WHAT LIFE BRINGS (2)

 (A Touching story)

  The bus driver left the bus station with the bus filled with passengers. It was a total number of 19 passengers. It was a cool and clement weather. The journey was supposed to be roughly 4 hrs. The passengers seemed hopeful and excited. There was a family of five inside the bus too, there sat a merchant, a doctor, an engineer, a pastor; even a thief was among the occupants of the bus.

    The pastor, being touched decided to lead out in a prayer session some minutes after the journey had commenced. As the prayer session continued, (which lasted for about 20 minutes) the pastor preached on repentance, he also preached on the need for Christians to always act and behave like Jesus Christ in any situation, urging them not to forget the one who created them. He shouted on top of his voice and a lot of people were touched. After the prayer, everywhere became silent, indeed people were pondering on his words.

    Soon, the silence was broken by people talking to each other; those who had listened to the preacher had quickly forgotten all that he said. Everyone went about his or her business; chatting, pressing phones.

    A baby vomited shortly afterwards, some particles of the fluid touched the pastor's cloth and the man of God flared up. He insulted, raked and cursed the woman. He was so vexed, he almost dealt them blows. "I'm really sorry sir" the woman said, feeling embarrassed and almost in tears. She had lost her husband some months ago, that was soon after giving birth to her baby. She had gone to see his family and she was on her way back with a heavy heart struggling to get over the loss of her husband. All thanks to her 17yr old son who had helped her in brightening up, he had always been by her side. She was so excited to meet him; because it had been a week she left to see her late husband's folks. Oh peter would be waiting to welcome her and the baby. She bent down and cleaned the mess the baby had done on the floor. She didn't talk again till the journey ended.

    It was almost dark, and they had about 15 minutes to get to the final destination. The passengers were all asleep, including the pastor. It was only the driver who was still active, together with the woman's baby who kept staring at the man who had shouted on her mum earlier. Since it was almost dark, the driver had to slow down so as not to have an accident because he didn't have good headlights. Just then, he saw an oncoming vehicle from a distance; he didn't know that it was a truck for the headlights of the oncoming car were so bright. He carefully drove on his own lane to avoid any contact with it.

    He had already gotten to the final bus stop. He had slowed down, and was about turning to the right to drive into the bus stop. He jerked immediately as he saw a young boy walking slowly out of the small entrance of the park, making his way slowly to the front of the bus. The boy looked so sad and was buried in his thoughts; he just stopped right in front of the bus without moving any further. The driver tried to calm down, and honked gently for the boy to leave. But almost immediately something happened which made the driver to take a decision that he was to remember for the rest of his life.

     

    He noticed that the on coming truck was on full speed; That wasn't a problem anyway. The problem was that another truck was also on high speed, trying to overtake the first one in front. The truck trying to overtake the other, was coming in the direction where the bus stood. Perhaps the one overtaking hadn't seen the bus on time; he would have controlled the speed early enough, but it was too late. This all happened when the driver had just honked to the boy stranding in front of the car. It would take about 8 seconds for that collision to occur. He was in between life and death. For him to come down and push the boy away, would mean that the rest of the passengers would be crushed by the other oncoming trailer. He kept honking, but the boy didn't seem to notice what was happening. The other oncoming trailer had just noticed that a bus was had stopped on the other lane which he was plying on. But it was already too late as he tried applying the brakes of a heavy vehicle running on a speed of 120km/hr. The bus driver, out of frustration and pressure, quickly ignited the engine and launched forward.

    

    The boy was dead, the passengers were saved.

    When they all came down and found out what the bus driver had done to the young boy, they all cursed and rained abuses on him. "What a wicked man" some said, "no wonder he never talked to anyone from the start of this journey" on of them said. Shortly, there was a sharp cry; a woman carrying her baby was wailing loudly. Someone even had to carry the baby to prevent the child from falling off her hands. The same woman who had lost her husband some months ago, had also lost her son that evening.

    The dead boy was the woman's 17yr old son who had been waiting to receive and welcome his mum. He felt that something bad must have happened to them on the road while coming, because they had taken so long to arrive. He had become depressed and couldn't bear the thoughts of losing his mother and younger sister again after just losing his dad. When the pastor (who had insulted and rained abuses on her earlier) got to know about all these, he could bear all these and really felt bad for his previous actions. He took his life some days later. The passengers made sure the police was called. The driver was locked up in the cell.

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    Ten years later, the woman sits on the sofa beside her husband (who happens to be the bus driver back then), who is now a successful business man and a rich man. They both smile at each other, and try recalling how they'd met.

    The man confessed that after that incident, he would never forgive himself until he put a smile on her face once again. He had felt so bad that whole period that the first thing he did after leaving the prison was to track down where she lived. After that he became more determined to be rich and to ease her burdens by making her happy again.

    The woman said she thought the whole world had ended for her; losing two people in a space of one year. She had gone to the prison yard, crying and asking the driver why he had decided to treat her that way. When she learnt about what had happened and why he did that, she was speechless. She would have been dead if he hadn't. It wasn't long that she asked for his release and told him not to come looking for her, to either apologize or do anything related to it. She just wanted her own space and to be alone.

     

    She hugged her husband, and she whispered something that made him remember that incident for the rest of his life.

    "You saved 19 people's life that day at the expense of a person's own. Even though it's painful, but you did the best you could do".