“Come fly with my, lets fly lets fly away” she trilled tunelessly.

Ray squirmed a little inside. Ever since had told her he had bought the bloody tickets Doreen had been in dreamland

He had travelled on planes a few times for his work as an appliance fitter before he retired and knew that a flight on Easyjet was not like her Sinatra inspired day-dreams.

She had modelled her outfit on the new-look stylings of Jackie Onassis. It looked a bit strange to Ray but he said she looked smashing. Her make up had been inexpertly applied so that one side of her smile was half way up her cheeks a little like the Joker’s in Batman.

They were visiting David and Janine in Las Palmas, seeing the grand kids too. for Doreen who had never flown, it was the holiday of a lifetime.

“Now have you got the tickets?” she asked, for the thousandth time. Ray had explained they were “on the phone in my wallet”, prompting Doreen to declare “Well it cant be both! Which is it?”

The thing Doreen was most proud of though was that they were “Speedy Boarding” passengers! She imagined sailing past the riffraff alongside Cary Grant and Judith Chalmers. Ray hadn’t told her all it meant was that they could put a bag in the overhead locker. He just wanted to get there without her being too disappointed. He loved her and respected her occasional dreams. She never usually asked for much.

There were no chairs in departures and no remonstration from parents as their children lay across three seats or dropped crusts on the floor. They stood for two hours between WH Smiths and Subway squinting at the board for their Gate number.

“We are Speedy boarding passengers” said Doreen in her poshest voice to the board looking woman in the cheap uniform at Gate 92, who waved them to the back of the longer of the two queues.

When the gate opened a dozen more people rushed past them quickly without looking round or indeed carrying a large case. In the tunnel down to the runway they stopped for another twenty minutes. Ray kept his spare hand firmly on Doreen’s being as calm as possible and smiling at her. He helped her to squash into her cramped seat and walked down to the other end of the plane where the only overhead spaces remained. When he eventually returned to his seat, he ignored the person behind whose pointy shoe protruded under his own seat, spiking into his ankle.

He held Doreen’s hand again as the cabin crew explained the emergency procedures, “Brace, Brace” she repeated carefully under her breath.

Take off bought a furious pain to their ears, Doreen looked out of the window in amazement at the passing toy farms, woods and swimming pools. Ray dropped off.

In Las Palmas airport they finally got through customs.

Doreen looked exhausted. Ray felt somehow that it was his fault that her golden age of air travel dreams had been shattered. They had married so young and so quickly after she got pregnant, he knew she could have done better, he hadn’t been much of a success and didn’t look much like a member of the ratpack.

When they saw David in Arrivals, he asked how their flight had been.

“It was wonderful! Just how I dreamed” beamed Doreen,

“After all, we had speedy boarding!”