Bus Travels

Bob, a bus driver for 30 years, smiled mischieviously.

         Lorna his wife said, "Do you think you'll miss it, dear?"

         "Miss what my love?", Bob said teasingly. 

         Lorna sighed with exasperation, "Oh you know, that place you go 5 days a week -- for 8 hours a day.” 

         Bob admired Lorna's delightful wit. After thirty-three years of marriage, she had a way of brightening his day like no one else could.  But she was right, he knew. He wasn't sure he knew how to be anything else. His only concern about retirement was being in Lorna's hair.  He knew she thought he would be underfoot all the time.  But he had a little surprise for her. 

         However,  right now Bob needed to go meet his bus and do one more day.  "As usual you are right my dear,” he said, before kissing Lorna on the cheek and walking out the door.

         At Barlow Station, Bob waited for his friend Jack's bus to arrive.  Jack and Sophie Bell were their best friends since the move to Calgary and bus driver training.  Bob pulled up his collar to the wind and crammed his fur hat further down on his head.  It was April already. However, it was still cold and the roads were icy with the frozen rain they got the night before. 

         When the bus arrived, Bob waited for the people lined up to get on the bus first, then climbed on.  Jack lifted his heavy bulk off the driver's seat, returning his friends grin and shook his hand, knowing that this was his friends last shift said, “I'm next Bobby, boy.  Grab a beer after your shift?”

         As Bob lowered his tall lanky frame into the seat, smiling so hard his cheeks looked like round shiny apples replied, “Sure, Pal.”

         “Great! I'll pick you up here, right now you gotta go, cause you're late.”

         Bob pulled away, and thought what a guy makes me late on my last day.  Well, at least it's not like my first day, when he got his first and only traffic ticket ever on the first day of bus driver training.  A cat had run in front of the bus and he had to stop fast. Unfortunately, the police car behind him couldn't stop as fast. He had been so embarrassed he wanted to quit,  but Jack talked him out of it and they had been best friends ever since. 

         Now, it was his last day.  Hard to believe. He would miss some of the people who took his bus on a regular basis, but, some of them made him sad, especially, the old people who would sit up front and talk his ear off and then get off at the same stop they got on at.  He hoped he wouldn't end up like that. There were alot of lonely people out there on their own -- all alone.  Then there were some he wouldn't miss like the drunks, and the teenage punks who couldn't form a complete sentence without inserting the f... word.

         The roads were treacherous, even though traffic was light and there weren't many people out and about.  On his last return to Barlow Station, Jack was sitting there in his black Hummer.  Jack and Sophie were quite well-off, but like most transit drivers Jack wanted to put in his full thirty-five years to take advantage of his full pension pay-out.

         Jack leaned over, opened the passenger door and said, “Hey Bobby boy, daylight's burning, let's get a move on.”

         “Where's the fire?”, asked Bob wondering why Jack was in such a hurry.

         “Gotta drop off these new menus to Sophie.”  About ten years ago, Jack's wife opened Sophies -- an Italian restaurant.  Before then, Jack had the physique of a football player now he resembled a Sumo Wrestler. 

         “Well, first I have to go home and change,” said Bob.

         “Sounds like a plan,” said Jack.

         As they pulled up in front of Bob and Lorna's little yellow house in Renfrew, Bob noticed their car wasn't parked out front.  “Lorna's not home.  She is always home by this time,” said Bob worriedly, after they entered the house.

         “She's probably still yaking with Nina at that coffee shop they meet at every week,” joked Jack, without revealing that Lorna was at Sophie's restaurant along with the rest of Bob's friends and family waiting to surprise him and celebrate his retirement.

         Bob eyed Jack suspiciously, as he reached for the phone and dialed Nina's cell phone.  “No answer." Immediately, Bob became suspicious.  He left a note for Lorna -- so she wouldn't worry.  He wondered what Jack was up to... 

         Sophie's was in a district that the locals' called “Little Italy.”  They parked on the tree lined street in front of Sophie's, with it's faded, red brick, exterior and big picture windows that were polished to a high mirror shine.  When they entered the restaurant,  the wood paneled entrance gleamed and the smell of pasta flooded their senses.  Jack could actually name what each dish was by the smell, but Bob just knew it all smelled delicious and made him hungry.

         At that moment, when they stepped into the dining room, everyone yelled, “Surprise.”

         Bob turned and looked doubtfully at Jack, “You didn't do this?”

         Jack grinning said, “Not me,” as he waved and smiled at Lorna.

         Bob went over to Lorna's table who was smiling and looking as beautiful as on their wedding night.  He said, “You are very sneaky, my sweet wife.” Her shoulder length grey hair was shining under the bright lights and she was dressed in a winter white dress and pearls.                     Lorna looked at her still bewildered husband and said, “It's not easy surprising you my dear.”

         Bob smiled lovingly at Lorna and said, “I have a surprise for you too, my dear.  I have decided to take some courses and get serious about my writing.”

         “That's wonderful dear, you won't be bored, however I have another surprise,” she said smiling sweetly as she handed Bob an envelope.

         Inside the envelope were plane tickets and a confirmation for a 2 week stay outside of London, at the same bed and breakfast  they stayed at when they were first married.  Bob looked questioningly at her and said, “How?”

         “Oh I been putting away for this for a long time,” laughed Lorna.

         At that moment Bob decided his wife would always be the master in pulling off surprises.

The End