I fell in love with
Antonella Perioli the very first time I saw her, although at the time I didn’t
know that was her name, but irespective of that, when I saw her in the
playground on that September morning it was love at first sight.
She was a first year at my School, the very
un-PC named Cecil Rhodes Secondary Modern, however it was the 1960s, and heroes
of the empire were still honoured back then, even if the tide was already
turning.
So Antonella was a first year and I was fourth
year but I was bowled over by the skinny little brunette, who literaly stood
out from the crowd because where all her fellow first years were wearing white knee
socks with their uniform Antonella was wearing black on her skinny legs.
Although I was instantlly taken with her from
the first moment, indeed I was completely smitten with her, I didnt speak to
her for two years.
At that time in history people talked about how
they would always remember where they were and what they were doing when they
heard the news that John F Kennedy was dead, but for me that first glimpse of
Antonella was a moment that I believed would live with me forever and I was
right.
I found out later during Antonella’s first term that
Giovanna, who was in my form, was her sister, though I would never have guessed
that they were sisters by looking at them they were so completely different.
However being a classmate of Gianna was a bonus
as I got to overhear snippets of her conversations and got to hear about Nella,
what she was doing, who she was seeing, what music she liked, what films she
went to see, which was good to know, even if it was all after the event stuff.
Over the two years following that life altering first look at her in the
playground, I may not have spoken to her but I did get
to see her alot though, around school especially and if I saw her in town or in
the cinema queue or at
the Lido she would always smile because she knew I was a friend of her sister,
but I never had the courage to speak to her so I would say nothing and just
smile back.
Sometimes on those ocasions when we ran into
eachother she would be with girlfriends and sometimes with a boy and sometimes I
was with mates and other times I’d be with a girl, and I had my fair share of
girlfriends but invariably they would have had to ask me out.
None of them were serious though, it was just a
question of trying someone on for size to see if they fit, and to be fair some
of them were a good fit but my problem was that how ever good the fit was, they
never measured up against Nella.
The older I got the
braver I got and I eventually two years after losing my heart to her I finally worked
up the courage to speak to her and after that we went on to speak a lot more once
the ice was broken.
All during that time I
was firm friends with her sister Giovanna, but I didn’t know at the time if she
knew I carried a torch for Nella.
One day I was fishing up
at the Ally Pally Lake on the shady spot by the point on the south side, it was
during the school holidays, though I had left school 3 years earlier, I just
happened to have a day off that day.
I worked at Carpenters
hardware store in Muswell Hill and we had been stock checking all the previous
weekend so I had a day off in lieu, and as it was a nice day I decided to go
fishing at the Alexandra Palace boating Lake.
It was a well-stocked little
Lake and you could still fish it back then, until some idiot decided to
introduce Australian Black Swans to the Lake and they didn’t mix with the
fishermen so they banned fishing.
Ally Pally was one of
my favourite places in the whole world back then and I had been going there for
years.
Apart from the
fishing, there was the boating Lake, and a miniature railway, picnic areas and
acres of grass, and it was the place I felt most at peace and where I was often
lost in dreams.
On that warm sunny
August day by Alexandra Palace Lake I was sat on my folding stool on the little
peninsula fishing beneath the shade of an old oak.
I had just cast out
and was enjoying the gentle breeze off the water when a soft voice said
“Hello”
I didn't need to turn around to know who that sweet voice belonged to, it
was one I knew well but I turned around anyway.
“Hi” I responded
As I looked around I saw Antonella standing with the sun at her back.
I took it on faith that it was her because with the breeze stirring the
strands of her brunette hair and the golden sun behind it she appeared to have
a fiery halo that left her face in shadow, but her silhouetted shape beneath
her summer dress left me in no doubt.
“I thought it was you” she said “no work today?”
“No” I replied “Day off”
The sun was temporarily obscured by a cloud and I could see her lovely face
for the first time.
She had filled out a
bit since I first saw the scrawny little girl with the skinny legs in the black
socks that I fell in love with six years earlier.
“Have you caught anything?” she asked as she sat down on the bank next to
me.
“Not yet” I admitted
“So what brings you here?” I asked
“I’ve been shopping in Muswell Hill with Katie Young” she replied “and I’m
on my way home”
“The Lake is a bit out of your way isn’t it?” I asked, already knowing the
answer
“Yes” Nella admitted gazing out over the Lake “but I love it here”
“Me too” I concurred wistfully
It seemed fitting to
me that I should be seated at the place that was most special to me with the
girl who was most special to me.
We sat there in silence for a few minutes just enjoying the scene until we
were brought back to the moment by a loud splash as one of the rowers who had
lost an oar went in after it, the resulting wave headed rapidly to the site of
my float so I started reeling it in.
“Have you been fishing long?” she asked
“What today? Or in general?” I responded and she laughed
“Both then” she said and laughed again
“Well today, about 2 hours before you found me” I told
her “and generally since I was seven when my Dad first took me with him”
“Do you still go with him” she asked
“Oh yes” I replied “What about you?”
“Me? I’ve never fished” she replied
“Would you like to have a go?” I asked
“Yes please” she answered enthusiastically
“Ok then” I said just as the float approached the bank.
I quickly discarded what was left of the bait and opened
my bait box.
“I can’t put the wriggly thing on” she said horrified
“It’s ok I’ll put the bait on” I replied and smiled at
her as I baited the hook and then stood up
“Ok we need to stand up to do the next bit” I said and
Antonella got quickly to her feet and dusted herself off.
I showed her the basic principle of casting and then I
stood behind her as she held the rod in her right hand.
God she smelt good, her hair, her skin, her clothes.
“Concentrate” I said to myself as I breathed in her
perfume.
I put my hand on hers and indicated the best place to
hold the grip.
“Now pull some line out with your other hand”
She did as said and I took my right hand off hers.
“Right you’re on your own” I said and rested my hands on
her waist.
Swiveling at the waist, Antonella swung the rod to the
right and then snapped it forward and the float sailed through the air and
plopped a respectable distance from the bank.
As it turned out it was a good job I was holding her
waist, otherwise her momentum may have had her following the float into the
water, well that was my excuse anyway.
“I did it” she squealed
“Great cast Nella” I said “Right now comes the patient bit, you sit down and
watch”
I indicated the stool
“No, I’ll be fine on the ground” she said
“Nonsense anglers privilege” I insisted
“Well thank you” she said perching on the stool then in a whisper she asked “What’s
an angler?”
“It’s another term for a fisherman” I confided
Then I sat on the floor and got a nice look at her legs
which were no longer the skinny twigs of the eleven year old Nella.
“Why is the floaty thing bobbing up and down?” she asked,
concentrating intently on the task while I was concentrating intently on her
legs.
“That means you have a bite” I replied
“What do I do?” she yelled excitedly
“Strike” I said
“What’s that?”
“Jerk the rod up sharply and then reel it in”
I stood up as she reeled in frantically and looked down
at her and she was the picture of concentration with her tongue poking out the
corner of her mouth
She noticed I was watching her and withdrew her tongue
and smiled at me and then returned her full attention to her task and poked her
tongue out again, as the float was getting close to the bank, and in its wake
there was definitely a fish.
“Should I stand up?” she asked
“If you want to” I replied
She stood up and reeled furiously for the last few feet
“Now lift the rod up slowly” I instructed and as she lifted the rod up
vertically the fish left the water and swung towards her, I reached out and
grabbed the line and wriggling on the hook was a little Roach.
“And there’s your fish” I said and she beamed broadly
“No I can’t touch it” she squealed as I offered the fish
to her
“What kind of angler are you?” I asked “you can’t put the
wriggly thing on the hook and you won’t touch the fish”
“I'm a girlie angler obviously” she said and giggled as I carefully unhooked
the fish.
“What are you going to do with it?” she asked frowning
“Let it go” I said and put it back in the water and it
swam away and she beamed me a happy smile and squeezed my arm.
I don’t know how long Antonella and I sat on the Lakeside
but I do remember we were doing more talking and laughing than fishing until Nella
looked at her watch and suddenly leapt up.
“I have to go” she said
“If you give me a few minutes I’ll walk with you” I
suggested
“Great” Nella said
I quickly packed away and put my tackle bag over my
shoulder and with my rod bag in my hand we set off around the Lake and down the
hill towards Wood Green.
I couldn’t remember a time I had enjoyed a fishing trip
so much, it had been a great day off and I enjoyed the walk down from Ally
Pally more than I had ever done before.
In fact I didn’t want the day to end but I knew as we
reached the bottom of Bedford Road that time was running out, because when we
crossed the footbridge over the railway we would have to go our separate ways
because she would go right and continue on to Wood Green and I would go left to
St Michael’s Terrace.
So I knew I had two hundred yards or so to summon up the
courage to ask her out but as we stepped onto the footbridge and I couldn’t think
how to ask her.
Nella chatted all the way across the railway and when we
reached the end of the footbridge I still couldn’t think how to ask her out and
as we stood on the pavement and were about to part she said
“I really enjoyed the fishing”
“Me too” I said with my stomach in knots.
I was in turmoil but it was no good I was just going to
have to blurt it out and hope for the best.
“Do you want to go to the pictures on Saturday” she asked
“Casino Royale is on at the Odeon”
“I’d love to” I said immediately, greatly relieved, and I
felt ten feet tall as I walked the last few hundred yards to my home.
How typical it was that finally almost six years since I first saw and fell in
love with Antonella Perioli I had a date with her and I
hadnt even asked her out.
But now matter how it came about it was the
begining of the love of a lifetime on the day Nella caught her first fish and I
caught my first love.
