FICTION; A NEAR DISASTER

"Bye Mommy," little Jeremy said as he went out the door. "I have to hurry or I will miss the bus. I will see you this afternoon. I love you."

"Don't forget your sweater Margery," her Mother said. "It may be a little cool on the way to school this morning."

Karen stood in the door way watching her little one climb up the steps of the bus and waved as he looked back at her.

Josh and Jeannie hugged their Mom bye as they grabbed their lunch off the counter on their way out the door. "I have a ball game after school this evening so I will be a little late getting home Mom," Josh told her. "I have to go over to the Morton's after school and take care of their little girl," Jeannie said. "I should be home around eight."

Andy's parents had been out of town for a couple of days and he had been home by himself. A couple of his friends had spent the night with him and they were getting ready for school together.

"Have we got everything we will need?" Andy asked his two friends. "This is going to be our big day, don't forget."

"Yeah, I think we have everything we had talked about," they said.

"Boy, I am really nervous about this though," Greg said.

Earlier that morning Wilma kissed her husband as she went out to her bus. "Be careful today out on the roads Honey." "I will. I love you."

This had been an every morning thing for the past eight years. That is how long Wilma had been driving this same route.

In all of these years she had never had an accident. She was a well-liked lady and knew all of the kids on her bus by their names. She always had a smile for them when they climbed the steps of the bus and waited for them to go to their seats.

This day was no different from any other. She had 18 children that rode her bus every day. This morning she had 15 because she had gotten a call the night before that the three Cassidy children were going to be out of town and that she would not need to stop at their house.

Andy's stop was the last one on the way to school. She did not think it unusual that his two friends were with him as he got onto the bus. It seemed that these two boys spent the night with him quite a lot. (They were the oldest kids on the bus, but they had always been very quiet and polite.)

As always when they boarded the bus they went to the very back of the bus and sat down.

Something seemed a little different about the boys this morning, but Wilma couldn't quite figure out what the difference was.

As a precaution she glanced in the mirror several times to keep a check on things. Most of the time when she looked at the boys they had their heads together whispering among themselves. Once or twice it looked like they may have been having an argument about something.

"I wonder what it is they have in their book bags," Wilma thought to herself. These boys don't usually bring their books home and now all three of them have book bags this morning.

"I don't like the looks of this," she was thinking. For the next few blocks Wilma was trying to figure out what she should do to avoid any trouble, if that is what the boys were planning.

Besides Andy and his friends, there was only one other child on the bus that day that was going to the Junior High School. The rest of the riders got off at the grade school.

Calling Cindy to the front of the bus, Wilma whispered to her that she wanted her to get off the bus at the grade school with the little ones and alert the principal that if she did not arrive at the Junior High within the next half an hour to call the police.

"Make a big deal about getting off the bus," Wilma told her. "Say you are feeling sick and need to call your Mom to come and get you."

"What is the matter?" Cindy asked the bus driver.

"Never mind Honey, just do as I told you, and everything will be fine."

Pulling up in front of the school, Cindy called out, "Miss Wilma I have to get off the bus! I am sick. Is it alright if I get off here and call my Mom to come pick me up?"

"Okay, Cindy. Go right to the nurses station and have her call your Mom. I hope you get to feeling better and I will see you tomorrow."

As she went by the driver's seat she whispered to Wilma and told her to be careful.

As Wilma drove away from the school she chanced a quick look in the mirror at the boys in the back. They didn't even seem to notice that they were the only ones on the bus. They still had their heads together talking.

"Let's just hope they stay that way for a little longer," Wilma thought.

Another two blocks in front of her was an intersection. Straight went to the Junior High School and left went out of town. When she got to the stop sign she made the left turn.

One of Andy's friends noticed the turn and called out, "Where are you going, the school was straight ahead." "Yes, I know that," Wilma said. "The oil light just came on and since the bus garage is just up ahead I am going to have to pull in there for a few minutes. Don't worry, I will have you to school on time."

Looking back in the mirror again, she saw that the three boys were pointing and waving their arms around. She could tell that they were getting nervous about the detour she had taken.

Luckily the road was almost deserted at that time of the morning as she sped up and headed out of town.

How far out she planned to go she had no idea, but as it turned out it was decided for her.

Coming to the front of the bus, Andy pointed a small deadly looking gun at her.

"Stop this bus!!" he shouted. Wilma kept driving. "Stop it now, I said." With no other alternative, she pulled the bus to the side of the road.

"Turn around and drive back to the school now," Andy instructed her. "No, I can not do that," Wilma said. "What do you boys have planned? Hasn't there been enough violence in our schools today? Why don't you all give me the guns. I will go with you and talk to the principal with you all. If this goes any further you will just be in more trouble than you already are."

As she had been talking to Andy she had slowly taken the keys out of the bus and had hidden them in her jacket pocket.

"Now turn this bus around and take us back to the school," Andy said with a snarl.

"I will tell you what I said before, I can not do that. I will do whatever it takes to keep you all from harming the children at the school."

Wilma opened the door of the bus and as she started down the steps a shot rang out. Screaming out in pain, Wilma stumbled on down the bus steps and fell in the ditch beside the road.

Knowing that when the boys did not find the keys in the bus they would most probably search her pockets, she quickly dug a small hole and buried the bus keys.

She heard the boys searching frantically on the bus and also heard their shoes running down the steps. Closing her eyes she pretended that she was unconscious. As she had thought, they searched in both pockets of her jacket.

Not finding the keys, she heard one of them ask, "What are we going to do now?"

"Let's get rid of these guns," she heard Andy say. "No one knows we had these today. I think we killed the driver, so we can just leave and pretend we don't know anything about this."

Little did they know that Cindy had alerted the principal of the grade school and he in turn had called the police.

When Wilma's bus did not show up at the Junior High they had started a search of the surrounding countryside. The three boys did not even have time to get rid of their guns before four police cars came tearing down the road with their red lights flashing and their sirens blaring.

They quickly had the boys in cuffs and had them on their way back to town to the police station.

One of the officers had called for the ambulance as soon as he saw the wounded driver in the ditch. It arrived in a matter of minutes.

Quickly checking Wilma over they found that the bullet had only grazed her in the side and that it was not serious at all. Just for precautions though, they put her in the ambulance and took her to the hospital for a few tests.

The Doctor told Wilma that he wanted to keep her overnight to make sure she did not suffer from any form of belated shock over her terrifying ordeal.

Later that night as Wilma was resting there was a soft knock on the door. "Come in," she called out. In walked someone carrying the biggest bouquet of roses she had ever seen. There was also a huge card. "My goodness," she said. "Who are these from?"

Peeking out from behind the flowers was her husband. "Hi Hon, I think when you read this card you will know where all these flowers came from."

Handing her the card, she unfolded page after page. "Thank you so much for your bravery and for quick thinking. If it hadn't have been for you there may have been many children hurt or possibly killed at our school today. We want you to know that you are very much appreciated and loved by all." It was signed by the principals and teachers from all the schools, along with all of the children in each of the schools in town.

"Looks like you are a pretty popular woman," he said as he bent down to give his wife a kiss.

"Looks that way, doesn't it? I just wish I could have done something for the boys who are responsible for all of this. I don't know why they felt they had to do something like they were planning."

"I don't know either Honey, but thank goodness you stopped them before they could do any more harm than they did. I am so sorry you got hurt but I am so proud of you for what you did."

A few weeks after Wilma got our of the hospital the mayor had a big party in her honor.

Calling her up on stage he presented her with a gold plaque which said "To Wilma Dennison: Hero of the Year, 1999.