“Okay. Here’s our strategy- we split up. Madeline coming in from the left, Abigail coming in from the right,” Dad whispers. “Amy, you and Elijah wait for my signal,”
“Right,” she nods.
“Divide and conquer!” I shout, adrenaline pumping.
“Shh! Do you want everyone to know our plan?!” Abigail hushes me.
“Oops,”
Now, you’re reading this, but you’re not really getting it.
“Stop,” you say. “What exactly are you doing? Is this some kind of sport? Some weird way to homeschool? Please don’t tell me this is a new ministry tactic of yours,”
“The bus is coming! Move out!” Dad yells.
“Oh,” you say. Yes, oh.
This… this is the bus stop.
“Go, go, go!” shouts Elijah.
I start running with the crowd toward the moving bus. If I’m going to have to fight 100+ high schoolers for 4 seats (Elijah would sit in Mom’s lap), I need to be in the first wave.
“Oigan!”
“Que haces?”
“Muevete!”
“Ay!”
So. There I was. Running toward a moving bus with more than a hundred people trampling each other around me. A hundred people going after 60 seats. Well, then there was me. I needed to save 4 seats.
Before the bus even stopped, we were trying to pile on. Pushing, shoving, falling, and yelling.
Bang! A backpack is being used to make someone’s path. On my head.
Crack! Somebody kicks me in the shin. I’m… sure it was an accident.
Whomp! Someone trips. And uses me as a support beam. Ow.
And, oh. We haven’t even made it onto the bus yet. We’re just warming up.
We then narrow it down to who can make it onto the stairs.
It’s like on a movie, when a building’s gonna blow and everyone’s trying to get out the door. Except, we’re trying to get in the building. And the building’s a bus.
I make it to the bus door, and grab onto the first handle bar I see.
Ah-ha, I think.
I pull myself up the stairs and onto the platform in the front. Then I sort of fall and land in the seat next to the bus driver.
“Hello,” I say. “Um… four, please,”
Score one for the missionary!
So All May Know,
Madeline Studebaker