The Bus Driver

 

The trek through the wilderness had been interminable as day had frozen into night and night had thawed into day in an endless cycle.  It was a matter of one foot in front of the other but he was growing increasingly tired.  And as he tired and slowed he sensed the presence of predators patiently plodding nearby following his progress.

He found a path to ease his way and lessen the stumbling brought on by exhaustion.  It wound around and down through shrinking hills eventually taking him into a pine forest.  The quiet there was striking.  Pine needles softened the ground and the birds had ceased to flit and call to one another.  He seemed at the end of himself, but then he saw the clearing ahead.

It gave him a bit of a bump and he sped up to meet it, stopping at the edge and peering about the space.  At the far edge he spied an abandoned bus and he wondered how it had found this improbable spot to retire.  It was white and green, top and bottom, with a yellow undercoat peeking out in various places that had been worn away by sun and rain. 

Strange as it was, it was a welcome sight after an eternity of walking.  As he approached the bus he noticed a rusty chair beckoning him.  “Come, rest yourself” it seemed to say as it creaked under his weight.  Some of the cares of his journey fell from his shoulders into the overgrown grass and were strangled amongst the choking weeds with nary a cry. 

His chin found his chest and sleep was not far away when a fast moving shadow on the ground startled him back to wakefulness.  A large owl swept down out of the trees to perch on the hood of the bus.  It swiveled its magnificent head to take in the weary traveler and queried him. “Who?”  Nonplussed the man replied “Why?”  The owl blinked thrice and then flew away. 

The sun was falling below the horizon and stars were beginning to wink into existence in a pale blue sky purpling by the minute.  The traveler made his way around the bus and into its darkening interior where he found a rusty barrel furnace and a bed.  He did not bother to remove his coat before lying down and falling off into a dreamless sleep. 

The loud popping sound of a burning log suddenly brought him out of sleep.  His eyes remained closed and an inventory of his body indicated he could not feel his feet or the ends of his fingers.  He waited for fear to find him but it remained bashfully at the edges of his awareness.  Instead he was feeling the sensation of warmth emanating from what may or may not have been a fire. 

Through his slightly opened lids he could make out the blurred form of a man undulating in flame and shadow.  He forced himself to sit up in the bed, rubbed his eyes, and found he was facing another man sitting in the rusty chair.  The man was young and bearded with a mischievous grin and knowing eyes deeply set.  They sat in silence looking at each other.

The only thing the traveler could eventually think to say was “Where did you come from?”  The man put his palms together in front of his face and then moved them outward in a big circle.  “Uh, you’re from around here?”  The man smiled and looked around the bus in a kind of exaggerated manner.  “Sooo, right here, right here?”  And he nodded his head in agreement.

This silent man confused the traveler but he did not make him feel uneasy.  The man gestured for him to lean forward and when he did he placed his palm on the traveler’s heart.  He felt a popping sensation and everything seemed to stop as the roof of the bus suddenly became transparent.  The stars burned brighter overhead than he’d ever seen before.  Tears came.

“Who?” he choked out...“Why?” a whisper.  The man got up and went to sit in the driver’s seat.  He pulled the throttle and pumped the gas while turning the key.  The bus roared to life vibrating the furnace and the bed so that the traveler thought the whole vehicle would simply shake into pieces.  The driver flicked with his flattened hand the sign for “forward!” 

Expecting the bus to lurch forward the traveler braced himself, but instead it lurched upwards.  The tops of the trees quickly came on level with the windows as the bus paused in its ascent.  The bottom of the bus became transparent as well and the traveler experienced a kind of existential vertigo as it resumed climbing at an accelerating rate of speed.

The trees fell away.  The hills fell away.  The mountains fell away.  And the earth spun blue in the abyss becoming just one more point of light in a limitless expanse full of radiant silence.  “Where?” asked the traveler.  “Home” answered the bus driver.  And he knew it was true.