bus it. We walked a short distance while we were deciding, but happened to come to the bus stop first. There were already several people waiting and this bus would take us almost to our door. So we joined the queue.
What was the fracas going on? A young, small, pretty teenage girl lying in the gutter, her back in a pool of water. A very irate man, not much older, trying to get her up and trying to reason with her. She was blind drunk and obviously didn't know what she was doing or saying. She staggered to her feet and started screaming obscenities in Italian and English.
The bus drew up and our small queue boarded it, the drunken girl followed us and went to the back of the bus without paying. The driver did not say anything. The red haired lad told the driver that he'd pay for the girl and he joined her, sitting on the seat beside her. He kept scolding her for making a spectacle of herself and for putting her feet up on the seat in front.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed she'd taken off her coat and was lying on the floor stroking the leg of the man sitting directly behind us. The young man who had taken responsibility for her, some how or other managed to get her back into her seat, his face now as red as his hair! He tried reasoning with her one minute and being angry the next, but nothing seemed to work. 
"Sebastian, Sebastian ..... I love him ..... he is my husband ...... he is my lover," she exclaimed with her lilting Italian accent.
"Shut up, will you!" Redhead replied, "Can't you see everyone's looking at you!" and so it went on.
I was suddenly aware of her standing right by us now, only clothed in a tiny skirt and tights. She looked as though she was about to take her bra off. Harry was trying to turn his back on her as she started to rub up against him.
No one said anything .... bus driver taking no notice and boyfriend not rescuing her this time. Harry did not think it was Christmas come early and was looking so embarrassed.
I looked into her glazed eyes and said, "I'd go and sit down, love, before you fall." Ridiculous remark, but it seemed to cool her ardor and she went back to her seat. 
Still no one saying anything in the bus but lots of eye rolling by now.
Our stop came fairly soon afterwards and the driver never said a word as we disembarked.  As we walked past the bus. We turned to see where the couple were sitting, Redhead still trying to control the girl's behaviour, she, still resisting and carrying on the antics.

Normally after a night out, we'd have a bedtime drink to wind down, and discuss our outing, but this time the scene in the bus, played on our minds & prevented us from settling down.
Was the boy she was with, taking her home to save her from being harmed on the city centre or was he  also going to take advantage of her?
She must have parents somewhere who worried about her. Why did she have to get into such a state in the first place? She was just about young enough to be our grand child! Took a long while to get to sleep as I worked out the possibilities.
I guess I need to get out more!

13 comments:

the mother of this lot said...

Hi Maggie May - I left you an award on my blog.

Hope Harry's recovered!

the mother of this lot said...

You might need Sam for this one!

Just save the picture of the award to your computer, then write a little post about getting it, and put the picture in the post. (Click on the little picture icon at the top of the box when you're writing a new post). Then choose ten other bloggers to pass it on to - some people do a link to the other blogs within the post, but you don't have to - some people just say the links are in my blogroll. Tell the ten bloggers in their comments box that you've left them an award, and Bob's your uncle!

If you want to do links within a post, click on 'help' on Blogger Dashboard and look for 'how to insert a hyperlink' - they can explain it much better than me!

You can display the award in your sidebar - just click on 'customise' then 'add a page element'.

Sam'll figure it out, I'm sure! (It's a lot easier than it sounds)!

Expat mum said...

Being serious for a moment - if more kids like this were arrested for being drunk and disorderly, perhaps it would make them think twice. After all it would go down on their public record and might make getting a job more difficult now that so many companies do background checks. I used to have a bit of a drink when younger but was honestly never like that. I think the most I used to do was start tap-dancing!

Maggie May said...

Everyone is so accommodating, in England. No one wants to get involved in anything remotely unpleasant! Yes, you have a point! A shock is what many of the youngsters need.

orneryswife said...

Hi! I got your comment at Miller Manor, and I think you got there through a comment I left on your post on recycling which I THINK I got to through Authorblog--David is the king of networking! :-) Anyway, no matter how you got there, I'm glad you stopped in for a visit! I hope you come back often, as I will visit you, too!
TM

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

We used to live in Manchester before we took to the Welsh hills and scenes like that and worse are very common. I love a glass of wine and hate to sound life an old fart but I do worry that drinking to get very drunk seems to have become acceptable. Scary to think how vulnerable it makes you.

Parisgirl said...

Young people get drunk in France, of course they do, but a big difference seems to be that drink is generally consumed with food. On the whole they don't go out with the intention of getting drunk either.

The other day one of the French newspapers said binge drinking was now Britain's "number one national sport". I was very indignant, but I fear they may be right.

Swearing Mother said...

It's a worry how much kids need to drink these days to "have a good time" when in fact, they don't look as if they're having a good time at all.

It's so sad.

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

This binge drinking is quite a problem now isn't it? I could write forever on the subject which I know quite a lot about. That and drug addiction are the scourge of this country in terms of health, family traumas and the cost to the country of dealing with the problem in the criminal justice system. We have somehow got to claim the streets back again. I have some quite controversial remedies!

Maggie May said...

motherofthislot! ......Sam followed your instructions & Bob's you uncle as you said! I'm still dependant on him for ALL technical stuff!
He's off on holiday for a week soon! I might end up in outer cyber space till he gets back as my computer sometimes gets stuck!
He says, "Its not the computer, its me!"

onery'swife ........ yes that's what it was! Sorry! I will continus to visit you!

elizabethm ...........every big city has a problem but England does need to pull its socks up! Drinking & drugs are the problem! Don't get me started!

Maggie May said...

swearingmother .... I think there's too much cheap booze & its too readily available. Should think they feel really ill after drinking so much!

retired&crazy ...... love to hear your controversial remedies!

Merisi said...

Bella ubriaca, questa ragazza!
Don't we all pray that our kids will never ever get that drunk?
Have yourself a safe and quiet weekend,
Merisi

Maggie May said...

thanks vienna for that! Have visited your post! Very lovely!