Reems of Dreams

Somehow I got through that first day.  It seemed that all the kids got to school and back.  I looked over my route sheet that night and thought about a bunch of things.  I thought about how this thing I was driving was quite a  piece of machinery. I recalled how they had taught me the weight of these rolling tanks. Someplace in between 26 and 30,000 lbs. in contrast to a car which averages around 3,000 lbs.  Facts are that school buses have about everything but a gun turret on the top.   They have a bunch of switches on your left panel.  They have a 2 way radio.  They have an air brake system that lets a big gush of air out at every stop that would knock over a big turkey.  They have a pre-trip requirement that reviews the working features of all the lights, the brakes, the fans, the defroster, the seats, the suspension system the tires and anything else that you can think of that might involve the safe transport of a human being.  This is performed before every morning run and every afternoon run.  In our district we transport thousand of kids every morning and afternoon.

They teach you to count the kids going on the bus and off and they teach you to watch the 7 mirrors very carefully.  That bus does not roll until all kids are accounted for. Seated and/or let off the bus and in their right place. You learn in the training that it is statistically much more safe to have a kid go on one of these buses to school that to transport them in a car.  I have one stop though were some how I did not see a kid out there waiting to be picked up.  I had heard from the other drivers that this is not all that rare.  I did open the door but no kid anywhere was in sight. So I went on. It was in my mind that night as were all the other things that come with a new job

Somehow though the next morning I went back to this same stop and there the kid stood in the front yard.  He had one arm raised the air and the other tucked in his coat.  I had been to France once and seen a few statues of Napoleon.    The kid kind of reminded me of Napoleon. It was even colder the second morning than the first.  It was close to zero that morning and I opened the door.  Napoleon did not move so I took the key out of the bus and went up to him in the yard.   He was looking at me with a fixed gaze so I grabbed him by the arm to wake him up and the arm cracked off, then the other arm came off as well.  By this time I was sensing a real problem so thinking the bus was warmer I loaded the pieces on the bus and called headquarters to report the problem.   About the time the dispatcher, a very organized lady with the name of Madonna was telling me I would have to go in to the parents and explain I had frozen their kid I said 10-4 and I woke from my dream. It was 3:30 in the morning. In the moment that it always takes to figure out it was a dream {more like a nightmare} I was overwhelmed with the task at hand.  I was thankful for the extensive training I had received.  And when I really did reach this stop on the next morning Napoleon waved at me.  I held up the sign to have him cross and get on the bus.   I told him I was really glad to see him.  I decided to spare him the details but I think it will be some time before that dream leaves my memory.

After my last stop I have a long run back to the yard.  By this time most all of the frost on the windows was gone.  I turned on the wipers to catch the last little corner of frost in the very corner of the window. In the east I could see the sun trying to make an appearance on the horizon.  For a moment I did think some more about my one trip to France.  I recalled seeing a Napoleon statue with one hand in his vest and the other arm broken off.  I recalled seeing the Alps and thinking about how cold it must be on the top of those mountains.  I recalled thinking about why and how it was that the arms and sometimes some other parts were broken off of some of these great pieces of art.  Somehow for me though these art pieces meant even more and remained in my memory longer thinking about how this happened.  {Did somebody break off the arms or did they just fall off one day?} So some dreams you never forget.  And a few of them just stand around for some time.  Others help you recall the sights of statues and mountains.  Still others make you be really careful on a school bus. On the second day of my driving Napoleon himself gave me a lesson.   I arrived a little early at work that morning and my boss asked me what I was doing there so early.  I told him that I was having trouble sleeping.  I decided to spare him the details.

No telling what I might see in these window the next time.  I will keep the wipers working and let you know. Till next time.

StM

Mad and cold Napoleon

Napoleon