The way up to heaven

All her life, Mrs Foster had had an almost pathological fear of missing a train, a plane, a boat, or even a theatre curtain. In other respects, she was not a particularly nervous woman, but the mere thought of being late on occasions like these would throw her into such a state of nerves that she would begin to twitch. It was nothing much just a tiny vellicating muscle in the corner of the left eye, like a secret wink but the annoying thing was that it refused to disappear until an hour or so after the train or plane or whatever it was had been safely caught.

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Roald Dahl (The collected short stories of Roald Dahl)
Penguin Books 1991 ISBN 0 14 01.5807 3

William and Mary

William Pearl did not leave a great deal of money when he died, and his will was a simple one. With the exception of a few small bequests to relatives, he left all his property to his wife.

The solicitor and Mrs Pearl went over it together in the solicitor's office, and when the business was completed, the widow got up to leave. At that point, the solicitor took a sealed envelope from the folder on his desk and held it out to his client.

'I have been instructed to give you this,' he said. 'Your husband sent it to us shortly before he passed away.' The solicitor was pale and prim; and out of respect for a widow he kept his head on one side as he spoke, looking downward. 'It appears that it might be something personal, Mrs Pearl. No doubt you'd like to take it home with you and read it in privacy.'

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Roald Dahl (The collected short stories of Roald Dahl)
Penguin Books 1991 ISBN 0 14 01.5807 3

The landlady

Billy Weaver had travelled down from London on the slow afternoon train, with a change at Swindon on the way, and by the time he got to Bath it was about nine o’clock in the evening and the moon was coming up out of a clear starry sky over the houses opposite the station entrance. But the air was deadly cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks.

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Roald Dahl (The collected short stories of Roald Dahl)
Penguin Books 1991 ISBN 0 14 01.5807 3