WOULD THEY GET HOME By Sarah Joy Holden
The story you are about to hear is true, and is based on the actual events that took place at time. However the characters names and locations have been changed, in order to protect their identities.
Melanie waited at the bus stop for the bus to come. Whilst she was waiting a gentlemen unfamiliar with the area arrived and asked if there was a bus due into town. 'Yes' Melanie replied, "it should be here in ten minutes." He was the type of gentlemen that was very chatty, she wished he would be quiet. The man spoke of how where he lives in London there not short on bus services unlike these rural bus services, in his world everything was better than anyone else’s.
Both of them kept looking at their watches and muttering to themselves of how they wished the bus would hurry up and come. He lit up a cigarette, and this frustrated her even more being a non-smoker. She thought to herself that he must think she was lying, especially when she said this bus has not turned up on previous occasions. Usually around 4pm the nursing staff would take their breaks and some of them would use that shelter as their smoking area. But for whatever reason (perhaps the seasonal conditions put them of) even they never made an appearance.
After a while Melanie checked the bus apps on her phone, to know if and when the likelihood of any bus turning up. Perhaps some kind soul would recognise her from the hospital and offer her a lift back to town, but it turned out to be wishful thinking. It was too dark and dangerous to try and walk home, with the small matter of a busy bypass separating her and back into town, with no pedestrian crossing or bridge. There was however just up the road and around the corner, roughly 8-minute walk away another bus stop. She knew they would probably make it. But would they be in the same situation as thehis is what she suggested to; but would they be in the same situation as there where in now. There was no one else at the bus or in the vicinity at the time, she decided if they had any hope of getting home that night this would be their only option. It had never crossed her mind that she was going to be walking down a dark road with stranger although the hospital was on the other side and a few houses dotted round.
Melanie took the decisive decision to follow this through, come on she said lets at least try it. They had just started heading of up the road when the man said "here's a bus now" they tried to flag it down but it went past them, Melanie’s heart sank, she knew that bus would take them back into town. But fortunately for them the driver had seen them, either that or someone the bus had told the driver. To their relief it stopped at the bus stop they'd just come from. Something within Melanie, found the strength to run up to it and get on, Melanie left the gentlemen to catch up. The female bus driver spoke in a gentle polite voice "bus stop is here," 'I know' Melanie replied - but we've been waiting for over an hour for the other bus companies’ bus but it never showed up so we took the chance to walk to the other stop, for the other bus.
The bus was very busy and disapproving faces greeted Melanie as she boarded. Quietly she took her seat with a sigh of relief; By now the gentlemen who was waiting with her caught up and got on, he sat at the very front and didn't see the other passenger’s reactions. .
As she sat their staring out of the bus window into the darkness of the night once again grabbed her attention. The bus pulled of, all she could think about was that she's finally sat down and finally heading home.
When they pulled in at the bus station, she and the passengers, disembarked, Melanie just happened to glance across the bus station and saw the bus that they should have got, the bus lane opposite. The gentlemen passed her, and Melanie turned towards him 'that's the bus we should have got, she told him. Her voice must have been loud because somewhere nearby a voice said 'it don't go that way anymore' she ignored it and carried on. The gentlemen acknowledged her and went to look for his connection. There paths never crossed ever again, much to Melanie relief.
At the end of the bus station heading towards the road leading out of town, the pain in her foot intensified to the point she couldn't walk and had to pause for a moment. She began again crossing the busy town centre road before walking up the big steep bank towards home. The bank always seems harder going up it at night than it does coming down in the morning. It was very busy with rush hour traffic not helped by the car headlights and the oppressive autumn darkness, which made everyone's urgency to get home even greater.
At the top of the bank Melanie slowly plodded on towards the convince store. When she got to the connivance store, she remembered she had to get milk. She entered the busy store, by now her patience was wearing thin, she reached the till and remembered that she didn't have her bank card with her, but also remembered that moment at lunchtime when she discovered Google pay on her phone (something she had never used before). So she paid for the milk again in this way. She left the store carrying the four pints of milk in one hand and carrying her heavy bag on the opposite shoulder. Now Melanie was on the final stretch home crossing two more roads to cross, before turning into her own road. Finally after a few minutes, but what felt like forever she had reached her own front door – tired, hungry but thankful .
Once inside she dump her stuff on the chair headed into the kitchen made herself a brew and a bite to eat before crashing out for the night on the sofa. What a long day that had been, she decided to write to the bus company and complain, she took one step further and wrote to her MP. Little good it will do she thought to herself but the bus company needed to be made accountable.
She messaged her boss when she got home that night telling him what happened and she would have to think about finishing earlier especially during the winter months. He didn't reply till the following morning, but he was very sympathetic to the situation. He reassured her not worry about it and they would talk about it next week, he signed off with; "have a good weekend Melanie, stay safe, thanks for all your hard work yesterday."
For some random reason, Melanie wanted to watch the final of 'Celebrity Traitors'. She had never cared about the programme before and just started watching it out of interest (to her she really wasn't missing out on anything), she got bored with it and wouldn't be watching it again, despite all its hype she didn't see the fascination about it.
She finally crawled into bed a little after 10pm. She inadvertently switched on the iPad. noticed on a social media post there was an announcement stating the bus she used to get is no longer in operation, if only she had read this sooner. Hindsight is a wonderful thing occasionally, especially as earlier in the evening she had emailed a complaint to the bus company in question and her local MP on the lack of public transport and information on local and rural transport links.
Despite being really exhausted, it was hard for her to switch off and get to sleep. You shouldn't use devices at night because their blue light can disrupt your sleep cycle by suppressing melatonin, the hormone that makes you feel sleepy. Additionally, the stimulating content on devices can increase mental arousal, and the devices themselves can cause eye strain, leading to poorer sleep quality and difficulty falling asleep (which obviously she was experiencing at the time).
The next day she woke up before 8:30am. After a crazy week with family dramas and her chaotic week for herself. She sleepy shuffled around the house making a brew and breakfast. Suddenly the phone rang it was her mum after that phone call Melanie just decided it was a duvet morning and a well-deserved lounging around the house day.
Today was another day, yesterday has vanished, tomorrow is the untold dream. In the case of yesterday no three buses came to rescue Melanie and the unnamed, unknown gentleman. And Melanie is still waiting for a reply to her emails ('Pigs might fly').
Yet despite all the drama of that night, she lives to fight another day, and is here to tell the tale. lessons have been learnt and through it all her heavenly never left her and kept her safe.
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