After I obtained my degree I decided to take a holiday before starting work. I had a job lined up but the company was in the process of shifting their offices, and I wouldn't actually start until the move had been completed. This gave me a month in which to bum around and I thought that it would be the ideal time to visit Europe.
With blessings from my parents (and a nice little cheque, thank you Dad) I set sail for foreign shores. Took wing, really, as I flew over. Sailing would have taken ages. I landed at Heathrow in England and started exploring. I intended to spend only a few days in each country, with France my next point of call. I wanted to go under the English Channel. Did you know that the tunnel is over thirty miles long? That's a fair way to be underground.
After the experience of going through the tunnel, France itself was a bit of a letdown. The place is nice, with plenty of history, but I found the people rather supercilious, wanting my money but not really wanting to supply service with a smile. As far as I was concerned two days there was plenty.
Another thing I wanted to experience while in Europe was the overnight trains. I think it's cool that you can get in a train, have a good night's sleep, and wake up three countries away from your starting point. I went on down to the Eurorail offices to arrange for a trip.
I promptly hit a snag getting onto that night's train. I, naturally enough, wanted to make sure I was in an all women couchette. There were no vacancies in the women only couchettes. There were some vacancies in the mixed six people couchettes. Mind you, being Paris, I couldn't be sure if this was just the typical Parisian attitude of hinder the tourist or a genuine fact. Not that it really mattered. If I wanted to catch that train it would be in a shared couchette.
"There is no need to worry about it, mademoiselle," I was assured. "It is true that in the single sex couchettes one changes into night clothes, but the mixed couchettes are larger, sleeping six, and the passengers do not change into nightwear.
"What you have on," the swine told me, giving me a very nasty once over, "is quite reasonable for nightwear."
I was wearing a very nice slacks suit at the time. The way he looked at me you'd think I was wearing baggy old flannelette pyjamas. They have the oddest notion about what is suitable female clothing here, although the women do look quite chic. I'd picked up several nice items while shopping.
Resignedly I booked into a shared couchette. Sharing the night with five strangers was not my idea of ideal but it would be an experience. I'd just have to hope that they didn't snore.
When I boarded I was pleased to find that there were mainly women in the couchette. Four, including me, with the two men being a couple of American sailors who were travelling to Germany for some reason. Everyone seemed quite cheerful. It can be the pits travelling with someone who's a grouch. Seeing that we were going to be spending the night together I made an effort to be friendly with everyone.
When we pulled in to Metz we were advised to get a meal there. The train would be there for half an hour. Being hungry I took the advice and was soon in the station diner trying out their menu. When I got back to the couchette the seats had been transformed into bunks. I just sat on the one allocated to me, not wanting to lie down yet. Shortly afterwards the two sailors rolled up and sat on their bunks.
I was still waiting for the other women to appear when the train whistle sounded and the train started moving. I looked at the three vacant bunks and must have seemed a bit startled as one of the sailors spoke up.
"The ladies were only going to Metz," he said. "That's why they're not on board."
So just like that I found I was spending the night alone with two men. At least, the couchette was fitted with a signal so I could page the conductor if required. It was already into the evening. I decided to just lie down and see if I could go to sleep.
I couldn't really get to sleep. I was lying there, just feeling drowsy, hearing the low tones of the sailors as they talked to each other, keeping their voices down out of consideration to me. After a while the lights went out, the sailors shut up and I finally nodded off.
I was woken up a very short time later to find the lights on and the sailors standing next to my bunk. Seeing that I was awake one of them spoke.
"Um, I'm Tom," he told me. "This is Angus."
My immediate thought was who the hell would call their child Angus? That was a Scottish name, not American. That thought went by the way when Tom kept on speaking.
"We're bored and not really tired yet so we thought we'd get in some nice healthy exercise before we went to bed. Are you game?"
What? Was he asking if they could have sex with me? He was, I was sure of it. I shook my head.
"No. Thank you, but no thanks."
"Pity. We were only offering out of politeness," Tom said, and although he appeared to have a nice friendly smile it didn't comfort me.
"What do you mean?"
"Just that you're going to help us exercise, willing or not," I was calmly informed.