Boss-eyed Bess

Bess was an unassuming, very young teenager with a mop of unruly curly blonde hair. Like many a dumb blonde she was at an age where fact and fiction merged, especially in the area of true love and romance. Typically, she had great difficulty in distinguishing, let alone comprehending life's subtleties. She has the added disadvantage of wearing thick coke-bottle lensed glasses which enlarged her squinting blue eyes through which the average King's scholar looked fascinating, and probably quite 'hunky'.

Boss-eyed's perambulations took in the Dark Entry passageway, the environs of the cloisters and some quiet spots in the bombed ruins of the old library next to prior Sellingate's abode. Her main haunt however was behind the ''Green Gates'' which lay south of the cathedral and approximately on or near the sire of the headmaster's new residence. In the early '50's it was just another bombsite which held its own tragedies... but that's another story.

James and two others were lured to this latter shrine by this ''demoiselle formidable'', who required for special favours (kisses only), one square of sweets rations from each per session. Sessions lasted approximately 30 seconds which made the prices high indeed. Persistent she was, and soon the eight square line for the month was literally gobbled up and my ration book DHX249003 waned under the onslaught.

Transactions concluded, three very uninspired young morons vacated the scene and wondered what all the fuss was about. Is this part of the love ritual that films were all about? Surely there must be more to it than that! We'd been short-changed!

A quiet review of the proceedings in the cool aftermath of such excitement left James in no doubt that sweets were worth a lot more. That line of coupons (one month's supply) could have bought half a dozen Mars Bars, numerous Kit Kats and at least three bags of boiled sweets. In lieu of these goodies, the line could have been sold for at least two shillings on the school ''black market''.

No, James wasn't going there again!

Bess continued to haunt the underworld areas for many more moons, but this little black duck kept his sweet coupons for better things - himself!