119. Predators and Prey: A True Story
While I was a student, I went alone on a bicycle tour for several days, staying in youth hostels.
In one hostel, I met a couple of about my age from the next big city. She was the type of a spoilt child and very female. He was a stud and a macho, originally from a Mediterranean country, with slightly oriental looks. He was living a free life, selling books on flee-markets. I will call her F. and him S.
They were travelling in his car, heading next for the same town as I was. For a reason, that I did not yet understand, I was invited to come along with them, putting my bicycle into the trunk. They went there to meet a friend, whom I will call B. B. owned a business, was at least wealthy, and the tie-and-suit sort of a man.
B. and S. were each the prototype of two different kinds of men, who both attract wanna-be-breeder women's instincts. One was affluent and successful, the other very physically fit.
We met at a hotel, where B. had booked two double rooms. During dinner, a kind of weird situation arose, because three persons were all soliciting to be allowed to share the room with F.
I was glad, that it was summer, because when it had got too late to be admitted in the hostel, I started to see myself spending the night on a park bench. I could not afford a room for myself in such a hotel.
Finally F. decided to share the room and her inclinations with S., the stud. Luckily for me, B. was a wise loser, he left to go to another hotel, that he pretended to like better. I was allowed to have the second room to myself.
The next morning at breakfast, while S. was waiting for F. to join us, he told me the gist of the story: The whole encounter had been arranged, because B. and S. had made a bet, who would spend the night with F.
I did not need to ask for any more information. By inviting me, S. had intented to have a number-two choice prey in reserve for the loosing one. If S. was not sure of winning, he did this mainly to preserve his own macho ego. Otherwise maybe by supplying B. with some substitute for F., he wanted to avoid rupture between the two men.
I was not just the fifth wheel on a couple's excursion, I was a pawn in two men's game.
I was young then and people behaving like this still stunned me. With more knowledge, now I can see this as a classical case of the savanna principle: F. chooses by instinct the fit stud to get herself pregnant, and then she would marry wealthy B. to have his resources to raise her progeny. This is only speculation, because I have no clue, what became of these people afterwards.
While I was a student, I went alone on a bicycle tour for several days, staying in youth hostels.
In one hostel, I met a couple of about my age from the next big city. She was the type of a spoilt child and very female. He was a stud and a macho, originally from a Mediterranean country, with slightly oriental looks. He was living a free life, selling books on flee-markets. I will call her F. and him S.
They were travelling in his car, heading next for the same town as I was. For a reason, that I did not yet understand, I was invited to come along with them, putting my bicycle into the trunk. They went there to meet a friend, whom I will call B. B. owned a business, was at least wealthy, and the tie-and-suit sort of a man.
B. and S. were each the prototype of two different kinds of men, who both attract wanna-be-breeder women's instincts. One was affluent and successful, the other very physically fit.
We met at a hotel, where B. had booked two double rooms. During dinner, a kind of weird situation arose, because three persons were all soliciting to be allowed to share the room with F.
I was glad, that it was summer, because when it had got too late to be admitted in the hostel, I started to see myself spending the night on a park bench. I could not afford a room for myself in such a hotel.
Finally F. decided to share the room and her inclinations with S., the stud. Luckily for me, B. was a wise loser, he left to go to another hotel, that he pretended to like better. I was allowed to have the second room to myself.
The next morning at breakfast, while S. was waiting for F. to join us, he told me the gist of the story: The whole encounter had been arranged, because B. and S. had made a bet, who would spend the night with F.
I did not need to ask for any more information. By inviting me, S. had intented to have a number-two choice prey in reserve for the loosing one. If S. was not sure of winning, he did this mainly to preserve his own macho ego. Otherwise maybe by supplying B. with some substitute for F., he wanted to avoid rupture between the two men.
I was not just the fifth wheel on a couple's excursion, I was a pawn in two men's game.
I was young then and people behaving like this still stunned me. With more knowledge, now I can see this as a classical case of the savanna principle: F. chooses by instinct the fit stud to get herself pregnant, and then she would marry wealthy B. to have his resources to raise her progeny. This is only speculation, because I have no clue, what became of these people afterwards.
