Ticket To Ride

PART TWO, SYMBOLISM IN YOUR WORK

1. Write a scene with two characters in which one of the following is occurring:
a)  One character is hiding a secret from the other.
b)  One character is moving far away, but hasn't told the other character yet.
c)  One character is attracted to the other.

2.  In the scene you write, have something happen or have the characters doing something that symbolizes the underlying situation.  (HINT: Remember the example in the lesson of the dish breaking in the midst of a couple's agument - the breaking of the dish represented the breakup of their relationship.)
I expect a NEW scene written with characters we have not met yet in this class, do not simply pull out the same characters and write them a scene. Try something new!
I expect you to incorporate the factors of dialogue, a chosen POV, setting, etc. you have learned about so far in this class.
You do not need a strong theme running through the scene, but if it materializes, I'm smiling.


                   



Kaitlyn sat in the back of the Honda Accord 2009 series. The wind grabbed at her hair and strummed on her braids. The window was down. Kujo, her five-year-old son, had his head in her laps. Asleep. His body rising and falling in sync with Tracy Chapman's soulful voice performing, 'Ticket to Ride', on the car stereo. He had his nine-millimeter with three magazines trapped firmly in the ball of his chubby hands. In his sleep, he remained, 'mummy's bodyguard'. It was nothing to him that the gun was only a toy.

'I'm not going home, Rassan,' Kaitlyn said as the car swerved a curve. 'Take me to Timitula's place.'

A little over seven years ago, Rassan became Kaitlyn's personal driver. That was two years before she met Sennach, her husband. She was so used to him. He was like a personal assistant. A man with bitty bones and chunks of flesh that filled the driver's seat to overflowing. Kaitlyn once teased him that one day he would drop right through the bottom of the vehicle.

'Say what, Ms. Katty?' said Rassan.

Timitula lived on the other side of town. It was 9P.M. Nightfall.

'I have a package to pick up at Timi's place. Take me there, please.' Kaitlyn's tone was firm but not impolite.

Rassan turned full circle and faced Kaitlyn. His shadow leaping off the backseat as floods of light from passing vehicles splintered the darkness inside the Accord.

'It's almost ten, Ms. Katty. Bigboy should have worry sticking out his pores like needles, by now.' (Bigboy was Rassan's nickname for Sennach, Kaitlyn's husband.) Don't you think travelling the distance is being unfair to him?' Rassan said.

'Maybe. I wouldn't go if it wasn't important to me.'

'Let me drop you off at the house. I could run the errand afterwards. No hidden charges. Promise. You may want to look into giving me a raise, though.'
         Rassan had added the raise as a joke. Kaitlyn hadn't laughed. She always laughed at his jokes. He felt a funny sensation inside. Kaitlyn's next answer unsettled him.

'No. This is too personal to let you in on it. And I can't hold it off one more day. Tonight. It must happen tonight. It can't wait.' Kaitlyn's voice was turning into a tiny shriek.

What in the world could invoke such passion in her? How long has she been holding off?
He ran his mind through the tumble of events during the past few weeks trying to find a flaw to peg the problem on. He came back defeated.

'Drive, Rassan,' Kaitlyn said.

Rassan had pulled off to the curbs during their discussion. He turned the ignition and dragged the car to the road.

'Bigboy's not going to feel good about this. You know that, Ms. Katty. And you, bringing little Kujo through all this trouble . . . This doesn't make me feel good either and I hate to see you two fight.' Rassan's eyes were pleading. The darkness hid it from Kaitlyn's attention. 'Would you at least, make a call, tell him what you're doing?'

'I'm not doing anything, Rassan. Besides, Senn has a phone. He can call me if he wants to. This little trip would do nothing to his feathers, it's 9P.M, the night's young,' Kaitlyn said in a devil-may-care attitude.

Rassan wouldn't believe his ears. He stared and stared at the road ahead like he expected a sign to pop up and  point him to reason. He saw less and less sense and got his mind boggled in the process.
         Kujo was aiming his gun in his sleep, pointing it upwards. The muzzle caught the loop of Kaitlyn's necklace and tugged as the weapon released a spray of fictitious slugs into a child's nighmare. Beads flew in every direction as the string broke, bouncing off into solitary places marked by darkness like a family torn apart by tension.

'You're making the strangest decision ever, Madam,' Rassan said. 'Why tonight?'
He had never called Kaitlyn Madam before this moment. Not for the past five years. Kaitlyn noted the change of name.

'Trust me, Rassan. Someday, you'll understand,' she said.

'Someday' Rassan could hear the smoke alarm going off inside. He tried optimism. What the hell am I nervous about? She's visiting a friend's place and she could call Bigboy on her arrival at Timi's. Optimism failed him. He felt empty. His breathing was hollow.

         A stream ran along the side of the road and discharged into a valley. In the darkness, Kaitlyn slid her finger out of her ring. Her wedding ring. She tossed it to the flux. James Blunt was singing on the radio. Rassan sang the chorus along with him and whistled the verses like a kid his mama forced to join the children's choir.

                             'Goodbye, my lover.
                             Goodbye, my friend.
                             You have been the one.
                             You have been the one for me.'

         A film covered Kaitlyn's eyes as she squinted a tear.
She leaned back in her seat, picked up Kujo and buried his head between the jut of her breasts. She stroked his hair. Tenderly. And Blunt sang,

                             '. . . I took what's mine by eternal right.
                                 Took your soul out into the night.'