The following version of this story was used to create this study guide: Dahl, Roald. “The Way up to Heaven.” The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl. Penguin Books, 1992, p. 37 – 48.

The story begins with a short biography of Mrs. Foster. She had severe anxiety about punctuality, but her anxiety did not translate to other aspects of her life. Her anxiety was characterized by a muscle twitch near her eye. Mr. Foster, her husband, appeared to provoke this anxiety by getting ready slowly, and recently, Mrs. Foster began to suspect that this provocation was intentional.

One morning, Mrs. Foster was late for a plane. Her butler reassured her, but Mr. Foster was extending the delay further. After begging her husband to hurry, they eventually departed for the airport. In the car, Mr. and Mrs. Foster discussed how they would keep the house maintained, since Mr. Foster was planning to stay at a club while Mrs. Foster visited her grandchildren in Paris.

The couple noticed fog thickening around the car, and by the time they arrived at the airport, the plane had been delayed. After waiting at the airport for hours, Mrs. Foster learned that the flight was cancelled. She called her husband, who told her to return home by taxi. When she returned, she told her husband that the flight was rescheduled for the next day, and Mr. Foster told her to drop him off at the club on her way to the airport the following morning.

The next morning, Mrs. Foster was ready to leave on time, but her husband was late once again. When they finally entered the car, the husband returned to the house, claiming that he forgot a gift. However, Mrs. Foster found the gift forced between the seat and the car door, so she ran to the house to call her husband. But a noise made her stop, return to the car, and order the chauffeur to take her to the airport.

Mrs. Foster spent the next few months in Paris, and when she returned to the mansion, she saw a pile of mail on the living room floor. She then called a maintenance company and told them she needed help repairing an elevator.