Kicked Off the Bus. Again.

Newsletter 2021-11-22

“What time are you getting home?” I asked the woman who apparently wasn’t my wife.

“Um, what?” the caller said.

That’s when I finally looked at the number on my phone. Definitely not Lola. Yet this woman had called me at 5:15, when Lola checks in every day on her way home so I know to start dinner. Or to give up on dinner and order out. Unlike a phoenix, dinner seldom rises from the ashes.

This time, the caller was actually my kids’ bus driver, who I had apparently put in my contacts. In our school district, the bus drivers call all the parents right before the start of the school year to let them know when and where their kids will be picked up. And I do mean RIGHT before. Like, the night before school starts, and if you miss the call, you’ll be driving your kids to school yourself that first week. I hadn’t heard from the bus driver since that initial conversation. Getting a Friday night call from her was strange to say the least.

“I was just calling to make sure the girls were okay,” sh…