By Bus with Vicki - Part 10

Hello, Faithful Friday Fiction Fans!
I hope you've been staying cool. This past week or so has been HOT! When it's 80º at 5 AM, and 103º at 6 PM, you kind of get the impression that it's hot. ;) And don't forget to add the humidity to that.

Life has been busy! Tuesday I worked as an election judge for 13 hours (not counting the 30 minutes before the polls opened and the hour 45 min. I spent packing up, taking the ballots to the county courthouse and driving home), so that didn't leave any time to do anything else. On Saturday I spent most of the day out doing lit. drops (leaving literature about a candidate on people's doors) for a man running for State Rep.  (Side note: He won! :) ) And since both of those days were really busy, I've been trying to catch up on everything. And of course during those busy days, either while I was gone or when I was trying to catch up on other things, everyone decided to post at least once, some times more than that! So, sorry if I haven't commented on your blog. I'm trying to catch up still. :P Can't you all just post when I'm not quite so busy? ;)

This hasn't been a very good writing week so far. No writing Saturday evening. I was too tired.
No writing Monday. I was getting ready to leave at 5:15 in the morning.
No writing Tuesday. I didn't get home until almost 9:00 PM.
I did write Wednesday and last night, but both nights were slow! Only 1,000 words each time. Maybe I can get more written tonight. We'll see. The last two nights I have NOT wanted to write at all! You can pray that I want to. :) I jumped back to TCR-6 last night and something unexpected happened. :) I just love it when my stories do that!

Anyway, here's the next part of that long bus trip. :) I really liked this part. :) So enjoy!

By Bus with Vicki

Part 10

    Seated beside each other a few minutes later as the bus rolled along the road, the two girls chattered as though they had been friends for years. Vicki, always the most outgoing in any gathering, told all about the day before, about her brothers and sister and cousins back home, and about anything else she could think of. Her excitement over the mountains she could see, fairly bubbled over, causing smiles among the other passengers. “And to think,” she exclaimed after pointing out a delightful view, “that we had to miss so much of this because it was dark last night!”

    “But if we didn’t travel at night it would make the trip twice as long,” observed Rose.

    Vicki gave a sigh. “I know, but sometime I want to come this way in my own car and only travel when it is light so I can see everything.”

    As the morning passed, many of the passengers fell asleep, or at least dozed in their seats, but Vicki had no intention of joining them. She and her new friend Rose were wide awake, though they tried to keep their voices low so they wouldn’t bother the others..

    Looking up ahead, Vicki saw an orange sign. “Does that say Detour?” she asked Rose.

    Rose nodded slowly. “I think so. Yes,” as the bus neared it. “It does say detour.”

    “Oh, do you think it means us?” In her excitement, Vicki forgot to whisper.

    Glancing up from her book, Mrs. Green, the woman who sat across the aisle with her husband, asked, “What was that?”

    “That sign says Detour and I was wondering if we were going to have to take a detour or if it was for another road.”

    “We’ll soon know. If we follow the arrows, it probably means us.”

    There was no answer from either girl, for they were watching the signs carefully and trying to guess if they would really have to take a detour or not. “It looks like we have to go on the detour!” Forgetting others were still sleeping, Vicki spoke quite loudly.

    “Huh? What was that?” Mr. Green, startled out of a snore, sat up and blinked.

    Vicki gave an excited bounce in her seat. “A detour. See, we are turning just like the sign says to do. Do you think the detour was known to the driver?”

    Mrs. Green exchanged glances with her husband before replying. “I would think so, but I don’t know.”

    The other passengers around them were beginning to sit up and look around, wondering what was going on.

    “Rose, do you want to go up front with me so we can ask the driver?”

    “No, I don’t like to walk when the bus is moving, if I don’t have to.” And the dark haired girl shook her head decidedly. “It makes me feel funny.”

    It took Vicki a moment to get her balance when she stood up, for the road wasn’t as smooth as the one they had just left. Staggering somewhat, and clutching onto the backs of seats, she made her way to the front.

    When she returned a few minutes later, her face was glowing and her eyes sparkled with excitement. “He said he didn’t know anything about this detour! But he doesn’t think it will be much out of the way.” Her face had fallen some over the last words, but then she brightened again. “But it will be something else that wasn’t expected! Oh, I just love having adventures!”

    The entire bus had been fully roused by this time, and there were a few grumbles, but Vicki’s evident excitement over the entire thing seemed to remind them of how a child often sees things and the grumbles soon died.

    “I wonder why there’s a detour and the driver didn’t know about it,” Vicki began. “I know! Let’s all think of a possibility and then we can see who’s right.” Her clear, young voice carried through the bus, and thoughtful faces showed that at least some of the passengers were trying to come up with solutions. Turning to Rose she asked, “Can you write all the ideas down?”

    Quickly Rose shook her head. “I’m not very good at writing.”

    “I’ll do it,” Mr. Green volunteered. “I’ll take it down in short hand for now and then write them out later.”

    “Oh, goody!” Vicki clapped her hands. Standing in front of her seat, hanging on to the back of the one before her, she waited a few more minutes. “Now, who has the first idea?”

    There was a moment of hesitation, but once the ideas started, they came quickly from all over the bus.

    A rock-slide had blocked the road. Construction work but no one had been notified. An avalanche on the mountain peaks had filled a small canyon the highway ran through. Vandals had torn apart a guard rail. There had been a bad accident on the road and it had been closed. They were hunting for a vicious mountain lion and didn’t want anyone traveling the road for fear he might attack.

    The last idea brought a round of laughter from the passengers before they went on.

    It was a fight between the Indians and the US Cavalry on the road. A bridge had collapsed. Highwaymen were having a stand off with the police. There wasn’t enough traffic on the other roads so the government decided to close the highway.

    “No, no,” one man near the back of the bus said, standing up. “You’ve got it all wrong. It was the prank of a few kids who ‘borrowed’ the signs from a friend who works in construction and no one has found it out yet. The kids are probably along the detour selling something. I expect we’ll be seeing them before too long if we keep our eyes open.”

    The bus fairly rocked with laughter over this suggestion, and several people kept their eyes on the windows to see if they would see any kids.

    Rockslides and accidents were the ideas most mentioned, though the suggestion of a prank was seconded by several.

What do you think happened?

Have you ever guessed what caused a detour?

Will you return to find out what really happened?