The extra ticket
Source: an original fiction extract.
“The ticket lay on the pavement outside the theatre, face down in a small pool of rain. Dev picked it up because he was early and had nothing else to do with his hands. It was for the same performance he had come to see, but for a seat near the front. His own seat was behind a pillar in the upper circle. He turned the wet paper over twice, then put it carefully inside his coat.
In the foyer, people stood in warm islands beneath the lamps. A woman was emptying her handbag onto a bench: gloves, a purse, a notebook, a folded umbrella that would not stay folded. Her companion held their drinks and tried to make room for a coat. Dev walked past them towards the staircase. He could feel the ticket against his chest, although it weighed almost nothing.
At the first landing, he stopped to read the cast list. He already knew the cast. Below him, the woman asked an usher where lost property was kept. Dev imagined arriving at the better seat and discovering that nobody claimed it. He imagined the curtain rising without the pillar cutting the stage in two. Then he imagined explaining the ticket if someone did arrive. That version would not end neatly.
He went down. The woman looked at the ticket and then at him. 'Where did you find it?' she asked. He said outside, which was true. Her companion thanked him so warmly that Dev wished he had come down sooner. The usher checked the number and pointed them towards the stalls. Dev returned to the staircase. The cast list had not changed.
From the upper circle, the pillar hid one edge of the stage. Dev leaned slightly to the left. Just before the lights dimmed, he saw the woman in the front rows searching the balcony with her eyes. She lifted a hand when she found him. He lifted his own, then settled into the awkward seat. The first scene began partly out of view. He watched what he could and listened carefully to the rest.”
Consider the whole source. Analyse how the writer structures the text to create suspense about whether Dev will return the ticket. You could consider the opening focus, changes in focus or pace, the order in which information is revealed and the ending. Support your explanation with references to the source.
136 exam-style questions on AQA GCSE English Language 5.2 Content, covering 5.2.1 Reading source: literature fiction text, 5.2.2 Focus of the extracts, 5.2.3 Stimulus for students' own writing, and 5.2.4 Scenario sets audience, purpose and form. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.