The sky is red on this lonely morning, and I am traveling back in time. It is cold and I am standing at the bus stop with my hands in my pocket. One of my shoes is untied but I really don't care and pay it no attention. The chatter box is talking, the girls are giggling, and I am the sleepy head.
I can hear the dads closing the doors to cars in distant driveways, and see the moms peek through curtains making sure everything is as it should be. We were the neighborhood kids, and we belong to everyone on the block.
The fun dad honks his horn and waves as he drives by the grumpy one follows but just passes in his angry car. The Car pool dads all pile into a van, while us kids begin to get louder and more playful. The girls are playing hop scotch while, chatter box digs in his back pack for a football. Lunch box's and bags get stacked up at the edge of a drive way and we toss the ball around and I tie my shoe, catch the ball and become John Elway.
"Awwww Mannnnnnn"
The sputter of the yellow dog can be heard on the next street down, It’s almost time and my stomach starts to sink, the fun has to end in a few moments. The ball, the hopscotch, the kids, the moms, the dads, all have to begin the day.
I look down to the end of the block and see the yellow bus turning onto the street, and slowly making its way toward the stop. A mom yells from a kitchen window, "you kids get your bags!"
I grab my lunch box, and back pack, unzip it to make sure I remembered to put my skelator in it for recess. The pecking order begins as we all fall into a line, the girls first and then the boys. We prepared for the morning battle of who was going to be the coolest and get to sit at the back of the bus.
The sputtering and coughing yellow dog crawls to a stop and I can smell the acid stench of the exhaust as one by one we all take hold of the handle and step up into the bus.
