It's a warm autumn afternoon, after school, and I'm late for my bus. I get to the top of the hill just in time to see it pulling away. All the rest are gone as well, except for a blue and yellow double-decker. I run down the hill and beat my fists upon the doors for the driver to open them. He does. I get on and ask whether this bus goes home. It does. I walk towards the back of the bus. A girl gets up and lets me sit next to the window.
I jolt awake as the bus lurches round a corner. I'd fallen asleep. The bus is still full and it's gotten lighter outside. I notice my arm is numb and look down. The girl has fallen asleep as well and has rested her head against my right shoulder. I try to see her face but her hair has fallen across it and so I cannot. I look around the rest of the bus and don't recognise anyone. No. Two people, who are sitting a few rows in front of me. I know them. Yet they seem to be so much further away. They're looking at me and are talking and smiling. I can't hear their words but I'm sure they're talking about me. About the girl. I try to see the girl's face but again cannot.
Everyone has gotten off the bus except for me and the girl. I haven't recognised any of the stops and she's still asleep. The bus stops in a place I recognise. The bus driver, much older now, turns and tells me that this is the last stop. I try to wake the girl but cannot. I get off the bus, carrying the girl in my arms. Her face is still hidden but I'm sure I know where she lives. So I try to carry her home. After walking through streets I recognise but which turn into ones I don't I realise I'm lost. So I decide to ask the girl's father the way home.
It's night. I'm in the middle of a battle on the edge of a war. Men are being killed all around me. Shards of skull and fragments of brain shower me yet don't touch me. I walk forwards and the girl's father appears. He is lit from behind by a white light, and appears to be in charge. He glows from within. I ask him the way home. He's shot in the back of the head and his face explodes towards me. Reality shifts and melts. I look down and finally see the girl's face. She's woken up. She's beautiful. She's smiling at me. She's shot in the back of the head and her face is gone.
