The pretty young woman dropped her glove on the pavement. As she stooped to collect a young man beat her to it.

"Let me get that for you. It's bad luck to pick up a glove you've dropped."

He handed her back her glove and received a big beaming smile in return. The woman tilted her head slightly to the side and said. "Thank you."

The young man was taken aback by the reaction. He was called Keith Stone and his experience with the other sex was limited to a few stolen kisses at school dances. He was not normally so forward with women and the glove situation was not a pick up technique. It was an old wives tale that he heard and he didn't want any misfortune to befall the woman.

"Would you like to go for a coffee?" asked Keith. Keith's confidence was new found and he wondered where he had got it from. Never in his wildest dreams would he ask a young woman to go out with him. What made it even more remarkable was that the young woman was as beautiful as any one he'd ever seen.

"Sure." Keith got another sunshine smile. "My name's Diana."

"I'm Keith." Keith tried hard not to make his voice unsure. The kind of girl like Diana doesn't drop into your lap every day. "There's a nice bar/cafe around the corner. Wendigo's."

"Nice. Have you any other tips on how I can avoid having bad luck?" Diana asked good-naturedly.

"It's bad luck to sit on a table. They say that if you sit on a table you won't get married." Keith was embarrassed after saying this. He had met Diana a matter of moments and had already mentioned marriage. Diana would know he had never sat on a table in his life. He was expecting the elbow any second.

"You're fun." she said without a hint of sarcasm. Keith was having all his Christmases at once.

They went inside the eatery and Keith ordered two coffees. Diana pretended to sit on the table before telling Keith she had to go to the Ladies room. Keith sat down counting his lucky stars. He soon began to count in the thousands because Diana was gone a long time. Twenty minutes had elapsed. Looking round the crowded place there was no sign of her. Keith was distraught. Had she done a runner? Keith asked the waitress if she could check the toilet for him. The waitress returned with the news that the Ladies room was empty.

And so was Keith's life. He had had rejections and let downs in the past, they didn't compare to this. He had made a connection with a raving beauty and she seemed so nice. It hurt him that he had been deceived. This incident would play over and over again in his mind all through his life. Many times he had imagined a different ending. The most popular being him and Diana leaving the cafe hand in hand.

Keith had a few girlfriends as the years passed. With each one all he could see was Diana. What would Diana be doing right now? Was Diana unhappy? She was in every film he watched, every book he read, every song he heard, every room he breathed in. She had a grip on him that he found hard to escape from. The amount of times he had revisited that cafe in the forlorn chance...

There was one girlfriend he had that was called Monica. Keith had worked out that the last letter of her name was the same as Diana's. Monica was attractive but had one little fault that irked him. She forced him to watch TV movies with her. TV movies were her way of life. Daily she would sit dazzled by second-rate thrillers with titles like, A Mother Locked up, Broken Vows, Family at War, Intimately Yours, Runaway Rascal. Cheryl Ladd and Donna Mills starred in every other vehicle. Monica and Keith's relationship petered out. There was no cinematic adventure in it at all.

Hermione the sneezer didn't last long in Keith's affections. Hermione sneezed like a whoopee cushion. She didn't expel much gunge from her blowhole when she blew her top, only leviathan sneeze noises. Keith figured that Diana would have a nice, petite feminine sneeze. It would sound something like a pleasant Artemis. Bless you, thought Keith.