The last bus By Stephen Thubron

(based on a dream.....or not!)       

It was the low rumbling sound that first woke me up.... and then the music. Sitting up in bed it seemed to be growing louder, 'till I realized it was from outside. I pulled back a curtain and looked out my bedroom window and saw nothing but shadows in the garden below..... but still the heavy 'chug chug' and what sounded like a piano pounding out wild thumping music.

Opening the window to get a better idea where it was coming from, I looked to the right where there was a short drive lined by two rows of bushes and a double gate.... and there it was!.... a red double decker bus, all the lights inside giving off a silver glow against the darkness. Rubbing my eyes for a few seconds to get a better view did not prepare me for what was coming from inside the bus.

There they all were... skeletons, upstairs and down, singing, dancing, riotous laughter and all the time the piano pounding out the beat to which they all rattled along with. I stood fixed to the scene not able to move, but as I gazed I could make out male skeletons wearing shirts with collars undone, ties that hung loose around what should have been necks but was now spines. Some wore glasses against eyeless sockets, some even had what looked like thin black moustaches above yellowed teeth, all singing to female skeletal partners, who also joined in with whoops of dirty laughter as male bony fingers pinched female bottoms. Females with lopsided wigs and what looked like bright red lipstick painted on upper and lower jaw bones only to reveal grotesque smiles.

I watched as one female sitting on her partners knee pulled his head down to plant a kiss on top of his skull only to leave a red smudge which looked like blood.... Still the party went on, and all the while the skeletal figure of the piano player kept looking over his shoulder to make sure the chaos was kept in full swing. reaching down he lifted up a beer bottle and bit off the top with what few teeth he had left and poured it down his open mouth only for me to see it ran down his spine and seeped out onto his shirt causing more laughter. This being a sign for all of them to raise bottles in some kind of macabre toast. Still the piano thumped on. Males and females were now shedding items of clothing only to reveal rib cages that were saturated in beer.

Some couples looked like they were to kiss each other only to rub teeth against teeth causing more laughter. One female now stood up and started to lift up her skirt only to reveal thighbones to which brought on wolf whistles among the males. And still the piano pounded... And still the piano player looked over his shoulder keeping check that all was in full swing.

Then, even above all the noise, and even from where I was standing at the window, I heard it. A bell, two short notes that brought everything to a standstill. 'Ting Ting'. Thats all it took to freeze them all in their last position.

No chug of the buses engine.
No piano music.
No laughter.

As I watched, something caught my eye on the upper deck near the front. Slowly it moved, making its way towards the back of the bus. Picking its way through tangles of bones, beer bottles and discarded clothing. The figure was dressed in a black uniform, making its way to the stairs with its back to me it made its way down, slowly.

As I looked at the steps as they connected with the platform I could see now a pair of legs. Then his upper body, head bowed slightly and wearing a black peaked cap. There stood the conductor, around his neck hung a ticket machine. Then I noticed, a skeleton dressed in black against bleached white bones.

Even from where i was standing, too terrified to move, I could hear the faint sound as he spun the handle on his machine. 'Brrrrr zip.... Brrrrr zip...' But no ticket came out.
All was silent, then 'Brrrrr zip' out came a pink bus ticket.

The conductor tore off the strip of paper holding it between middle and index finger, raised his head and looked straight at me. He flicked the ticket like a magician throwing a playing card, only for it to float over the gate and and land in the bushes on one side of the drive.
Now as he stood, his teeth turned into a devilish grin, placed one bony hand on the vertical grabrail and with his other hand reached up to press the bell.

'Ting Ting'. Thats all it took for the buses engine to fire up.
And so it all began again.
piano music.
Riotous laughter.
Females and males biting tops off beer bottles and swilling the contents down each others bony jaws. Still the piano player grinned on.

Then slowly the double decker eased away, with the conductor still staring at me from the platform. As it rolled out of sight the music drifted off as well as the partys noise.
And then, silence.

The next morning I was woken up to the sound of 'Snip Snip.. Snip Snip Snip'.
Rubbing my eyes and face I lay in bed catching flashbacks to my dream of the night before, only to be shouted up to by my mother, asking me to pop to the shop for bread.
After I got dressed I looked out the window to see what the noise was, only to catch our next door neighbour busy trimming the bushes on the driveway.

By the time I made my way outside he was talking to someone over the garden wall. Then as I walked along the drive, there at about shoulder height in the bushes, about an inch square, was a pink piece of paper.

Reaching in, I took it gently, and there in amongst the twigs and leaves on the driveway was another piece. I stood, froze for a second and then placed the two pieces of paper together to form a pink bus ticket....

SERVICE NO - 48
TIME- Midnight
DESTINATION- You decide         

Born and bred in Sunderland, Stephen has worked as a Plasterer for nearly 50 years. To wind down he enjoys playing his guitar earning him the nickname of 'The singing plasterer'. He has recently turned his hand to story writing accompanied with the odd glass of red wine!