Cheese & Onion

I

Sitting in her solicitors office, Josie thinks over her life, contemplating what ultimately brought her here. She had an appointment at 3pm and it was just a little before that now. The outer office was awfully dark and jam packed with books and dusty items. A harried looking woman is gesturing that it is Josie's appointment time. As she walks through to the solicitors office, she see's him get up from his big executive chair to greet her warmly. She is finalizing her will, making sure her sister, daughter and various nieces and nephews get their fair share of her and her husband's life's monetary worth. Josie was an old lady now; close to the pearly gates she knows. She's made this appointment to sign the estate papers and leave a letter for her daughter to receive after her death.

Thinking back, it was so long ago, that night in 1938 when the sky lit up like a fire over Bangor & Anglesey... That night she made a decision that changed her life forever.  She brings her mind back to the solicitors office, he smiles and assures her that everything will be taken of. Then she's on the taxi ride home and its during the taxi drive that she again thinks back on part of her life.

She'd been living with her family in Bangor, North Wales. It was a very small coastal town with not a lot to do. Josie was one of 9 kids, aged right in the middle. Her obligations to her family will soon pass on to her younger siblings who are still not married. She'd been doing the books as well as seamstress work for a small tailors shop here in Bangor for a few years now; looking after her parents who couldn't move so well when she wasn't working her job. She'd been saving some of her wages every week, always wanting to experience the big cities and made her decision the night of the aurora borealis.

That January night sky was a sight, such bright reds and oranges, as if the city was on fire. Josie, in that short time, had a life changing moment; she thought of how she'd not be doomed to die in a raging fire if she had moved to London like her sister Eliza, or to the south coast of England like her other sister, Anna.

Regret washed over her and her stomach sank for those brief moments. Enough to still have an impact on an old lady almost three quarters of a century later. She was wasting her life, boring Bangor with nothing new, nothing hip, nothing fun. She decided then and there, she was getting out and going to London, a big town where nobody knows your name.

Josie's thoughts go back to the first love of her life, Rafe.. Oh he was so charming and handsome; the reason she had a letter for her daughter Em. Her mind now pictures the railway station back in 1938, she was on her way to London, having made arrangements to stay with her sister Eliza. It was a hot May day and she was so excited saying goodbye to her friends and family.

The train left on time and as she sat next to the window in the 2nd class compartment, she noticed the people around her. There was a mother and child, destination unknown, in the seats across from her and across the aisle an obvious business man, dressed to the nines. As Josie wondered why the dapper gentleman wasn't in the first class carriages, the conductor came by to punch her ticket. She smiled at the conductor, and he smiled back. He asked her where she was heading and she said London, via Birmingham with a huge grin. She just knew it was going to be a great day!

Turning back to the window, she watched the lush countryside go by, with the rhythmic sways of the carriage to lull her. She was a million miles away; thinking of dancing in London until the wee hours of the morning to all the modern music. She really loved Tommy Dorsey and his big band style. She used to dance in front of the mirrors of her work when no one was around. The tailors shop had a full length mirror with the three panes. This was becoming all too real, she was going to London, to live. To really live.