The Not Number 6 Bus

    Well, I do not remember eventually getting the required physical for kindergarten, so contrary to my mother's exaggerated statement about being banned from school forever, I was allowed to go! The property that the former one-room school house sat on was being used for the building of a brand new elementary school in our growing small town. But the school would not be ready until I was in first grade. So for kindergarten the kids were being bussed all the way to the next town – Armor – far, far away – or so it seemed.

   I do not remember the exact number for the bus, so let's say here it was bus number 6. My mother drew me a picture of the number 6 and told me to remember what it looked like. I was only to get on bus number 6. I was never ever to get on any other bus but bus number 6. If I ever got on a bus that said something other than 6 on it, I would never see home again!

    Well, that worked very well. I was not afraid to ride the bus even though school was far away. I had watched the big kids standing at the bus stop at the end of our driveway for years – I had for so long wanted to be one of those big kids, and finally I was. I got on bus 6 every morning and again bus 6 every afternoon.

    Until that one fate-filled afternoon.

    The teacher had us all line up in class according to our bus number, just like every other day. And the kids for bus 6 lined up one behind the other, just like every day. And she marched us out to the parking lot, and turned us over to the big people in the parkng lot just like any other day. And the big people told us all to get on our buses, and all the kids got onto their respective buses. Except for the bus number 6 kids – because there was no bus number 6 there. The big people pointed to another bus and told the bus 6 kids to get on that bus. And all the other bus 6 kids actually got on it! Oh no! Apparently their mothers had never told them what would happen if they ever got on a bus that was not bus 6. Fortunately my mother had told me!

    I refused to get on the bus!

    The big people told me I had to get on the bus. I kept refusing. And I got louder! Crying and screaming and saying “NO!” And then I got physical. The kids on the bus looked out the window at me pitching a fit in the parking lot. Those poor kids! If I kept screaming, maybe I could save them, stalling until the real bus 6 arrived!

Then one of the big people picked me up and walked up the two steps of the bus and carried me inside! I was put down on the front seat – the seat behind the bus-driver! Everyone knows what that means! The bad kids were put in the seat behind the bus driver! How dare that big person presume I needed to be put in the seat for bad kids!!

    The big person set me onto the seat behind the bus driver and then scooted down the two steps and out of the bus. The bus driver quickly shut the door, and we started to roll.

    The bus went out of the parking lot, and down the road. I sobbed and sobbed – the one thing my mother had asked me to do, and I had failed miserably! Now, I was never going to see home again! I looked out the window and saw the telephone lines going by. I thought, “I will never see those telephone lines again!” Then I looked in the mirror above the bus-driver. I realized someone was looking at me in the mirror. It was Diane, sitting four rows behind me. Diane was my best friend. She lived three houses down the street from me on Heinrich, and she was in my kindergarten class. Diane was supposed to be on bus number 6! She is never going to see home again either.We kept looking at each other in the mirror. And then Diane gave me a kind of half smile, and she raised her hand a little and gave me a little wave.

    Of course, as you might have figured out by now, the bus we were on was a substitute for bus 6, and we were all soon taken home, just like always.

    A few years ago I asked my Mom if the school had even reported the incident to her when it happened? She said, “Oh yes they certainly did!” And then she lowered her voice and said, “You know, neither of us had done anything wrong!”

    Sometimes Moms exaggerate in order to keep their kids in line – and sometimes listening to my Mom got me out of line with the rest of the world.

    Sometimes when you are trying to rescue the rest of the world, you yourself are rescued by someone who has your back and saves you with a smile and a wave.

    Many times in your life, you mght get on the wrong bus – but it is the wrong bus ride you remember long after the Number 6 bus rides fade from memory.

    And no matter what bus you get on – you will eventually, somehow, manage to see home again!

    These are some of the things I learned in kindergarten.

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