Regrettable activities

I used to think that I was a great matchmaker, and some friends were victims of my evil deeds. I just randomly picked 2 people (mostly friends, but friends of friends have not been really spared, either) and matched them up. Most of the time, I informed at least one of them that they've been matched.

One of my victims was this particular girl, X, whom I automatically paired off with guy Y. The thing is, they had NOTHING in common with the exception that they were aware of each other's existence and I knew them too. Of course the rest of my friends caught on with this mad idea and chipped in insane quips like how they were made for each other!

Somehow, somewhere along that time, the both of them had their names referred to as Jack and Jill - and just to annoy her (X, or Jill) the friends used to sing the nursery rhyme of Jack and Jill going up the hill and so on... (The name giving was prompted by the evening of the lantern festival, but that's another story!)

By the way, (Jack, or Y) was totally oblivious to this matchmaking. He was an indirect participant. Come to think of it, I'm glad that he was spared of the knowledge, because as I'm typing this I begin to realise how stupid this whole thing sounds.

Anyway, even after receiving comments from Jill that I'm crazy to even think of matchmaking them, I found an article in the newspapers about the real life Jack and Jill who lived in England many many years ago. They were the inspiration for the nursery rhyme, but their real story was pretty sad, with both of them dying pretty young and all. BUT, how did such an article appear in the papers of a distant country if weren't supposed to mean anything? As my friends and I used to say back then: "it's a sign"...

Notes:1) Nothing happened out of that matchmaking, Maybe the article was a sign, to me :- "give up on your mad matchmaking scheme..."
2) I have since refrained from any matchmaking - all my friends are now safe!

May 14, 2005