The Bet

It is a summer day and a foursome of very young men is slightly bored. They arrange to go to the coffee house Národní dům in the evening. The youngest, Shorty [Pinďa], however, doesn't much want to go and his friends decide that he must have a date with a girl. After some teasing they propose a bet; if Shorty brings his date to the coffee house he will win a bottle of wine, but if he fails he will have to buy a bottle of wine for each of his friends. Shorty bravely agrees, but now he actually has to find a girl so as not to lose face with his friends. His cousin can't help, since she has gone off to their grandmother's. Shorty wanders the streets of Olomouc, when he is approached by a young girl who needs to borrow a pencil. Shorty goes "on the attack". At first, blonde young Eva is rather aloof, but soon they are having a friendly conversation. By a bookshop window the girl recites the verses of her favourite poet Nezval and the young man is more and more enchanted. The afternoon hours go by like minutes and finally, in front of the house where the girl lives, Shorty finds the courage to invite her to the coffee house that evening. Eva agrees and disappears behind the gate, but then Shorty starts to imagine the encounter between his fragile only just beginning love and his crudely jocular friends. He catches Eva up on the steps and changes the place of the date. Losing the bet is better than losing his incipient feeling.