Kaylessa sat calmly on her suitcase with her jaw resting on her closed fist. Her long, dark hair was blowing ever so slightly in the crisp September wind. The monotonous clamor of the downtown traffic was interspersed with fervid honks and the angry hiss of hydraulic bus engines. She pursed her lips as she watched yet another green-and-white Toronto "GO" bus unload a new pack of hustling passengers in front of her. She was starting to think this whole situation was some sort of prank. Here she sat amidst the chaos of the Union Station Bus Terminal, bored, alone, and with enough of her belongings that she could very well be moving halfway around the world.
This is ridiculous, she thought, as a woman almost tripped over her. I am completely in the way here.
She looked down at the sturdy ticket she had been gripping in her hand. Its colors matched that of the steady stream of buses that she had been watching for the past ten minutes. It clearly stated on the front: 'BEM Bus - Platform 41,' which was strange because platform 41 was the unloading spot. No buses did pick-ups here.
I don't understand why Mom dropped me off here when it's so obviously fake. I don't even know what Bawa Ekin Mani means!
She remembered back to that morning, her mom slopping hot coffee all over herself as she zealously rushed Kaylessa out of the door and into their silver Volvo. She wished her dad hadn't been away on business so that she could have asked him why mom was so adamant about taking her to the station over some hoax.
Maybe it's another one of her weird "social experiments." She better not be messing with me now just for some art installation of hers. I wonder how long I should wait here...
She glanced upward as she considered her possibilities. Her eyes rested on the green 'GO' sign on the side of the station.
That's what I should do... I should just go.
Kaylessa sighed, defeated, and stood up as if to leave. She winced as a truck on the corner blared it's horn at two jaywalkers running across the street. She glanced over as she heard him yell, "The light's green!" at the two youth who were hurriedly pulling their suitcases towards the station.
"Pedestrians first, dude!" the taller of the two yelled back at the driver, eliciting from him more furious honks. The boy began to laugh loudly just as the car horn began to weaken to a drowned out whine and the truck's engine sputtered to a stall. The driver looked around, embarrassed and confused, as the boy and girl reached the bus terminal.
Kaylessa watched as the driver restarted his car and drove off with a quizzical look on his face. She realized her jaw was hanging slightly open so she closed it. She turned back to look at the couple who were now walking in her direction. The boy was now rolling his eyes and smirking as the girl chided him with a serious look on her face and her eyes rolled in the opposite direction. Kaylessa was struck by how similar their expressions were even though they clearly weren't expressing the same emotions at all.
"All I'm saying is that this is exactly what father was talking about, Bjarke," The girl said as she stopped a few feet away from Kaylessa.
"Whatever you say, Sassy," Bjarke replied, snapping his face towards her as he said her name.
"I'm not being sassy. I'm being honest. Stop calling me that." She scoffed and brushed her wavy, blonde hair over her shoulder, turning away again.
"That's a pretty sassy thing to say, Sassy," the boy retorted. He didn't stop walking, but instead came right up to Kaylessa. "Hey, I'm Bjarke and this is my sassy sister Sassa," he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder towards the girl. She shook her head silently, still avoiding eye contact.
Kaylessa raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth as if to say something but instead she just stood there with a look of disbelief on her face. She wasn't sure what to think about the pair that had just joined her. They were strange yet stunning. The boy was about a head taller than her with straight, golden hair that swept down across his forehead and fell into his clear blue eyes. He had a strong jaw and soft lips. The girl was about the same height as Kaylessa, her wavy hair just a shade lighter than her brother's. She had a single braid loosely framing her face and trailing down with the rest of her hair to the top of her thighs. She had almond, hazel eyes and strong, yet delicate brows. Her lips were the shade of pink roses. Kaylessa began to get lost in her beauty.
"Which bus are you on?" Bjarke asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"Um," Kaylessa looked down as she tried to bring her thoughts back to the bus situation. "The B-E-M bus."
"Well, yea, but which one? What time?" Bjarke asked, readjusting his neon-orange duffle bag on his shoulder.
"I.. Uh... I'm not sure actually..." Kaylessa suddenly realized the foolishness of waiting at a bus station with no bus schedule information. "My mom just dropped me off about ten minutes ago. She didn't tell me what time."
"Let me see your ticket, silly." He smiled knowingly as he realized she had no clue what was going on.
"It only says B-E-M Bus, platform 41 though," she said coyly, handing the mostly-blank ticket over to Bjarke.
"Ticket Time." he said, holding the ticket up at eye level. He quickly turned the ticket towards Kaylessa and watched her eyes widen as the words 'Bus arrival scheduled for 10:45 AM. Current time 10:44 AM.' slowly appeared in block-green letters on the empty half of the ticket.
"What? How? What? I've never seen such a high-tech ticket before," Kaylessa said in disbelief as she quickly snatched the ticket back to inspect it.
"Almost like magic, huh?" the boy laughed as he closed his eyes and ran his fingers back through his hair to pull it away from his eyes again. He looked down the street towards where the buses had been pulling into the station.
A bus was just driving forward away from their platform after unloading its passengers, the hydraulics hissing. Another bus pulled around the corner, identical to the others, but this one was clearly marked BEM 10:45.
"Let's go, ladies!" Bjarke cried loudly. His sister started walking towards the bus without a word. Kaylessa grabbed her suitcase and reached for her bag just as Bjarke picked it up, grinning at her with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Kaylessa looked towards the bus as its doors opened, expecting to see some people depart. After all, this was the departing terminal. All she saw was an old Aboriginal man with long black-and-grey hair and a blank expression. He was peering out of the bus' doorway towards the kids. The windows of the bus were dark and dusty and nothing else inside the bus could be seen.
"You coming?" Bjarke called over his shoulder as he followed his sister onto the bus.
Kaylessa looked around before quickly following after the others, stepping inside the bus, and dropping her ticket into the black box next to the old bus driver as she had seen the others do. She took a seat directly behind the bus driver, facing towards the bus windows that looked out sideways, back out to the bus terminal. Nothing could be seen from inside the bus either. A moment of panic and confusion gripped Kaylessa as she realized the front driver's window was dark as well. The bus door closed and she wondered how the bus driver expected to drive with such filthy windows.
"We can't leave until everyone's seated," the bus driver called out in a low, rolling voice. He was looking directly at Bjarke through the long, horizontal driver's mirror that spanned across the dingy front window.
Bjarke sat down across from Kaylessa without taking his eyes off her. He still had the same smirk on his face as before.
She began to feel uncomfortable and looked away towards Sassa who was absentmindedly looking at her long nails and ring-filled fingers. The rest of the bus was empty.
"Alright, everybody off," the bus driver yelled out.
Great, what is it now? We haven't even moved.. Not that we could get anywhere anyway with all this muck on the bus.
The driver stood up and walked out, the door opening just as he stepped through it.
Kaylessa got up and headed back towards the door, looking down at the floor. She looked up just as she went to step off the bus, but instead stopped suddenly. It was pitch black outside and the driver was nowhere in sight. She felt someone bump into her back and she had to catch her balance. She felt a hand rest lightly on each of her shoulders and Bjarke's familiar voice in her ear whispered, "It's alright. Just step out."
Kaylessa took a breath and hesitantly stepped off the bus, only to find herself in the middle of the wilderness with the bright morning sun shining overhead. There was a large, empty grass opening in front of her with a dense forest of trees about a football field's distance away. The tops of the trees were shrouded in an impenetrable mist. The leaves were just starting to change color from the normal greens to the fiery reds and yellows that September brought about. She took a few more hesitant steps forward as she looked around. To the right she could faintly see a large river peaking through the forest, but everywhere else was just trees and mystical haze. She spotted the bus driver walking along a dirt path about fifty paces ahead of her, as she heard the haunting, yet familiar call of a loon in the distance.
She heard Bjarke behind her and looking over her shoulder, was shocked to see him emerge out of a small cave in a rocky crag. Her jaw dropped as he brushed past her and she started stammering and trying to point towards the rock wall. Sassa emerged calmly and followed after her brother, silently taking in her surroundings.
What is this? Some sort of portal? Impossible!
Kaylessa stood in bewilderment for another minute before she quickly spun around and rushed after the siblings. She heard Bjarke chuckling before he called out to her, "Girl, you ain't seen nothin' yet!"
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