The Train Ticket E-Book

Monica Heinz

• Herausgeber: Franzius Verlag
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Anna is not happy with her life at all. Her husband and her children take her for granted and she is longing for a change. When she sees a red handbag in a shop window, she has no idea that buying it would change her life. With the help of the bag, she leaves her village and her husband and goes on a turbulent journey through the Scottish Highlands where she not only finds new friends, but also solves a crime and finally finds a new love. Will Anna get the chance to start from the beginning again?

Leseprobe

MONICA HEINZ

THE TRAIN TICKET

A SCOTTISH ADVENTURE

Novel

“The Train Ticket – A Scottish Adventure”

Cover Design © 2022 by FRANZIUS,

based on an design by Perry Payne

Responsible for the content ist the author Monica Heinz

Typesetting and distribution by FRANZIUS

Printed by BoD, Norderstedt

ISBN 978-3-96050-237-1 (E-Book)

Copyright © 2022 Franzius Verlag GmbH

Hogen Kamp 33, 26160 Bad Zwischenahn

www.franzius-verlag.de

All rights reserved

The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographical information is available online: http://dnb.dnb.de

The right of Monica Heinz to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accodance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988

All characters in this publication are fictionous and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidal.

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lentre-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers*'s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and withut similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

For my parents and my sister

***

A special thank you to Josie Weeks

for the English version

1

The bus stopped in the marketplace. Anna rushed out and stumbled. She just managed to catch herself, and when she looked up; she saw it. It was a red handbag. Anna stood in front of the shop window and stared at the bag. It was love at first sight. Red, smooth leather and a golden clasp. She didn't notice that she was in the way of several people standing in the middle of the pavement; twice she was jostled rudely. Although she bent down, she couldn't read the small price tag looped around the handle by a thread. Unfortunately, the shop was closed; it was only open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

“Never mind, it's far too expensive anyway,” she murmured.

“Excuse me?” The man who had just passed, looked at her quizzically.

Anna didn't answer, turned around and walked towards the bus stop, from where the bus went to the shopping centre. Actually, she had planned to clean the windows and wash the curtains, this morning but Ulrich loved barbecues and the supermarket had a half-price offer on meat, which was too good to miss.

That would have been a great birthday present, she thought, but suddenly felt sad. Her fiftieth birthday, on 22nd February, was now almost two months ago. Like all family celebrations, they had celebrated it at the “Golden Lion”, and although she was supposed to be the centre of attention, Anna had felt out of place the whole day. Iris, who worked there and who had gone to school with Anna, had looked her up and down when she came in. Anna's blouse had been new, but the dark blue costume old fashioned. Iris, on the other hand, was wearing a short skirt and a too-tight blouse, as usual. Anna had taken a step against the wall when she felt Iris' eyes on her. She knew what the looks meant; Ulrich had once had an affair with Iris.

Now Anna couldn't even remember what she had eaten, except that she had poked listlessly at the fresh fruit salad, from the tin, and thought: Actually, it should be my day.

She had almost been glad when her mother-in-law wanted to leave because she had to lie down. Of course, Ulrich had driven her. Anna had walked home alone.

Ulrich had given her a golden shamrock. It was from the jewellery stand in the department store; Anna had recognized the box. And had literally seen Ulrich rushing into the store just before closing time, pointing randomly at a piece of jewellery, paying attention only at the price. Her children had given her a voucher for a spa day, the health insurance had congratulated her, and her neighbour had given her a novel she had already read. The crumpled train-ticket, she had used as a bookmark, still inside. Her mother-in-law's gift hadn't been chosen for her either, because she gave Anna the scarf with the words, “Red doesn't suit me.” At least it was red, Anna thought now.

She didn't notice anything about the subsequent bus journey home, and it wasn't until the bus driver repeatedly shouted “End of the line” into the microphone that she realised she was home. The only thing she could think about was the bag. Since she had been a little girl, she had never wanted anything as much as that bag, back then it had been a doll with real hair. Twice she had unwrapped the presents full of hope and had been disappointed to find something else inside. First on her birthday and then again at Easter. It was not until Christmas that her heartfelt wish was fulfilled. Later she learned the reason why she had to wait for so long: her parents had restricted themselves for almost a year in order to be able to buy the doll. Her father had gone without a second beer after bowling, and her mother had saved on groceries wherever she could. All to fulfil Anna's wish.

At her front door, she automatically put the key in the lock, and when it clicked, it “clicked” in her mind, too. She had to have the bag, no matter what, and even if she only kept it at the back of the wardrobe.

Two weeks passed before Anna went to town again. However, not a day went by when she had not thought of the bag.

On that day she spent the whole morning in the garden weeding and watering plants. Then she had to move the barbecue to get a hoe, and it occurred to her that Ulrich's favourite sausages had run out. Without further ado, she changed her clothes and walked to the bus stop. On the way she suddenly remembered something else, it was Thursday. That fact almost made her run to the stop, on Thursdays the charity store was open. She wanted to hold the bag in her hand at least once, and maybe then her desire to own it would fade away. Already from afar she saw the ornate sign

“OPEN” and this time there were clothes stands on the pavement. The shop door jingled softly as Anna pushed it open.

“Good afternoon, I wonder …the red bag in the shop window, may I perhaps ...?” Her voice sounded rough; she hadn't spoken to anyone all morning.

“Of course.” The woman in the black woollen dress and the necklace with the large wooden balls, pushed the other things aside and handed Anna the bag. Anna accepted it as if it was fragile.

“Why don’t you take a good look at the bag, I’m in the back.” The woman disappeared behind the shelf again, where she had been busy putting things away.

“Thank you.” Anna set her own brown faux leather handbag on the floor, she was ashamed of it, but so far it had done its job.

The red bag looked like new, even the leather still smelled. A smell that Anna loved. She couldn't help but keep smelling the bag. The lining was striped blue and red, she liked that too. Anna twisted and turned it, then stole a glance at the price tag: £ 85.-- That couldn't be, there had to be a zero missing, she was sure. Carefully she stroked the smooth leather and looked at her reflection in the golden clasp. What if the price was correct? Still, eighty-five pounds was a lot of money for a bag, she didn't even spend that much on a pair of shoes. So engrossed in her thoughts she didn't notice how Brigitte Hauser, the owner of the shop, kept looking at her. After a while, she asked:

”Do you like it?”

Anna hesitated for a moment and then said: “I'll buy the bag. Ever since I saw it two weeks ago, I couldn't think of anything else. I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to use it, but I have to have it like I had to have the doll.”

“The doll?”

“Yes, one with real hair, I wanted it just as much as I want the bag now.”

“Did you get the doll in the end?”

“Yes, but I had to wait a very long time for it. I still own it today.”

Anna pulled a banknote from her pocket. “Are you sure it really only costs eighty-five pounds?”

“Yes, of course, it's not new anymore.”

“But hardly used by the look of it.”

“Yes, I suppose so, but the customer who dropped it off said she didn't want it anymore and that it should bring more luck to another woman.”

“I'm sorry, what were you saying about luck?” Anna hadn't really been listening due to her excitement.

“Oh, nothing, just that I didn't know the customer and had also wondered a little how anyone could give away a bag like that.”

Brigitte Hauser disappeared in the back with the bag, and when she came back it was wrapped in tissue paper. She put the package into a large golden bag and placed it on the counter.

“Well, now I hope you’ll find quite a lot of occasions to use it.”

Brigitte pushed the golden bag towards Anna, but she took a step back and turned the banknote indecisively in her hands. Brigitte waited patiently.

“Oh, sorry.” Anna smoothed out the note and held it out to Brigitte, it curled and was damp. Then after awkwardly accepting the change Anna finally grabbed the bag and held it tight.

2

Back home, Anna hid the bag in an old pillow cover at the back of the wardrobe. She had just closed the door again when Ulrich came home and called for her. He came into the bedroom and looked at her quizzically. Then he shrugged his shoulders at Anna’s silence and changed his clothes.

Anna’s heart was beating like mad, a few minutes earlier - and Ulrich would have seen it. She quickly pushed past him and went into the kitchen to start preparing dinner. But to make matters worse, she dropped a glass bowl and cut herself on the shards. As she held her finger under the water she muttered:

“Get a grip, Anna!” Ulrich came into the kitchen, wanting to know who she was talking to.

“To myself, the cut on the finger burned, when I held it under the water.”

Quickly she turned off the tap, and at the same time tried to turn down the radio, which of course she also failed to do, by turning it in the wrong direction. Ulrich rolled his eyes in annoyance and left the kitchen. Then he shouted from the living room: “When will dinner be ready? You know I have a council meeting tonight”

“In a few minutes, just the salad dressing, then we can eat.” Ulrich expected a three-course meal every evening, for lunch he only ate a home-made sandwich. The canteen was lousy and expensive. But year in, year out, the same sandwich for lunch was okay.

During the meal, Ulrich held a monologue about the upcoming meeting and what he was going to bring up, not noticing that Anna barely said anything and only poked at her food. She watched him anxiously, hoping that he did not ask what she had done in the bedroom earlier.

After the last sip of coffee, he threw the napkin in the middle of the plate and disappeared into the bathroom. Five minutes later he called out on his way out. “I guess it's getting late, good night.”

Anna remained seated until she heard the key turn in the lock. He treated her like a housekeeper. She took the brown- sauce-soaked napkin off the plate, threw it in the dirty laundry, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and went into the bedroom. Then she went back again, checked the front door and left the key in it, she just had to remember it, before she went to bed.

In the bedroom, she took the bag out of the wardrobe and stood in front of the mirror with it. The bag was beautiful, but it looked out of place on her arm; nevertheless, she wanted to see how it felt to have such a bag.

She took her old brown bag and emptied the contents onto the bed. It wasn't much that she carried, her purse, a mobile phone, tissues, a small box of band-aids, a comb, and a mirror. The few things disappeared into the depths of the bag. She opened the zipper compartment and was about to slide the comb and mirror in it when she felt something, an envelope. It was made of red glossy paper and rather thick. “Royal Scotsman.” What was that, and what was the envelope doing in there?

Carefully she pulled out the papers that were inside. A colourful brochure, with pictures, an itinerary, and at the very back, vouchers for plane and train tickets.

There was no name on them. The tickets must have belonged to the previous owner of the bag, she had to return them.

It was already well past midnight when Ulrich came home. Anna pretended to be asleep although she was still wide awake. After such sessions Ulrich was usually no longer sober, and it had often happened that one wrong word from her when he came home had led to a huge argument. Fifteen minutes later he lay snoring next to her, and now she would not be able to fall asleep at all

The next morning Anna silently put an aspirin next to his breakfast plate. Ulrich never talked much in the morning, but today he was even more silent than usual. He swallowed the aspirin with a sip of coffee and pushed the plate aside with a murmured “Not hungry”. Half an hour later he said goodbye, and Anna breathed a sigh of relief.

In the last few years Ulrich had started to drink more and more. Anna had tried to find out what the reason was, but he had always played it down. Only once, when he had been feeling particularly bad, he had mentioned problems at work, but when Anna had asked him about it later, he said that she had misunderstood him and not listened properly. Nevertheless, Anna was worried and even more anxious to do everything right in order not to annoy him even more. Ulrich came from a family where no feelings or weaknesses were shown. Her mother-in-law was the same, she hadn't even cried when her husband died.

When Brigitte Hauser turned the corner shortly before 9.30 the next morning, and Anna was already standing in front of the door, she suspected that something was wrong.

“Good morning, is there anything wrong with the bag?”

“Good morning, yes, no, there's nothing wrong with the bag, but yesterday when I was putting my belongings in there ...”

“Why don't you come in first?”

Anna stepped into the shop behind Brigitte and stopped at the door rooted to the spot. Brigitte turned on the light and put down her things before finally taking the envelope Anna held out to her.

“What's that?”

“I found this in the bag.”

“I see.”

“Yes, it looks like a voucher for a trip, it must belong to the previous owner of the bag. Can you give it back to her?”

“Mmmh, that will be difficult, I didn't know the woman, she came into the shop for the first time. Would you like a coffee?”

“I'd love to, but actually I don't have time, I have to get back home.”

“But it's only 9:30, is your husband coming for lunch?”

“No, but he always calls to check where I am.”

“Hourly?”

“No, no, just at lunch.”

“Well, then we still have time. Come through.” Brigitte went to the back, and Anna followed her hesitantly.

Brigitte put the envelope aside and started to make coffee After pouring the coffee and adding a few biscuits on a plate, she reached for the envelope again. “Well, let's see what this is.”

“Travel vouchers.” Anna shifted impatiently in her chair and emptied her coffee cup in one go.

“A trip in the Royal Scotsman, that is fantastic. Do you know what this is?”

Anna shook her head, stood up and turned to leave. “I really need to get back home now, I just wanted to return the envelope to you. Thank you for the coffee.”

She already had the door handle in her hand when Brigitte said: “There's no name anywhere, why don’t you go?”

“Me? What should I do in England?”

“Scotland. Why not? Have you ever been there?”

“No, but my husband would never agree. Goodbye, I really must go, or the bus will leave without me. Goodbye”

Anna didn't see that Brigitte was already picking up the phone.

Back at home, Anna googled the Royal Scotsman, and for a brief moment she regretted returning the tickets. The train reminded her of the Orient Express in the Agatha Christie film adaptation. The cabins were furnished with gleaming wood and instead of normal seats, one enjoyed the ride in a saloon car with comfortable armchairs and small sofas. I wouldn't fit there, she thought. Then she left the page and cleared the history. As she always did, so that Ulrich couldn’t see what she had done on the computer.

3

Over the next few days Anna looked again and again at the images of the Royal Scotsman and regretted more and more that she had given the tickets to Brigitte.

A few days later she went back again, because she wanted to know how the story had continued, and whether Brigitte had been able to find the owner and whether she was going on the trip.

“Hello, good to see you, how are you?” Brigitte came around the counter and shook Anna's hand.

“Thanks, I'm fine, I just wanted to ...” She broke off.

“Yes?”

“I wanted to ... well after I brought back the tickets, I googled, the Royal Scotsman it’s fantastic ... Have you been able to find the woman, or has she contacted you?”

Brigitte smirked, “No, but .... wait a minute.” She disappeared in the back. A moment later she returned, holding a bottle of Prosecco in her hands. Anna looked at her questioningly.

“We should celebrate our reunion.”

“Reunion? Why I don’t understand?”

“Anna, obviously you don't remember me, but we went to the same school, and I admired you, the way you showed up one day with bright orange hair. I wanted hair like that too, and when I finally got around to it, yours was black again or blonde? I don't remember, definitely different again.”

“Oh dear, yes that was my short rebel phase, my hair suffered quite a bit and all my pocket money went into hair dye. After about six months, I ran out of money and had hair like straw. I've never changed my hair colour since, just touched it up, but not very successfully.” Anna lifted her hair and pointed to the grey roots. “But I can’t remember you, at all. Why did you recognize me? It couldn't have been the hair, could it?”

“No, ‘Anna the Nose’.” Brigitte laughed. “You smelled the bag, over and over, and thought I wouldn’t notice.”

“Oh, how embarrassing. ‘The Nose’ - is that really what they called me?”

“Yes, but everyone has their quirks, there's nothing to be ashamed of, and a good sense of smell does help. Here, smell.” She held the glass out to Anna and set her own on the counter.

“And there is, after all, something else we need to celebrate.” Brigitte reached under the counter and pulled out the red envelope. Anna looked at her again questioningly.

“This one's for you, it's all sorted, the tickets are now in your name. You'll love Scotland.”

“Brigitte, you can't give the tickets to me. And you didn't even know if I was coming back or what my name was.”

“I guessed you'd come again, and your name wasn't hard to figure out, it's only a small town. Besides, the tickets are mine.”

“Yours? But I thought the woman, the bag ...?” Anna had to sit down, she felt dizzy, and it wasn't because of the one sip of Prosecco.

Brigitte sat down opposite her, and then she told her the true story of the tickets: “My sister-in-law won the trip in a competition, but although it had been one of the main prizes, she wasn't happy with it. She gave the envelope to me with the words. ‘You can have it; I wanted the cruise.’”

“But why are you giving them away?”

“Oh, that's another story, in the past I wouldn't have hesitated for a second, but now I just couldn't go back to the UK yet. Where I had been so happy with my husband for such a long time.”

“You lived in the UK? For how long?”

“Over twenty years. I only came back after Andreas died, and because I had to keep busy, I opened this shop. My sister-in-law, my brother's wife, was the only one who had never visited us, she could never understand what kept us there, so I guess that's why she gave me the tickets.”

“But that was nice, she wanted to make you happy.”

“Yes, probably, but I would have preferred the cruise too.” Brigitte laughed. “Well, I couldn't throw them away either, though. And that's why I kept them.”

“I understand, but what I don’t understand is why did you put them in my bag? Was this some sort of mistake?”

“I put them in there on purpose. I wanted to give them to someone I know, and I think you need a change of air. Besides, the travel agent wanted to know who was going.”

“But, you haven't seen me for over twenty years, and you never really knew me. How could you know, that I need a change of air. Or is it that obvious?”

“So, I was right after all, wasn't I?”

Anna didn’t reply and after a moment she nodded. “Yes, it's true. I haven't been happy with my life for a long time.”

“See, I suspected as much. Here take them, Scotland will do you good.”

“I can't just ...”

“Why not?” In that moment the shop doorbell rang and another customer came in. “Take them and write me a postcard.” Brigitte gave Anna a quick hug and turned to the customer.

Anna put the tickets in her bag and left the store.

Back home, she put the envelope in the handbag, and there it would stay. She couldn't go away, the trip was only for one person, and Ulrich would never let her go alone. She literally saw his grin and heard his comment. “You alone abroad, you're not capable of that. Forget it.”

And that's exactly what she would try to do now, forget.

4

Unlike Ulrich, Anna had always wanted a large family, while he thought one child was enough. But then Anna unexpectedly became pregnant again shortly after Natalie. When she had told Ulrich, he had not spoken a word to her for days. Finally, when he did, he said that she had to terminated the pregnancy. He accused her of tricking him.

But Anna refused, she wanted this child, and Oliver had been her child from the beginning. Ulrich just tolerated him while Natalie got all his attention. Sometimes, when he was angry, he even called Oliver the accident.

Ulrich had been Anna's first real boyfriend. Before that, she had only had crushes on the most popular boys in the schoolyard and had even fallen in love with the boys who had thrown her school bag into the stream. But except for Werner, no one had ever fallen in love with her, too. Even her short rebellious phase hadn't changed that, she had only changed on the outside, inside she had remained the insecure Anna that nobody wanted. Except for Werner, with whom she had exchanged shy kisses and held hands, but that was all. Anna had always dreamed of the great love, and that was definitely not Werner. She didn't even like the way he smelled and had to hold her breath every time he kissed her. He'd always thought she'd run out of breath from all the passion, and he had sweaty palms, everything he'd touched was always slightly damp.

With Ulrich, it was different. She thought she would love him.

They met him at a village fete in the neighbouring village, to which a colleague had taken her, because she knew how much Anna liked to dance.

She was about to take a break when Ulrich asked her for the next dance. He wasn't a very good dancer and ruined her shoes by constantly stepping on her toes. But he apologized so charmingly that Anna forgave him, especially since the shoes had already got stuck in the grass with their heels several times, and now looked quite shabby.

Ulrich was tall and slender, and his blue eyes, which now looked like blocks of ice, sparkled mischievously. Anna felt comfortable with him, and when he asked her to marry him after only a few months, she was overjoyed. Her friends had all warned her to think twice, that he was just looking for a housekeeper, but she had only laughed. Today her laughter was gone, because she knew now that they had been correct.

Shortly after their engagement, Anna and Ulrich went to the mountains together, Anna had repacked her suitcase at least three times so as not to forget anything. But on the first evening, when she was getting ready for dinner, she noticed that she had forgotten to pack some smart shoes. She only had her walking boots and slippers. For a moment she wanted to leave, then she decided to just put on the slippers, at least they were black. Relieved not to have to go barefoot to the dining room, she had changed her clothes.

After dinner, they walked hand in hand to the elevator.

Anna was happy, she had long forgotten about her shoes, until Ulrich dropped the room key in front of the elevator and bent down, the romantic mood was gone in an instant.

“Anna, why are you wearing your slippers? Aren't you even capable of getting dressed, we're not at home after all.”

“I forgot the other shoes, but it's not like anyone noticed.”

“You should have told me, then I would have ordered dinner to the room, but no, you'd rather embarrass me.”

“No one noticed, did they?” Anna was close to tears; Ulrich had never spoken to her so angrily.

“Only you would think that! Probably the whole dining room is already talking about us. We're leaving tomorrow morning.”

“But I could get new shoes tomorrow ...”

“No, I said we are leaving.”

Anna had cried herself to sleep and hoped Ulrich would forget about it, but the next morning he had already got up at 6 a.m. and packed his suitcase. On the way home he didn't speak a word to Anna, he dropped her off at her parents' and didn't contact her again for a whole week. Then suddenly he was at her door again, as if nothing had happened. She was so glad that she put aside all doubts as to whether he was really the one. Later she had realized that she had not loved Ulrich even then. What she had felt for Ulrich had been sympathy and affection, but nothing more.