Fiction Draft ~ Just One Night - Parts 3/4

Part 1
Part 2


8:40pm, Friday

In the safety of the bus Rose began to calm. She stood beside the driver as he drove past the McDonalds and continued down the road. As she felt the shaking subside she realised she was still to pay for a ticket and reached into her bag to retrieve her purse. Thankfully the driver had not yet spoken to her, she wasn’t sure speech was an ability she could master just at this moment. Concentrating on her breathing she counted out the change she needed and took the seat directly behind the driver.

Now that Rose had managed to calm her nerves she looked up into the rearview mirror at the drivers face. He was quite young and, Rose thought, quite handsome. His dark hair was neatly cut, short back and sides, and he only had a slight hint of a five-o’clock shadow. What caught Rose’s attention, however, were his eyes. His eyes were a shade of blue she couldn’t quite name, so clear and bright, so calm and so alive. It felt, to her, like looking into the eyes of a thousand souls who’d each lived for a thousand years, and this was just in the mirror.

It was a few moments before Rose realised the bus was not moving and the lips of the driver were. Mesmerised by his eyes, she’d been staring and now blushed at having been caught.

“Are you ok?” he asked, probably not for the first time.

“Oh …. Umm yes I think so, my nerves are just a little on edge” Rose replied quietly.

She stood up and again moved beside the driver intending to pay her fare and inform him she was going all the way to the train station. This was the first time Rose had actually looked the driver directly in the face, and those eyes.

Out of nowhere she began to hear voices, lots of them all talking at once, no one voice discernible from another, too many to count. To say she heard them wouldn’t exactly be right, it was not sound that traveled through the air to her ears. The voices were all speaking but there was no noise. They were all speaking loudly and constantly as she looked into the driver’s eyes. Putting a hand to the side of her head in a vain attempt to block the noise, it was persistent and overwhelming, she thought that this must be how it feels to lose your mind. No words were reaching her from all of these voices, but plenty of emotion was. These people, hundreds of them at least, were angry, hurt and in pain, immeasurable pain and sadness. Each of these feelings enveloped Rose and they became real feelings to her. An intolerable pain grew from her head and spread throughout her entire body within a moment of her hearing the voices. She tried to grab hold of the back of a seat to steady herself as the pain overcame her. She lowered her eyes.

Concern was etched into the young drivers face everywhere but his eyes. His eyes never changed, they remained clear and bright. He stepped out of his seat in time to catch Rose by her arm as she struggled to remain standing. He steadied her and helped her return to the seat behind him. Without saying another word to her he slipped back into the driving seat and continued on his route. The voices that had been thundering in her head only a moment ago were now fading to a whisper.



9.15pm, Friday

Pulling in to the bus terminal alongside the train station Brad glanced into the mirror, the young woman remained in the seat behind him, still his sole passenger. She had not spoken a single word to him since he’d helped her sit back down. He desperately wanted to ask her about what she had felt during the little episode only minutes ago. Instead he opened the doors, turned in his seat and waited as she stood and moved to get off. She paused for a moment on the top step but without even a glance at him she continued down them. He watched as she walked in front of the bus and away from the station, crossing the road and heading towards the pub on the corner. Brad lit a cigarette and continued to watch as she approached the pub.

Having reached the pub in only a few minutes the young woman stood outside, she looked like she was waiting for someone. Just as Brad was about to let his curiosity die, a man walked up and embraced the young woman. Brad watched as the woman kissed the newcomer on the cheek, surprised at feeling some relief that this man didn’t appear to be a boyfriend. He watched as the two walked into the pub and out of his sight.

Finishing his cigarette Brad again moved into the drivers seat. He was relieved his workday was over, he only had to park the bus and then he was free for the weekend. Now he had plans for the night ahead. He knew he had to talk to that woman. The depot was only a short drive down the road, past the pub she had entered. He glanced in the pub window as he passed, hoping to get a glimpse of her again but she wasn’t in the front bar.

Having parked the bus and locked it up for the night, Brad began walking back towards the pub. Thinking to himself, as he walked, of the best approach to talk to this woman. He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the memory of feeling sheer joy and happiness overwhelm him, as it had when he looked into her eyes for those brief seconds. Brad had never felt such happiness before, so content in that moment. He remembered hearing babies giggling and children laughing, wondering where the sound was coming from. For that moment he felt energised beyond anything he’d felt before. He longed to experience that feeling again. He wondered why the woman had almost collapsed, shaking, what had she felt in that moment?

He stood on the footpath outside the pub, looking inside at the dimly lit front bar. Hesitating to walk inside to look for this woman he knew nothing about, this woman he just had to speak to. Seconds turned into minutes, as he stood there, now unsure that he hadn’t imagined the feelings and sounds he’d heard back on the bus. A young boy laughed and Brad turned around, not really expecting to see the child, he didn’t. He took a deep breath and walked inside.



© 2005