END OF THE LINE

The thing you repeatedly hear when you are waiting at the bus station, is the constant swooshing of air brakes, and squealing of tires as the heavy busses maneuver on the slick asphalt pavement.

“Swoosh-swoosh, squeal-squeal.” The sounds were making me increasingly nervous by the minute. But soon I knew I would be on my way, away from this place, and away from the long arm of the law.

Tom had said a heist would be easy in this small hick town with three policemen, no jail, and lots of rich and famous people residing. Also, there was the small Bank full of money with nary an armed guard. But as the best laid plans would have it our project had turned into a living hell.

The loudspeaker blared “Bus loading at gate 7, for Alligator Alley, Miami, Key West, and all points south.” That was my bus, quickly I grabbed my overnight bag the only possession I had left in the world and headed for gate seven. As I entered the bus and handed the crumpled ticket to the driver, a strange calmness came over me. It must have been because of the robust enthusiasm in the driver’s voice.

“How do you do sir; we are glad to have you aboard. I see your ticket says you will be with us all the way to the end of the line.” “Yes” I answered, “I have friends waiting there, we are finally meeting for that long-awaited vacation people are always speaking of.”

I was laying groundwork for an alibi, should I need one. The truth was I had a hide-out camp set up in the lower Keys. I would bus all the way to the end of the bus line for pretense’s sake. There we had a car staked out and we planned to ride back up to Marathon Key that is where the real hide-out was located. Being the first one to load on the bus, I had my choice of seats. I chose the rear seat next to the emergency exit. In case of trouble, I could kick out the door giving myself another avenue of escape.

The bus was fully loaded when she boarded, 25-ish with a full complement of built-in womanly accessories. She deliberately walked to the back of the bus and sat down beside me. She did it as though it was her assigned seat, and then spoke apologetically “do you mind if I sit here?”

“No, I don’t mind at all” I answered greedily, assuming she must have already acquired the hots for me. Then again, had I spent too much time in prison to know when a girl was just being nice?

That is where I had met Tom, in prison and that is where we had hatched the scheme, to rob the Naples Trust Bank. Per capita, we knew that they banked for the third richest people in the country. The Trust Bank was in a small beach town, just south of the city. There had to be plenty of money just lying around for the taking. But as if fate had planned it, it had not been our luckiest day. Two out of the three policemen in town, were in the bank conducting a safety inspection, at the precise time we were committing the robbery.

I had escaped under a hail of bullets, but I had to leave Tom bleeding and dying on the floor of the lobby. No heroics, I was a two-time loser. The next offense would put me out of circulation for good.

As the bus made its way through the small cities that connected the west of Florida to Alligator-Alley, the runway to the East Coast, she finally spoke again. There were tears in her eyes.

“My name is Cassie; I asked to sit here because you looked like a man who could take care of himself.”

I thought, as I felt for the nine-millimeter pistol I had stuffed under my belt. Little do you know honey.

She continued, “I am running away from my husband he was very abusive. He has had me shackled and locked up for a year in the house, I finally escaped.”

“Why don’t you go to the cops” I asked?

“I would but I am afraid, you see, he is a cop.”

“Wow honey, I thought I had problems.” My first inclination was to get up and find another seat, this kind of predicament I just did not need. What if her husband had followed her and caught me with her, my life wouldn’t be worth a plug nickel? I could feel myself melting as I took another long look at her tear-stained soft brown eyes, “I’ll stay for awhile” I said, “but if things get tough you can count me out, I’ll have to be on my way.” I remembered how I had left Tom, dying on the floor in the Bank.

The bus rolled on through miles of heavily vegetated everglades and dense swamps. We began to share the tales of our lives and how we ended up here, alone on a bus to nowhere.

“By the way what is your name, I don’t want to keep calling you Mister?”

“They call me Mark” I said. It had turned dark, and we snuggled like two people needing security and drifted off to sleep. As I felt her warm trusting body next to mine, I knew for the first time in my life, I would not run any more.

Not from anyone or anything, Cassie needed me, and I needed her and on this bus speeding through the everglades I vowed. “God give me the opportunity and strength, to care for Cassie, and I will never dishonor you again.”

People kept getting off the bus at their respectable locations, no one else ever got on. Cassie and I did not care we continued to learn each other’s likes and dislikes. We were like two teens that had just discovered love for the first time.

Then we heard the swoosh of air brakes as the bus stopped, we were the last two passengers. The bus driver turned and called out “end of the line, everybody out.”

I could tell Cassie was as stunned as I was. Did we think the ride would last forever? Would we have to wake up again into a world that we never really knew or asked for?

We grabbed our meager belongings and hand in hand walked towards the front of the bus. I could see the Bus drivers name tag Gabriel.

“Wait a minute guys” he said with the same pleasant robust voice he had at the beginning of the trip. “Sit down here for a minute;” he motioned towards the front seats facing him. We sat down. “Haven’t you figured it out yet?” He spoke.

“Figured out what” I asked dumfounded, as I looked at Cassie to see if she had an answer.

“Figured out this bus trip” he said, “and how you two met. It was not by chance you know nothing ever happens by chance.”

Cassie and I sat patiently as Gabriel spelled out the rest of the story. “You see Cassie your husband tied you up and locked you in the house, but he never came back, he never loosened your bonds, and you never got away. That life is behind you now. When you step out of this bus a brand-new life awaits, and your past life will not even be a memory.”

“And Mark” he said, as he fixed his gaze on me. “You did not leave Tom back there in a pool of blood, at the Bank. In fact, you caught the first bullet. Right through the heart.” Gabriel let us soak in the reality of what was happening, for a long time.

“What now” I asked? “While Cassie goes on to a new life,” I gasped and “I go to Hell?”

Gabriel smiled “do you remember the vow you made last night, on the bus?”

“Yes” I answered in amazement, “but how do you know?”

“There’s nothing much gets by Ole Gabe, on this bus.” “You could have turned your back on Cassie and gone running back to your troubled life of crime and hell on earth, but your commitment has bought you another round, at a new life. I would say you are an incredibly lucky man.”

“And what about heaven and hell Mr. Gabriel” I asked, as the bus began to drive away.

He answered with a goodbye wave. “It is all about where you get off the bus, and everybody gets off, somewhere. You two rode it to the end of the line.”