Melissa Kite Melissa Kite

No good deed . . .

Melissa Kite's Real Life

issue 22 May 2010

Never do a good turn for anyone. What was I thinking, asking the lady if she’d like a lift up the Tube steps with her pram? I wasn’t even going in the same direction as her, for goodness sake. She was at the bottom of the steps looking up at the gargantuan climb ahead. I had just skipped happily down the steps on my way into town to have a nice, carefree night out.

The mistake I made, as I caught sight of her standing helpless and alone with her buggy, was to allow my instincts to take over before my brain could say, ‘Whoa there, that’s got to be heavy, leave it to a passing man to lift. Look, there are about 37 of them walking towards you right now…’ Too late. My instincts made me leap at her shouting, ‘Oh, no, you’ll never get that up the stairs on your own, you poor thing, let me help you!’

As soon as the words were out of my mouth and I was standing in front of the pram I knew I had made a grievous error.

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