Bus Ride

Bus Ride

By: Roger Alderman

An old school bus moves gingerly through the cool autumn night streets of Port St John. The oddity of the image of a bus running through the small town at midnight drew no attention of the slumbering residence. This holds true in most small towns across Florida.

The jarring of the bus's crossing of the Fay Blvd railroad tracks woke Nancy. She felt dizzy and out of sorts, as she forced her eyes open. She examined her restraints and slowly took in her surroundings and realized she was not the only adult on the bus. A bus she has no recollection of ever entering.

Nancy attempts to focus her mind of the day's events through the haziness that continues to linger. When Kevin, her son, arrived at home from the school bus. He told her that the bus driver was waiting to speak to her. Nancy asked Kevin "What does he want?" Kevin just shrugged and blew her off, as had always done.

Nancy opened the front door and was greeted by a very upset middle-aged bus driver, "Can I help you?" She asked. "Yeah. You Can," the bus driver aggressively responded. Nancy was take back by his tone and body language. "You can actually do something about that little punk of yours," the bus driver gestured towards the front room window.

Nancy turned just in time to see Kevin flipping off the bus driver. She turned back to the driver, "he's a teenaged boy. What do you want me to do?" "Are you kidding me. Spank him! A little discipline would go a long way," the bus driver demanded. "Don't tell me how to raise my child!" Nancy was angry at the audacity of the driver to question her parenting style.

  

Nancy slammed the front door in the driver's face and yelled for Kevin to get downstairs, but as usual, she knew that she would ultimately have to go upstairs to his room to get him. Nancy stormed up the step and across the second story landing to her son's room. It was as she expected Kevin was blasting his music and would never have heard her previous demand for his full attention.

Nancy balled up her fist and hammered on the door, "Kevin open the door now!" "What do you want!" Kevin responded with disinterest. "Open this door or I will have your father take it off the hinges when he gets home," she demanded. The door flew open and Kevin carried an expression of disgust and disrespect, "what…." Nancy glared at her rude teen, "You want to tell me what you did this time? The driver was more pissed off than before." "No," Kevin slammed the door in Nancy's face.

Nancy was furious and her thoughts turned to taking the door off the hinges herself. She stormed down the steps and turned to the utility room door. She flung open the door and grabbed a claw hammer and smiled, "okay Kevin you asked for it." She turned around in time to see a shadow come from her left-hand side. Then she recalled nothing just darkness.

Nancy noticed another person awakening a man in a t-shirt and jeans, "hey, hey, mister back here." The man groggily stirred, "where?" "Were on a school bus," Nancy whispered, "do you remember how we got here." The man sat upright and shook his head, " the Last thing I remember was talking to my daughter's bus driver. dizzy." "Who is your daughter?" Nancy asked as she tried to piece things together. "Jennifer Horace," He began. "Jen, that's Kevin's girlfriend." The man turned to face Nancy, "You're Kevin's mother."

The bus turned off the road and began barreling through a series of back roads. "Hey! What's going on here?" Jen's father demanded to the bus driver. The bus driver looked up into his mirror and shook his head. "Why are we here?" Jen's father angrily declared. The bus driver turned on the interior lights, pointed to the sign that stated NO TALKING WHEN LIGHT IS ON and chuckled.

Jen's father pulled at his restraints. "Are you sure you want to anger him?" Nancy begged Jen's Father. The bus driver slammed on the breaks and unbuckled himself. "Good now I got your attention! Now let us go!" he demanded. The driver scowled and made his way to Jen's father. "When the lights are on your mouth goes shut!" screamed the driver, as he raised a lug wrench into the air and brought it crashing down again and again on the man's head neck and shoulders. "Please stop!" Nancy cried out, as she watched the driver beat the man unconscious.

The driver turned to Nancy covered in the gore that erupted from the victim during the assault. He raised his brain matter covered finger in front of his mouth and shushed her, "The lights are on." Tears began to stream down her face as an outward expression of the terror she truly felt and tried to bury. The driver smiled and returned to his seat. The bus lurched forward and once again continued its way through the barely visible back roads.

Nancy listened to the overhead tree branches scrape their long-serrated talons against the roof of the school bus. She jumped at the loud banging of low hanging limb smashing against the sides of the bus. Eventually, the bus slowed and faced a large worn metal cattle gate with a nearly sun bleached trespassing warning hanging on it. Nancy watched, as the driver flashed the bus's lights. Shortly after the gate swung open and then closed behind the bus's advance.

The bus pulled up in front of an elderly airstream style mobile home trailer. The driver exited and called out, "Okay we're here give me a hand with them!" Nancy watched in terror, as numerous robed figures exited the airstream. They entered the bus and removed each of the parents including Nancy. "Who are you?" she begged. Slowly the placed each parent face down on the ground, as they stood above in judgment. Nancy began to cry and beg incoherently for her life.

  

The robed figures laughed. The driver came forward and looked at Nancy, "Why would we listen to you if you never listened to us about your damned kids?" Nancy was assaulted by great confusion, as she attempted to make sense of all of this. "I don't think we need the robes anymore," stated one figure which revealed himself to be the high school principal.

Slowly Nancy the head of the PTA watched, as teacher after teacher revealed him or herself. Nancy realized she was surrounded by not just any high school teacher, but ones who had asked her time and time again to do something about her son. The color left Nancy's face. "I can see by your look that no introductions are needed," said the principle.

The principle kneeled down next to Nancy, "I can see by the look on your face that you're confused, but this could not be simpler. You have failed your child and for the greater good, we will not. You must be purged. You are the reason your child continues to act out." Nancy shakes her head in disbelief, "you're kidding …right?"

"No, my dear we have never been more serious in our lives. We have to be the parents you and the rest never would. We will not see another generation of disrespectful and ignorant children become a burden to society." At that instance, Nancy watches, as the high school football coach smashes in Jennifer's fathers head with a tire iron until the brain matter explodes from his head raining down on all present. Nancy screams and is immediately gaged by the principle.

 "All you had to do was correct your child. A little physical discipline would have made this all go away, but your weak parenting resulted in his friends getting away with the same actions and we can no longer tolerate any more disruptions." Nancy cries and gags, as she watches the bus driver start a pit fire which quickly turns to conflagration with the addition of gasoline.

Nancy shakes her head and struggles against the mob of teachers. They carry her to the edge of the pit. The principle steps forward again, as each of the unconscious of dead bodies of the other parent is tossed into the fire like trash. "Nancy, as Kevin's mother and the person truly responsible for the children's behavior. We declare you guilty and condemn you to burn." Before Nancy could attempt to say another word, she was cast into the center of the blaze.

"Now the children," The driver nodded in understanding of the principles words.