Prompt: Write about a bus driver in both the 3rd and 1st person
“Shit!”
The bus swerved across two lanes and almost hit the median as the wheels skidded across the ice. “none of you heard that!” he shouted back to the forty pairs of staring eyes. Winter was always the worst. Javier had spent five years driving the buses for Grisholm Elementary and the winters never got easier. At least he got snow days. Of course, the superintendent was erratic about them–6 inches of snow was usually a guarantee, but icy roads were about fifty/fifty. Javier Ground his teeth and got the bus back on track. Fuck the superintendent and his arbitrary decisions. One of these days he was gonna end up on the news, apologizing to the community for the deaths of forty children and a bus driver. The next stop flew by, and the next one. Three more and Javier could take a break from the hellish roads. The children behind him had already forgotten the severity of the driving conditions and resumed their gum-popping and squealing.
***
I cleared my throat into the microphone. These things were always awkward. It was unfortunate, truly, but the speeches were always worse than the incident. “Javier Thompson was a colorful character, always cheering up the staff with noontime lunch deliveries and keeping the kids on his bus entertained with his wit and character.” It wasn’t a total lie. He had brought lunch twice, though he had charged us all for it both times. Colorful was certainly a good adjective for Javier, based on what the kids said about him. I have no idea who in the crowd were relatives and who were parents, but all the faces stared at me, waiting for a resolution, the answers that no one has.