One way ticket short stories

The Girl with Green Eyes'Of course,' the man in the brown hat policemen and there are bad policemen,you know.' 'You're right,' the young man said.. Julie didn't answer and looked bored.S

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SHORT STORIES

J E N N I F E R B A S S E T T

ONE-WAY TICKET

SHORT STORIES

A train is a closed world Eachcarriage is like a smallroom, with windows and doors, butyou can't get outwhen the train is moving The worldoutside is faraway, and you can forget your home,your work, yourfriends On a train you sit withstrangers You don'tknow anything about them, but yousit next to them forhours, or perhaps days, in the samesmall room Youcan't get away from them

As the wheels of the train turn, thesestories show usthree different people A beautifulyoung wife - going

on holiday with her new husband,through the green

hills of England A carefree youngman - travellingacross the mountains of Yugoslavia,looking for work.

A sensible middleaged man travelling north throughthe forests and lakes of Finland,hoping for a quietjourney

-Three different journeys, threedifferent people - alllocked in the closed world of the train

anything can happen

OXFORD BOOKWORMS LIBRARY

Alison Baxter

To my brothers,Nick and Rod,who do a lot of travelling

around Europe by train

One-Way TicketSHORT STORIES

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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ISBN-13; 978 0 19 422950 0 ISEN-10: 019 422950 5

A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of

One- Way Ticket is available on cassette ISBN 0 19

422736 7 Printed in Spain by Unigraf S.L.

Illustrated by: Nick Harris

CONTENTS

The Girl with Green Eyes

'Of course,' the man in the brown hat

policemen and there are bad policemen,you know.'

'You're right,' the young man said 'Yes

Isn't it, Julie?' He looked at the youngwoman next to him

Julie didn't answer and looked bored.She closed her eyes

'Julie's my wife,' the young man told the

hat 'She doesn't like trains She alwaysfeels ill on trains.'

'Oh yes?' the man in the brown hat said.'Now my wife

- she doesn't like buses She nearlyhad an accident on abus once It was last year No, no,

it wasn't It was two

years ago I remember now It was in

told a long, boring story about his

Manchester

It was a hot day and the train was slow

seven people in the carriage There was

brown hat; the young man and his wife,

Julie opened her eyes and looked at the

hack page ofthe tall dark mans newspaper.

and very green eyes - the colour of sea

very beautiful eyes

The man in the brown hat talked and

a lot, and when he laughed, Bill laughed

talking and laughing with people

The two children were hot and bored

to sit down They wanted to be noisy and

down the train

'Now sit down and be quiet,' their mother

a small woman with a tired face and atired voice

'I don't want to sit down,' the little boysaid 'I'm thirsty.'

'Here Have an orange,' his mother said

orange out of her bag and gave it to him.'I want an orange too,5 the little girl said

The tall dark man took out his newspaper

to read Julie opened her eyes and looked

of his newspaper She read about the

Then suddenly she saw the tall man's

top of his newspaper She could not see hismouth,

but there was a smile in his eyes Quickly,

and got off There was a lot of noise

'Is this our station?' the little girl asked

window and looked out.

'No, it isn't Now sit down,' her mothersaid

'We're going to Penzance,' the little girl

our first holiday Julie wanted to go to

St Austell I always go there for my

August You can have a good time theretoo.'

Julie looked out of the window 'Where is

Budapest?'she thought 'I want to go there

I want to go to Vienna,

to Paris, to Rome, to Athens.' Her green

and angry Through the window she

villages and hills of England

The man in the brown hat looked at Julie.'You're

right,' he said to Bill 'You can have a good

holiday in England We always go to

wife But the weather! We went one year,

went home after the first week.'

Bill laughed too 'What did you do all day,then?' he asked

Julie read about the weather in Budapest

time Then she looked at the tall man's

long, brown hands, very clean 'Nice

He wore a very expensive Japanese watch

time she did not look away Green eyes

brown eyes for a long, slow minute

After Newton Abbot station the guard came

carriage to look at their tickets 'Now then,'

'where are we all going?'

'This train's late,' the man in the brown

'Twenty minutes late, by my watch.'

Green eyes looked into dark brown eyes

for a long, slow minute.

'Ten minutes,' the guard said 'That's all.'

Julie

The tall dark man put his newspaper

ticket, and gave it to the guard The guardlooked at it

'You're all right, sir,' he said 'The boat

and opened his newspaper again

Julie didn't look at him 'A boat,' she

He read his newspaper and didn't look at

eyes smiled

The train stopped at Totnes station and

got on and off

'Everybody's going on holiday,' Bill said

He laughed.'It's going to be wonderful No work for two

a nice, quiet town, St Austell We can stay

mornings, and sit and talk in the

drink or two in the evenings Eh, Julie?' He

wife 'Are you all right, Julie?'

'Yes, Bill,' she said quietly 'I'm OK.' She

the window again The train went more

it began to rain Bill and the man in the

and talked Bill told a long story about two

and the man in the brown hat laughed veryloudly

The man in the brown hat laughed very loudly.

'That's a good story,' he said 'I like that.

remember them all?'

'Because', Julie thought, 'he tells themevery day.'

'I don't understand,' the little girl said

looked at Bill 'Why did the cat die?'

'Shhh Be quiet,' her mother said 'Come

sandwiches now.'

That's all right,' Bill said 'I like children.'The man in the brown hat looked at thechildren's

sandwiches 'Mmm, I'm hungry, too,' hesaid 'You can getsandwiches in the restaurant on thistrain.' He looked at Bill'Let's go down to the restaurant, eh? Ineed a drink too.'

Bill laughed 'You're right It's thirstywork, telling stories.'

The two men stood up and left thecarriage

The little girl ate her sandwich andlooked at Julie 'Butwhy did the cat die?' she asked

'I don't know,' Julie said 'Perhaps itwanted to die.'

The little girl came and sat next to Julie.'I like your hair,'she said 'It's beautiful.' Julie looked down

at her and smiled

For some minutes it was quiet in the

tall dark man opened his bag and took out

it on the seat next to him, and looked at

Julie looked back at him, and then down at

carriage 'There are a lot of people on this

'Do you want a sandwich, Julie?'

'No,' she said 'I'm not hungry You eatthem.'

The train was nearly at Plymouth Doors

The tall dark man stood up and put his

newspaper in his bag Then he picked up

the carriage The train stopped at the

people got on the train, and two women

came into the carriage They had a lot of

Bill and the man in the brown hat stood up

them One of the women had a big bag of

broke and the apples went all over thecarriage

'Oh damn!' she said

Everybody laughed, and helped her to

The train moved away from Plymouthstation After a

Famous towns of Italy, Julie read, Venice,

Florence, Rome, Naples.

minute or two everybody sat down and

some apples to the children

'Where's Julie?' Bill said suddenly 'She'snot here.'

'Perhaps she went to the restaurant,' the

brown hat said

'But she wasn't hungry,' Bill said 'Shetold me.'

The little girl looked at Bill 'She got off

Plymouth,' she said 'With the tall darkman I saw them.'

'Ofcourse she didn't!' Bill said 'She's on

didn't get off

'Yes, she did,' the children's mother said

saw her too The tall man waited for her

on the platform.'

'He waited for her?' Bill's mouth was

he read his newspaper all the time He

And she never talked to him They didn't

say a word.'

'People don't always need words, young

children's mother said

'But she's my wife!' Bill's face was red

can't do that!' he said loudly He stood

stop the train,' Everybody looked at him

children laughed

'No,' the man in the brown hat said, 'no,

to do that Sit down and eat yoursandwiches, my friend.'

'But I don't understand Why did she go?

'Nothing,' the man in the brown hat

sandwich slowly 'Go and have your

You can have a good time there Forget

green eyes, now.' He took out a second

to eat it 'I knew a woman once with green

me a very bad time No, you want toforget about Julie.'

'She got off the train at Plymouth With the tall dark man '

South for the Winter

I never stay in one country for a long time

work, building work, picking fruit In

pick fruit most of the year You need to be

country at the right time, of course It's

the money's not bad

I like to go south in the winter Life is

and northern Europe can get very cold in

year, 1989 it was, I was in Venice for

October I did somework in a hotel for three weeks, then I

move south I always go by train when I

You can walk about on a train, and you

people

I left Venice and went on to Trieste

ticket for the slow train to Sofia, in

goes all down through Yugoslavia, andtakes a long time

- a day and a half But that didn'tmatter to me

The train left Trieste at nine o'clock on aThursday

morning There weren't many people on it

Zagreb more people got on Two girls went

corridor, past my carriage They looked

but they didn't come in Then an old

down and went to sleep The two girls

the corridor and looked into the carriage

left Zagreb and I looked out of the window

minutes, then I went to sleep too

When I opened my eyes again, the two

carriage They looked friendly, so I said,'Hullo.'

'Hi!' they said

'You're American,' I said 'Or Canadian.Right?'

'American,' the taller girl said She

twenty-three, your name's Tom Walsh,

eyes, and your mum lives in Sea, UK Right?'

Burnham-on-'How did you know all that?' I asked.The second girl laughed 'She looked at

It's in your coat pocket.'

'Oh Right.' My coat was on the seat next

my passport out of my pocket and put it

'Who are you, then?' I asked

They told me Melanie and Carol from

'I'm going to Bulgaria now,' I said Tor

So I told them They were nice girls

than me, perhaps seven or

them We talked and laughed for hours I

of stories about my life Some of the

some weren't But the girls laughed, and

guy I asked them about Bulgaria, because

Saturday night at the Hotel Marmara.'

'Yeah! It's a good hotel,' Carol told me

good What do you think, Tom?'

'Great!' I said 'Let's do that.'

We talked and laughed for hours.

The train was very slow We got to Belgrade

in the evening, and a lot of people got off.There were only

me and the girls in the carriage then The

looked at our tickets, and went away again.Carol looked at Melanie 'Hey, Mel,' she

don't you and Tom go along to therestaurant? I'm nothungry, and I want to sleep for an hour.''Er Food's very expensive on the train,'

I said 'I haven'tgot much money just now I'm going to get

a job in Sofia.'

'Oh Tom!' Melanie said 'Why didn't you

you're a nice guy, right? We're OK formoney this week

We can buy you a meal.'

'Of course we can,' Carol said 'And look,

can take you to the best restaurant intown It's a greatplace We love it.'

What could I say? I was hungry They hadmoney, I didn't.

So Melanie and I went to the restaurantand had a meal.When we came back, Carol was still alone

in the carriage.Melanie put her feet on the seat and went

to sleep

At Nis some more people got on the train,

men came into our carriage They looked at

on the seat, and talked in loud voices.Carol laughed, andMelanie opened her eyes and sat up

'Are we nearly there?' she asked Carol,

of the window

'Yeah About half an hour, I think.'

'Why are you getting off at Bela Palanka?' Iasked.

'What are you going to do there?'

Melanie smiled 'Find a cheap hotel, meet

a look at the town you know.'

'Just for a day or two,' Carol said

'But there's nothing there!'

'Oh well, you never know,' Melanie

in Sofia, right? On Saturday night.'

'The Hotel Marmara, OK? Eight o'clock,'

'Don't forget now!'

'OK Great,' I said 'See you there.'

The train came into Bela Palanka and

girls got off and stood on the platform

bags and walked away Nice girls I'm

great time in Sofia, I thought

The train left Yugoslavia and crossed into

looked out of the window

Suddenly there were a lot of policemen on

Everybody in the carriage sat up andbegan to talk