Guardian Angel

So there we were - five grown men standing in the falling snow by the side of the road, toboggans in gloved hand, excited like school boys in the land of holey cheese, clocks, chocolate and stashes of Nazi gold.

The evening’s empire had been all planned out. A table at a fine mountain top restaurant to consume a vat of bubbling cheese and bottles of red wine had been booked. The toboggans that would take us home were here, hired and the skidoo-man was waiting half way up to take us there. All we had to do was get to the skidoo-man’s rendezvous.

The skidoo-man had said that he wouldn’t wait if we were late and as it was a 30 minutes walk and we didn’t know the way we booked a taxi.

But the taxi didn’t come.

“Phone them, phone them.” we cried “Otherwise we won’t make it!” - So we did.

Apparently the driver had driven past but didn’t see us. The taxi company said they would ring him again but they really needed to know where we are going.

“I don’t think ‘allez au mountain’ will cut it as this is Switzerland and there are quite a lot of mountains” someone pointed out.

“Now you come to mention it the way they ended the conversation ‘You English pigs!’ wasn’t too reassuring either” someone else said

The skidoo-man’s dead line came and went. We were cold and crest-fallen. Our disappointment was deep like a school boy’s when the school bus does turn up - it wasn’t going to be snow day. A restaurant in town beckoned.

Then through the low cloud and drifting swirling snow two beams of light emerged and shone across us. They were owned by a white van which pulled out of the dark and over.

The door opened to vision of pure loveliness. The stunning blond 21 year old female driver asked in a heavenly voice “Where are you guys going?”

“Hmm thing is… we don’t know where it is. All we know is we have to meet a skidoo-man somewhere.”

“Oh I know where that is - jump in”

The van was warm and comfortable and cosy, there was a box full of champagne on the back seat. Assuming we had not just walked into a Carlsberg advert we didn’t start drinking it.

“When are you supposed to meet him?” she asked.
“Fifteen minutes ago” we said sheepishly.
“He won’t wait that long but I’ll see what I can do.” She replied as she defied all known laws of physics speeding along the frozen Alpine road.

“How much will this cost?” We asked on route.
“Cost?” She said
“Yeah, for the taxi.”
“I am not a taxi.”
“So why did you pick us up? Do you just pick up men off the street and give them lifts”
“Only when the look lost and really need one.”
“Are you an angel?” we asked but she just laughed and didn’t answer.

We arrive 5 minutes before we left and the skidoo-man was still waiting.

“At least let us buy you a drink” we asked her
“Well ok I might be in “Le Pub” later but there really is no need” she smiles and speeds off in the snowy dark and mysteriously as she appeared.

The evening pans out even better than we anticipated and later we go to “Le pub” to find her but alas she is no where to be seen.

“No human woman would pick up five drunken men of the street at night like that.” someone says.
“Yeah - she must have been an angel.”
“That is why she couldn’t make it. Probably driving back to heaven as we speak” we conclude.