A woman with an amusingly long name answered

A woman with an amusingly long name answered the phone. I didn't quite catch it, so she repeated her name slowly. Five minutes later she asked me tersely:

"Can you say my name?" My mind went blank. What was her name again? I knew it was long & tricky to pronounce. "If you can say it right, I'll buy whatever it is you're selling."

"So, if I can pronounce your name correctly, you will buy my entire inventory of rat testicles and Hornet Killer?" She nodded. Ok, I thought. I knew it started with Gjyu, but

I wanted to just make something up. I'm cagey like that. I shouted, "Hubert!" She looked at me closely and shook her head. She plucked a hair off my chin and said, "sorry

I can't be what you want me to be" then she sashayed away, her nipple tassels swinging. That was the last I ever saw of her. I never got the chance to tell her how much I

never really cared about her, her tassles or the horse she rode in. Well, that's not the whole truth, I did see her again, but by that time, I had forgotten everything, including

Iher name, my name and how to dress myself. When I turned up on our date wrapped in a bed spread, she said between sobs, "You never loved me Derek!" "Who's Derek? Who are you?" I

blinked at her stupidly. "You mean you don't know either?" She cried. "We're both amnesiacs!" I said, thrusting a wilted bouquet of poppies at her. "We were made for each other!"

I never found out who I was supposed to meet at the clocktower, and neither did she, but we found each other and that was all that mattered. Except perhaps what we forgot.