The VCR didn’t record her favorite show and that was the turning point, the final straw. Life needs to have joy in it and if such a little thing as a recorded program was too much to ask, it was time to get out.

She lived in a small apartment on the Westside and hated it. Amanda, a retiree, a trifle more than pleasingly plump and gray of hair, had planned it carefully: She had a folder for prepared passing on to her only child and her husband. It contained the stock pointers in a letter with her will, the annuity, a whole life policy with the usual suicide clause, that she managed to buy two months ago with her meager set income.

Amanda had watched the stock market for years and knew what was worth investing in even if she never had the money to play the market with. She also knew to be wary of stocks that seemed too good to be true. Amanda distrusted Martha Stewart’s stocks which turned out to be a bad investment for those who bought them just before they tanked. Amanda did like gold as a tangible asset that could be purchased as casting gold and could be purchased in small amounts and saved quietly until an election year. That’s when precious metals were the thing as investors went liquid until they knew which way the wind blew politically. She bought casting gold and good gold jewelry without settings in the summer between elections when the price was low.

Instructions to her family regarding this financial wisdom and other matters were where they could be discovered easily when the time came. Further, Amanda knew when the right plane had come along. Part of being psychic was to know things of use. Time to go to the Sunport, the international airport in Albuquerque.

At the Sunport Amanda observed the potential passengers for flight 77 while she waited for the announcement for pre-boarding. Amanda was assured of pre-boarding because of the cane she affected. At her age, it was accepted without question that she was infirm.

And what does that say about American health ? Amanda wondered as she patiently sat, boarding pass in hand, the flight insurance mailed off to her daughter from a kiosk that touted customer services.

One seat over in the Delta flight’s waiting area sat a young mother with a darling little baby girl, all in frilly pink.