Don't go out in the dark
The energy crisis had shut the street lights in Ukraine. We returned from a formal dinner at 8pm to the dingy apartment. TV?... Ukrainian; reading?.. too dim; sleeping?... far too early; drinking?... no booze!
“There’s a hotel across town run by twins I used to teach”, exclaimed Gerald, “let’s go!”
The road was long, straight and totally dark; the welcome warm and bright. Free booze, all night!
Somehow we staggered back, singing.
“You could have been robbed and killed!” was the bollocking we received from a professor next day. My throbbing head didn’t care – might even have been preferable!
- Category: True Stories Told As Fiction
3 comments add one below
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Neville Hunt over 8 years ago
Thanks Michelle, it's all true. Gerald must have been very popular. The twins were so generous. To me it was kind of surreal...except the head, which was very real!
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D.M. over 8 years ago
Interesting travelogue. A series?
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Neville Hunt over 8 years ago
Yes, I think so D.M. I've been to lots of interesting places and had quite a few interesting or challenging moments, many in Eastern Europe and Russia. The challenge, though, is to get a smile or prompt thought in each one without moving away from the truth of the occasion. I'd hate to bore people or prompt them to think I'm bragging! I just got lucky being sent there and being a lunatic, I liked to live dangerously! This was my Ukrainian collection.
