Writers Journal #13: A Ticket to Anywhere

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Your character gets a ticket to anywhere on earth.

Where do they go? What do they do?

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She never should have blindly signed that prenup. Shed felt on top of the world and loved him so much that divorce had never crossed her mind. He had broken her heart into pieces. The cheating, the lies, the betrayal.

She sat on the floor of her tiny apartment. Jobless with a joke of a settlement in her new bank account. It wasn’t enough to survive. Even in this worn down apartment on the bad side of town. Shed have to get a job and soon.

The next day she walked because she had no car. She couldn’t risk acquiring one until she had income. 

She stopped at a few fun down shops, cafes and 2 restaurants. No one was hiring. She left applications anyway at the cafe and one restaurant. Before shed married shed waited tables for a time. But it had been 6 years since shed last had a job. Unfortunately the closest temp agency was 10 miles away. Shed have to take two different busses to get there and it would be an all day affair.

Arriving home she checked her mailbox right inside the apartment building door. She wasn’t expecting much. He had no one, her friends all stayed with him. Guess they were never really hers. She’d foolishly dropped hers and moved far to be with him. And the way she left, they probably wouldn’t want her back.

There were 3 pieces of mail in the box. A flyer for the local market, some junk mail and an inconspicuous envelope with her name on it. No address, no return address. Must be from the super, she thought. 

Bringing her bounty up to her apartment she dropped her purse and started her thrift store kettle with some water for tea. It still helped her relax. She cried as she watched the water boil.

Once her tea was steeping she sat at the table after blowing her nose and wiping the tears away. The envelope peered from beneath the flyer exclaiming “20% off Frozen Pizzas!”

Pulling out the envelope she opened it. Inside was what looked like a ticket. Except for what it was for was blank. A blank ticket. How odd. She tossed it back on the table and drank her tea. Must be junk mail.

After eating a bowl of dollar store ramen, she walked by the ticket again while dropping her bowl into the sink. She picked it up again

Wondering where it had come from and more importantly the second thought, where would she like a ticket to if she could choose?

She brought the ticket to her upended trash can table beside her air mattress, looked at it one more time before going to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. Thinking about how lovely it would be if she could just get away from all of this, as a tear streamed down her cheek. Drying off her hands she headed to her bed. To be away from everything and everyone, just gone, to be alone, away from the pain and the humiliation, sadness, heartbreak, poverty….

She cried herself asleep that night.

The next morning she stretched before opening her eyes. Something smelt different. It smelt of earth, a smell she hadn’t inhaled in a very long time, but she remembered from her younger years. The air mattress felt different too. Opening her eyes she startedup into a canopy of trees.

She bolted upright and looked around frantically. She was in a forest, a thick forest. She stood up slowly from her from her bed of miss looking around she saw no one, no sign of civilization. Nothing but trees as companions. She tried shouting in all directions. Her voice teeming with confusion, worry and a little fear. No voice answered her back.

She plopped down to the earth again and cried. Her stomach growled. She was hungry. No dollar store in sight, she grew scared. What was she to eat? Drink? She needed water. When she was young she used to go hiking with her family. This popped into her mind, a long forgotten memory, why? They brought supplies with them on their long overnight hikes but she remembered being told how to find water if she needed it. She slowed her pounding heart and listened, really listened. Hearing nothing, she looked around for a clearing. The light was brighter in one direction. Perhaps just a clearing but maybe a river or water source. She followed her instincts and walked in that direction. Thankfully there was a river. A big beautiful, clear river. The view was breathtaking and she admired and felt calmed by the sight before kneeling down to drink. 

Food was next on her list but this was going to be more difficult. She was in an unknown location. She could look for the plants that she knew she could eat, and hopefully they were in this forest. She foraged around the river and eventually found queen annes lace, that you could eat the roots of, some wild blueberries (thank you summer camp) and some mushrooms that were definitely lions mane. She needed some protein though and reluctantly looked at the river. Catching fish wasn’t something she’d been good at even with a pole. She couldn’t just jump in and tackle one. But they were in there, taunting her. She’d have to find a way to cook it as well. She did not want to get food poisoning. She looked at her clothing, realizing shed not notices she was wearing an off white dress. Tearing off a few layers off the bottom, she made a makeshift net. 

Oddly she was able to catch two small fish. She brought back her memory of how to start a fire in the middle of the woods when you have nothing. Thankful that even if she hadn’t been that interested in what her parents were telling her at the time, she retained the information. She started it by using a method learned from the Indians that lived in the states before us. 

After eating her meal, that was quite good, she grew tired, she looked around again. She needed shelter, and she also wasn’t sure of the animals that lived around here. She wasn’t sure she’d sleep.

Gathering some fallen branches from pine trees she made a cozy enough bed. Laying under the stars she smiled. The day had been quite the adventure, she’d not thought about the divorce all day. And although thinking of it caused a pang of sadness just then, she felt okay. Like if she could survive this day in the woods, she could survive anything. She needed to try and get out of the woods tomorrow, as she tried to think how, she fell fast asleep.

She stretched out in her bed as the sunlight grew bright beyond her eyelids. Time to find some breakfast and a way out of the woods, she thought. Opening her eyes to the sky, there was not sky, just a grimy ceiling. She was back! Had that been a dream? 

Excited to take a shower and start her day in civilization she got under the hot running water, washing her hair, she found a spot that was thick with something, pitch from the pine bed she’d slept in. She smiled and just then she realized what she needed to do. She needed to head back to her home town, away from the city and into the small cozy town. She was going to get her friends back and start a new life in the place she truly loved, the forest!