by Alan Townend28. Phrasal verb fall..............................................................
It was one o'clock in the morning, I had no money and I had just
missed the last through train to where I was living at the time. The
people I was with fell about laughing at my predicament as they
had only lived a few minutes' walk away. I phoned home to see if
there would be any chance of a lift from the station where the train
would stop but that little plan fell through as the car had broken
down and was in the garage for repair. I had no alternative but to
fall back on my own initiative. Whatever that meant. I even thought
of persuading the train driver to fall in with what I thought was an
original idea namely just this once to go the extra twenty miles to
where I lived. Then I dismissed the idea and thought that if I put it
to him I might fall out with him and then I wouldn't even be able to
go the forty miles already scheduled.
The train left punctually, stopping at all the minor stations on the
way. By the time we were approaching the end of the journey the
number of passengers had fallen off considerably. Finally there
seemed to be about six passengers left in my carriage, two of whom
I casually fell into conversation with, desperately hoping that one of
them had a car waiting to take them and possibly me on to my
desired destination. I fell on one of them who mentioned he had a
car but it turned out that it was falling apart. He wasn't too happy
about this as he had only just bought it and admitted that he had
been stupid enough to fall for the salesman's glib talk that it was in
good condition. My own initiative did not prove very resourceful as
things had fallen out and there I stood on a deserted platform
twenty miles from home without a penny in my pocket.
To make matters worse it was really falling down. Rather then risk
contracting double pneumonia I rushed into the town centre in the
hope of finding inspiration. Two things caught my eye. One was a
poster advertising a new film with a picture of an actress with whom
I and the whole nation had fallen in love and the other much more
practical: a sign announcing the existence of a police station. I
remembered hearing a long time ago that if you were really
stranded, you could always fall back on the local police station
which could give you shelter for the night. As I walked in, the officers
were just falling out after a period of duty and a new squad were
taking over. My reason for being there did not elicit much sympathy.
The officer at the main desk did not exactly fall over himself to offer
help. There was no food available, the cells were all full and the only
possibility was a chair in the waiting room or rather several wooden
chairs arranged alternately in a line so that the backs prevented me
from falling off. There was little chance of that happening since
each time I was on the point of falling off to sleep, I was brought
back to consciousness by the sound of the messages coming in from
police officers in the area. I had certainly fallen among some very
unfriendly people.
At six o'clock in the morning I caught the scent of bacon and eggs
coming under the door. At the sound of the door opening I rolled off
my chairs ready to fall to in the expectation of a full English