The Bus Ride Home

part 5

you must've been overwhelmed with melancholy for when you finally regained your sense of the surroundings, it was in shock as a glimmer of hope sparkled in your eyes. you were on that stretch that led to your primary school! in silent rejoice, you fished out your phone again to check the time - 1752. as familiarity slowly unveiled before your eyes, you stood up and slowly made your way to the exit of the bus, grinning from ear to ear. commuters around you stared at you in unspoken judgement wondering what part of alighting at this area you found so hilarious. as the bus took the left turn towards the bus stop you were designated to alight at, you checked MyTransportSG again for the bus timings. you were quite sure you'd make it on time, until you realized that you had two plus one minutes to cross the overhead bridge. the three other buses you could take wouldn't arrive in time for you to humanely arrive back at home by 1800. the instant the bus doors opened, you dashed up, across and down the bridge faster than before, unintentionally creating a rhythm of thuds with your feet. reliving your primary school days, you dashed down the last flight of stairs, grabbed the pole on your left, and generating as large a centripetal force as possible with your left arm, spun anti-clockwise with propulsion from your feet and adrenaline in your veins.

you regained acceleration and sprinted that last leg towards the bus that was revealed to be the bus you had to take home - but to no avail. the unsympathetic bus driver merely glanced at the distance you had to run to catch up with him and sped past you as you waved frantically in the air like a madman. destroyed, you sat on the long bench, panting as if you were about to cough your guts out. so much sweat flowed down your forehead and cheeks that the bus stop there felt like a sauna. you refused to give up and launched MyTransportSG for the umpteenth time to check when the next bus would arrive. four minutes was a little beyond bearable. you took a quick glance at the time again and it read - 1754. "why did the bus arrive early", you criticized vengefully. forced to take note of the running time, your mind was then quick to reallocate its capabilities into deciding the next best course of action. there was little you could do. run to the next bus stop? that would be a waste of energy. run to the previous bus stop? you took a glance back and decided against running that much of a distance as your body was already crumbling under physical exertion. you started to groan and complain about never being able to skip a session of training when you heard a bus closing up, entirely sure that it was going to be irrelevant to you then. however, you still glanced up, completely unsure of what even remotely gave you hope.