Excerpt: The Time is up

"You are now leaving Hairy Pits and headed to Criver"

Evan couldn't contain his grin. He remembered when he and other five kids from his class had painted this sign. They used bright blue paint for the letters and drew a rather crooked yellow chicken on the bottom. The sign looked so small from the top level of a double-decker bus.

The bus started speeding up; the narrow town road morphing into the speedway to Criver.

Evan sat back and giggled. He had officially left his hometown, just as he planned for so long. The bus ticket cost him a third of his savings, but he took it as a passage into adulthood. Evan closed his eyes and inhaled the cool, triple purified bus air, smelling faintly of synthetic leather. He wiggled his butt and rubbed his skinny back on the soft leathery cushions. His heart was beating fast, pumping hot blood to the excited brain, making him giddy.

"Get a grip; get a grip... But why?"

The realization hit him like a lightning: there was no point in being a good boy anymore. He just transitioned into adulthood and it felt wonderful. He will be able to do whatever he wanted and shall answer to no one. Although he probably looked like a dumb ass right now...

Evan opened his eyes and quickly checked his surroundings. No one on the upper deck. He sighed in relief and started looking out of the window.

The bus was moving super fast on the smooth speedway. The sparse, reedy forest and bogs were on both sides. It took only twenty minutes to reach Criver.

Evan was glued to the window. He recognized familiar streets; the small pizza place where his dad took him when they came to Criver for supplies; the warm-colored facades of city houses with iron balconies and flowers, the bronze statue of the city founder. Everything looked so familiar and at the same time so different from his vantage point.

This had only proven his new status. When he was a boy, Evan had to come to Criver with his dad on their old beat up red truck. The trip took over forty minutes and it was a shaky ride. The bus, on the contrary, moved with the deadly speed and smooth like butter. This is what his new life as a man will be like.

The bus stopped twice before leaving town. The upper deck started filling in with unfamiliar city people.

Evan looked at his backpack on the second seat. Should he remove it? But then some stranger could sit there... Better leave it alone until the deck is full... The fat, old lady in the seat across the aisle gave him a dirty look and Evan felt shy and turned away to look out of the window.

The bus started moving again. It made a wide turn and headed towards imperial speedway. The city housing became smaller and then abruptly disappeared. The landscape was back to sparse trees and bogs, and with a sinking heart Evan realized that he just left the last familiar area and entered the great unknown.

*****
End of chapter one
526 words