First Class Ticket (Part I)

Hey Folkes!

Here is Part I of the final story I had to hand in for my writing class. I'll post the Part II tomorrow. Let me know what you think!

I will be posting new essays, poems and stories beginning next week. Stay tuned!



The alarm went off every morning at four-fifteen. Sandra rolls over, hit the snooze button twice, before finally getting out of bed. Her two cats were the first to hit the floor, followed by Sandra’s feet. She stretches her arms, legs, fingers and toes straight out then puts on her slippers. She stands up in her pink plaid flannel pajamas and shuffles to the door to begin another day. The same day she has had for the last thirty-seven years.

Sandra makes her way out of the bedroom, down the hall and into the kitchen. On the counter she has already laid out her vitamins, sugar, coffee mug and spoon. The coffee has already started brewing because she programmed the timer on the pot to start at four-twenty. Sandra opens the fridge and reaches in for the butter, juice and an English muffin. She pulls a plate and glass from the cupboard along with a butter knife from the drawer. She slices the muffin in half, pops it into the toaster, pushes the lever down and waits. A couple minutes go by and the muffin ejects from the toaster with a familiar sound. Sandra pours the juice into the glass and the coffee into the mug with two teaspoons of sugar. No more, no less. She sets the kitchen table with her breakfast and begins to eat. She chews the English muffin, drinks the juice and swallows the vitamins. While the cats do a figure eight around her legs purring as they go; Sandra sips her coffee.

When breakfast is finished Sandra rinses of the dishes and piles them neatly into the sink. After giving the cats a quick pat on the head, she heads back to the bedroom. There Sandra slips out of her pink plaid pajamas and into her pale blue terry clothe robe with giant star embroidered on the back. She walks out of the bedroom into the bathroom and prepares for her morning hygiene routine.

Sandra begins by picking up her slightly worn toothbrush and squeezes toothpaste on to it. She brushes carefully and deposits two spits into the sink. She finishes by rinsing with water and gargles. She moves on to flossing before running the water for her shower. Sandra likes the water warm but not hot running at an even stream. Once the water is just right she disrobes and steps in. She starts with her hair, she tips her head back and wets her medium length, slightly graying blonde locks under the steady stream of warm water. She reaches for the shampoo, drops a dollop of the green liquid into her hand and begins to work it in. After two or three minutes in a fine lather, she rinses. Sandra soaps up a washcloth under the warm water. She works way up her body until she reaches her face. Sandra washes away the soapy lather that covered her. She turns off the water and reaches for the towel. She steps out of the tub and dries off. Then she hangs the wet towel on the rack mounted on the back of the bathroom door. After applying moisturizing cream, powder and deodorant she puts her terry cloth robe back on and heads back to the bedroom.

The cats follow Sandra back to the bedroom and sit in waiting as she picks out her outfit for the day. Her wardrobe has not varied much in thirty-seven years. She works on the line in a factory so her choices are pretty limited. Sandra selects a t-shirt, jeans, socks, underwear and a bra. She gets dressed and heads back to the bathroom to do her hair. Sandra stands in front of the mirror, pulls her hair back in a ponytail and wraps it up in a rubber band. She hits herself with one squirt of perfume and she’s ready for another day of work.

Before she leaves the house Sandra feeds and changes their water. Sandra grabs her lunch she prepared the night before from the fridge, along with her keys, purse, jacket and heads out. Just as Sandra is about to get into her car, she pauses. She looks to the sky, sees the clouds passing by, stops to listen to the birds singing and takes a deep breath. After that moment, Sandra gets into her beat up neon blue Cavalier and starts off to work.

Her drive to work takes exactly 12 minutes. The radio is always tuned to the country station and it’s the last thing she hears before turning the car off. She parks in the same spot she has for the last thirty-seven years. She gets out of the car and walks to the employee’s entrance which is a tiny door on the side of, what looks like, a huge gray aluminum box with “CILCO, Inc.” emblazoned on the side in giant green letters. Sandra enters the factory; the ‘swoosh’ of hot air and smell of burning metal hit her face as she waits in line to punch in. She inches closer to the clock until she’s in reach of her time card. Sandra grabs her card, slides it into the slot under the clock face and waits for the noise of the stamp branding her card, ‘KA-CHUNK’, six twenty-eight AM.

After dropping her lunch off in the refrigerator, Sandra makes her way to her workbench. Her soldering tools were just as she left them the day before. She flips on the overhead lamp, heats up the soldering iron and gets to work.

Sandra first grabs a piece of metal that she will solder. First comes cleaning the piece, she begins with a small wad steel wool making to sure sand away any imperfections that maybe on the metals surface. Next, she wipes it down with a solvent making sure to cover every inch of the surface. If the metal isn’t properly cleaned you may not get a strong low resistant joint. She places a piece of wire into one of the indentations on the piece of metal with a pair of tweezers. Sandra applies a very small amount of solder to the tip of the iron; this helps conduct the heat to the wire and the piece of metal. She rests the iron’s tip against both pieces of metal for a few seconds to heat them up in preparation to be soldered. Once both pieces are heated up, she applies the solder to both pieces and allows it to flow between them. Sandra does not apply the solder directly to the tip of the solder. She learned not to do that a few decades ago. When the joint between the two pieces are completely covered, she stops applying solder and sits back for a bit to wait for the metal to cool. After the metal has cooled, Sandra does another cleaning and puts that component aside to begin another one. This process will be repeated again and again for another eight hours with a half hour lunch and two fifteen minute breaks.

At the end of the day Sandra flips off her overhead lamp, places her tools in their proper place on the bench and wanders out to her car. She piles into her beat up neon blue Cavalier, starts her up and heads for home. Twelve minutes later, Sandra pulls into her driveway stopping at the end to collect the mail from the mailbox. The mailbox open with its usual squeak; Sandra reaches in, pulls out a stack of mail and shut the mailbox door. She reads of the envelopes one by one, not expecting any surprises. The heating bill, the cable bill, “You may already be a winner”, a reminder for her dental appointment next week and a large envelope from Weber, Naden & Todd: Solicitors, Chapel-en-la-Frith, High Peak, Derbyshire, England.

Sandra wasn’t sure what to make of the letter. She hesitated for a moment; her hands began to shake as she flipped the letter over, she slowly ran her thumb between the flap and envelope to open it. As she opens he envelope, Sandra cuts her thumb on the edge of the paper, jerks her thumb into her mouth and drops the envelope on the ground. When Sandra bends over to pick it up, her thumb still in her mouth she notices a First Class British Airways ticket slid out of the top of the envelope. Still sucking her thumb she holds the envelope to her chest with her arm and pulls out the ticket. She holds it in front of her in shock she doesn’t stop to wonder why anyone would send her a plane ticket to England. A few minutes pass Sandra regains control of her common senses and reaches into the envelope to se what accompanied this gift. She pulls out a letter with Weber, Naden & Todd letterhead and begins to read it. As she reads on the expression on her face changes dramatically, her breathing speeds up and she starts to feel light headed. These feelings quickly pass and she lets out an enormous scream. Sandra runs to her house, leaving the car parked at the end of the driveway.

- Part II tomorrow