“Sit down, Marvin! Oh—” Ruby stood beside him.
“You wanted me?” she said to him.
“What? No!”
“Marvin said you wanted to talk to me.”
“What? Marvin. No. Just sit down, Ruby.”
“Where, with Marvin?”
“I don’t care! Actually, yes. Sit down. Right there with Marvin. Talk to him.”
“Alllllll right!” said Marvin.
Ruby rolled her eyes and sat beside Marvin. Lawrence Fountaingale slowed his school truck at the corner. Deborah was already running and banging on the door for it to open. Lawrence stopped the truck. The door opened and she burst in with a loud woman-grunt. The screaming stopped dead. Deborah climbed up and leaned against the railing inside the bus, visibly in a state of disturbance. She stood panting. Unmoving. Every eye was on her and everything (for the first time since Marvin entered the bus) was quiet and still. Deborah slowly looked up at the road ahead.
“We’re not moving?” she yelled. “Go!”
“What’s going on?”
“Just go!”
Deborah sunk all five fingernails into Lawrence’s thigh. “Don’t you stop this bus under any circumstances, you understand? Now go!” She dug her nails in hard. A droplet of water hung from her sopping purse.
Lawrence didn’t know what to do. The kids weren’t going to pick up themselves, but Deborah’s nails were freakishly sharp. He slammed on the gas and the bus burped and jolted forward. The kids screamed in unison. Lawrence peeled the bus around a corner, back on to 55th to his next pick-up. Deborah ran from side to side of the bus, scanning the world outside the windows. A cluster of children on the corner of 55th & Penitent all turned to see the bus barrelling down the street toward them. All of the children in the bus screamed, except Marvin, who licked his palms and flattened the top of his hair. Lawrence yelled something to the kids that was probably “Hold on!” but sounded much more like “Autumn!”