Say Hello to Yesterday

On the morning of his twenty-second birthday in a village outside of London, a young man cheerfully leaves his parents' house to walk his father to work. Although unable to resist his son's exuberance, the father sternly attempts to advise the young man to find a permanent job and create a life for himself. In response, the young man recommends that his father treat his mother to a special dinner, then heads off to the train station to return to his London flat. Meanwhile in the same village, an affluent suburban housewife has a brief squabble with her husband, then bids farewell to their children as she heads to London for a day of shopping. At the train station, the young man causes a mild scene that startles other bickering passengers, allowing him to thread his way through the crowd and board the train first. The woman boards the same car and is disappointed to find seating only available in a non-smoking car. As the train leaves the station, the young man initially approaches a young woman standing in the aisle, but upon spotting the attractive woman surreptitiously attempting to peel the no-smoking label off of the compartment window, declares that he is going to "scale Mt. Everest." To the woman's embarrassment, the young man bursts into the compartment and scolds her, then cavorts and sings buoyantly, upsetting the other stoic businessmen passengers who depart one by one. In spite of herself, the woman eventually laughs at the young man's antics, but when he attempts to kiss her, she slaps him, then threatens to pull the emergency-stop cord. The woman is horrified when the young man pulls the cord himself. Later, at the train authority office, the young man and woman are fined, and, annoyed and embarrassed, the woman leaves hastily. The young man breaks away from the office and trails the woman to a department store where he playfully impersonates a salesman, then, when this fails to attract the woman's attention, leaps atop a counter and offers himself for sale. Despite having no takers, the young man realizes he has succeeded in making the woman laugh again, but is disconcerted when she leaves the store. The young man follows her down the street promising to show her the perfect shop. Soon, the young man and the woman are in a fashionable boutique laughing over brightly colored and styled scarves, hats and coats. Later outside on the sidewalk, the woman thanks the young man for a pleasant time and tries to depart, but he abruptly snatches her purse and runs down the street. The woman has no choice but to race after the young man, who then boards a bus, forcing the woman to follow in a taxi. Finally the young man and the woman end up in a park surrounded by children. Exhausted, the woman collapses onto into a swing and the young man joins her, asking about her husband. The woman is evasive, and the young man announces that marriage is unnatural and will eventually die out. Unwittingly, the woman allows the young man to accompany her as they leave the park a little later, and he asks her if it is possible for her to take one day off from her marriage to help him celebrate his birthday. The woman admits she appreciates his ability to make her laugh and the pair continue walking through the city sharing fish and chips and, later, cotton candy. The young man then takes the woman sightseeing atop a tall building, but when he stops at the government office to pick up his weekly unemployment payment, the woman is angered. She tells the young man he should be ashamed to be healthy and capable of working when many other people are far less fortunate. At the planetarium the woman is further disconcerted by the young man's careless attitude toward money and leaves, heading to her mother's flat for afternoon tea. The young man pursues by bus and on foot, and bursts into the mother's apartment just as the woman arrives. Charmed by the young man's energy, the mother immediately assumes he and her daughter are having an affair, despite her daughter's protestations. In private in the kitchen, the mother startles her daughter by revealing that she had an affair during the war and that, on occasion, it can help a marriage. Over tea, the mother questions the young man who tells them that he had a younger sister who died. Later the mother drives the woman and young man back downtown and the young man insists on visiting a local hospital, declaring he knows someone there. When he sees an injured young girl at the emergency desk, however, the young man grows grave and tells the woman that when he was ten he left his sister alone in the house and she died. Shaken by the young man's abrupt change in demeanor, the woman again bids him farewell, but the young man pleads with her to stay with him. While the woman waits in a café, the young man goes to a flat rental office and convinces an agent that he is a popular star looking for elegant new "digs." After the agent gives him the keys to a top floor, furnished flat in a nice part of town, the young man takes the woman there, telling her the place belongs to a friend. Following drinks, the couple have sex, after which the young man confides he once had grandiose dreams, but now fears he is turning into a "middle-aged teenager." The woman smilingly recalls her youthful determination to be unconventional but acknowledges that convention can provide happiness as well. The young man vows to provide the woman with continual romance if she stays with him and she observes that his suggestion sounds like marriage. The young man scoffs that she is already married and commands her to live in the moment. The woman cautions him not to "hang on too hard to anything as it will burst like a balloon," then, acknowledging she loves her husband with whom she has many cherished memories, rises to dress and depart. Stunned at the woman's rejection, the young man does not immediately follow, then hastens to the train station where he buys a balloon to present to the woman, seated in a train car. After the train's departure, the young man purchases a dozen balloons and hands them out to several startled commuters, then lets go of the remaining bunch and watches them rise high into the sky.