There was a toothbrush, a sponge and other toiletries, at the buttom of the bag was a towel and what looked like item of clothing, he was so busy examining the content of the bag that he didn’t realize that they were all set to go.
He crashed his head first into the seat in front of him as the bus jolted forward, he quickly scrambled to his feet as he joined the others at the window, they all waved at the mothers and whoever else had bothered to stay long enough until the bus depart.
They all went to their seat as the people they were waving at, became specks in the distance, Zell could hear loud whispers as old and new occupants tried to get to know each other better, for a bus full of kids and teenagers, he was surprised at the discipline on display.
He wondered what the lads who had entered the bus on its earlier round had been told, a waft of cold air blowing directly on top of his head made him look up, the air seemed to be coming out of a vent directly above where they sat down, he had heard of air-conditioning system before but never seen or experienced it.
“That must be air-conditioning” he said to himself, he looked over at Philip who was still looking out of the window at the greenery and the passing scenery.
“Are you okay?” Zell asked after nudging him slighy in the rib.
“I don’t know man” Philip replied, ” I was excited initially, buy suddenly Iam having a funny feeling about all this”.
“Come on brother, how many times in your life have you sat in an air-conditioned bus? when was the last time you wore new clothes? and have you even looked in your knapsack yet?” Zell asked.
“That is exactly my point Zell, there is no such thing as free lunch, how special can we be for total strangera to give our parents tons of money, and then treat us like royalty in addition” Philip questioned.
“You have a point” Zell replied, ” I can also sense a too-good-to-be-true atmosphere here”
“Well, let’s not get as exicted as the rest of these boys here, my advice to you would be to just keep your eyes and ears open till we find out what all this is really about” Philip said with passion.
Zell sighed and nodded his head in response to agree with what his brother had just said, this was one of the advantage of Philip disability, they could hold conversation in total silence with no one listening in, unless they knew sign language of course.
The bus had gathered speed, Zell had expected the man he suspected was the supervisor to have announced to them where they were heading, but that didn’t look like it was going to happen, he looked out of the window on the side where Philip was sitting, the greenish-blue water of the lake zipped by, running parallel to the dirty road they were driving on.
‘would we ever get to enjoy the little pleasure like swimming in our lake again?’ he wondered.
Zell woke up with a start as Philip jabbed him in the thigh, it took a few seconds for him to figure out that they were still on the ‘ELF’ bus, the angled seat was the most comfortable thing he had ever slept in, and he was in no hurry to sit upright, he then noticed the bus had come to a stop.
“What is happening?” He sleepily asked Philip, propping himself up on one elbow, ” are we at our destination yet?”
“I don’t know, but it seems we have been stopped by the police”
“The police? What on Earth for?”
“I told you, this whole expedition feels fishy” Philip replied.
“Can you see anything?” Zell asked.
“I can see a barrier, and there is a policeman talking to someone I really can’t see clearly” Philip answered.
Zell looked at the digital clock at the front of the bus, it was a few minutes past one, they had been traveling for six hours, and he had been asleep for almost half of that time, he realized both the driver and the supervisor were not on the bus.
Suddenly there was some confusion outside as voices were raised in arguments, most of the kids trembled in their seat, a few brave ones tried to catch a glimpse of what was going on through the windows.
The voices grew louder and seemed to be getting closer to the bus, the door was yanked opened and a furious policeman got on the bus, behind him was the supervisor.
“I told you it’s children we are taking on a school field trip” the supervisor burst out before the policeman could put in another word.
“Your driver said it was a church outing for kids, you are saying it’s a field trip planned by your school, which is which?” The policeman asked, scanning the seated rows of children.
“It is just an innocent mixup” the supervisor insisted.
“How can two different explanation from two grown-up men be an innocent mixup?” The officer of the law demanded.
“That is what I have been trying to explain to you for the past ten minutes, ‘ELF’ is a church and the school was built by the church, both buildings are actually on the same parcel of land” the supervisor explained.
“I suppose all these children are from the school then” the officer stated, ” then they should be able to answer any questions that I ask about their school….”
“That is what we are trying to explain to you” the supervisor quickly cut in, ” these trips are planned by the church as part of it’s social work, but the actual programme is carried out by the school authorities”
“Seriously, is this a ploy to further confuse me or what? Who exactly are these children and why are they on your church…. Or is it school bus?” The officer demanded, this time reaching out for his gun.