The Prompt You Say! - 13. Prompt 143 - Vacation Interupted

I was about to go on the trip I had planned for all year. It had been a rough year and I was looking forward to this trip so much. So seeing the bus about to run down myself and the ladies I was with just didn’t make it better.

I guess I should back up a minute. I am one of those unlucky fools. I work far too much, date not at all, and find myself somehow barely keeping my head above water. The joys of having had my heart shattered twice before twenty two, taught me that being alone might be better. Anyway, twenty years later my doctor has me in for my physical and bam, I’m in trouble. My blood pressure is through the roof, my diet is a mess, and my anxiety level is killing me. Plain English, my doctor told me to slow down, eat better, and take a damn vacation. That was a foreign word to me. I took the odd day off so I could work at projects at home, or to go over to see my parents who lived a state away and get their house repairs done. The doctor told me that wasn’t a real vacation. So I planned on one to Florida.

At 42 and single going vacation is something I didn’t know how to do. I talked to a travel agent who got me to go partly with group and partly time on my own. Considering I didn’t know what I wanted to do I figured this was a great way to go. The travel group I was heading out with was meeting at a nice little restaurant before hand and I was invited to go. So here I was heading up the street with women my age or older. Not a single guy in sight, which was sort of a mixed blessing I guess. Anyway, I was surrounded on all sides listening to the women chat about how they got on this trip.

“So my daughter, Maureen, she told me I couldn’t stay home rotting any more. Momma, you got to get out and live. So she paid for this trip for me.” Christina simply shook her head as she looked nervously around the group.

“Lord, Christina, sounds similar to what my Tony did for me. He said since the divorce I lived for him and his brother. They sent me on this vacation so I would focus on me for a change. So here I am on my first trip to Florida.” Francesca reached into her pocketbook and grabbed a large handkerchief which she blotted her face with. “Hell, my honeymoon was only up to Niagara Falls.”

“So, handsome, I never did get your name. Why are you on this trip? Dealing with a divorce or what?”

The question came from a short little lady named Alice, who already had a name tag on. If I had to guess I’d say she was in her seventies, but the woman was spry as anything.

“More like my doctor’s orders. Was told I work too much and needed some down time. So my travel agent booked me on this trip part of the way.”

Silly me. Forgot I was standing in the middle of a bunch of single women and here I had just announced I was single.

Suddenly I found myself the center of attention, which I really would have done without. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to change the topic because Fran caught sight of the bus barreling down on us behind me.

“Oh lord," she screamed as she turned her back, "run!”

I turned to find the bus out of control and coming right at us. The women all scattered and began to run. Let me tell you, I still don’t know how some of them can move in heels but they did. All of them ran, except Alice.

“Damn. So much for my vacation,” she muttered as she turned to face the bus.

I am a man, granted a gay man, but I wasn’t about to let an old lady get run down by the bus. I turned to grab her and she looked at me and shook her head.

“Relax handsome. At most I’ll end up chipping a nail.”

Okay, so Alice is crazy.

“Go on honey; get yourself out of harm’s way. I don’t know how badly this will go. It’s been a number of years since I had to do something like this.”

She stood calmly in the middle of the street and before I could move the bus was there. It was then that I got the shock of my life. This little old lady had simply lifted her hand up and caught the bus like I might catch a pencil. The bus crunched up front where her hand had caught it. It was only then that I noticed that the driver looked like he was passed out.

“Handsome, the bus door is open. Can you do me a favor and remove the driver’s leg from the accelerator. Think the poor man had a heart attack or something.”

I tried to ignore the sight of this little old lady holding up a city bus in one hand a few inches off the ground and moved to the bus door. Sure enough the driver was falling out of his seat but his leg was jammed down on the accelerator. I pulled his leg off of it, turned off the key, and then unbelted him so I could get him to the floor. The second the bus stopped running, Alice set it back on the floor.

“How is he?”

“To be honest I don’t know. He is breathing, but I have no idea what happened.”

Alice nodded and walked over to where she had tossed her bag on the side of the road. A moment later she was back by my side, the phone attached to her ear and in the middle of a conversation.

“… ambulance. Yes, I know I was supposed to be on vacation.” She rolled her eyes listening as someone continued to speak on the other side of the phone. “Life happens, Rob! Did you honestly think I would turn my back? You should know me better than that. I wasn’t going to let those people be hurt!”

Seems Alice was talking to someone and not exactly mincing words. Her eyes which had seemed sky blue and kindly a few moments ago, now flashed and darkened as she talked.

“Of course someone seen.”

I froze as I realized she had to mean me.

“No.”

No? What no?

“Fine. Get the ambulance here for the driver. I will talk to Handsome.”

I couldn’t make out what was said but Alice shook her head giggling.

“I’m sure, I’m not his type.”

She closed the phone and looked at me.

“The group isn’t exactly happy with me. Rob will be here shortly.”

“The group? What is going on here?”

I could feel my heart racing. My doctor wanted this vacation so I would relax, but instead I ended up in the middle of, well I still wasn’t sure what I was in the middle of.

Alice cocked her head and looked at me.

“What would you call what I did with the bus?”

I looked blankly at her for a moment. She literally caught and lifted it, like Superman or some other superhero I use to read about as a kid.

“Um .” Yeah, not the most intelligent thing to say, but it felt totally moronic to blurt it out. So naturally that was exactly what I did. “Heroic. No it was more like Super-heroic. I mean comic book hero type of thing. I don’t know what the hell else to call it.”

Alice sat calmly looking at me. God, she looked like a kindly grandmother. I mean laugh lines, slight wrinkles, graying hair, a black pocketbook, and one of those print dresses I swear they hand out to women the day they turn sixty. She looked like in a year or so she would either be running a race or sitting surrounded by grandchildren while they tried to tell her stories. However, I’d just seen her lift a bus like most people lifted a scrap of paper. Alice might look like the rest of the trip ladies, but she was far from ordinary.

“Well, I guess that is fairly accurate. Though we don’t dress like the comic books.”

I couldn’t help it, I swear I couldn’t. I just started picturing all the women from the comic books that I had seen. Huge boobs, size zero waists, muscles you would see on most men, and butts you could bounce a quarter off. Add the skimpy skin tight outfit and put into danger. Then I looked at Alice and I laughed, and I don’t mean quietly. I literally filled the bus with the sound while Alice calmly checked the driver’s pulse.

“Yeah, I know. Trust me; I would never have been caught dead in spandex. Besides, I was never that top heavy. Don’t know how they expect a woman could really fight with those things. I would have given myself a black eye.”

At her comment I couldn’t stop the tears that formed from me laughing so hard. I was having trouble breathing from laughing so hard.

Alice sat up and was perfectly still.

“Ambulance will be here in about a moment or two.”

I didn’t hear a thing yet.

“So what do I do with you?”

I looked blankly at her for a moment.

“Well you sure as hell can’t say you saved him. There is no way you could have stopped the bus. Leaving you behind is going to make it hard for you to explain. Rob will have kittens if I take you with me.”

“Damn right I will!”

I turned and caught my breath. Standing in the door way of the bus was a hunk. Dark black hair, fair skin, deep brown eyes, and lips that made you want to lean in and taste them. It took a moment to take in the tailored suit that didn’t do much to hide a well proportioned body.

Alice turned like she expected him.

“Couldn’t just leave me to make a decision could you.”

“Alice,” Rob began before flicking his chocolate eyes over me. “What do we do?”

“Take him on vacation of course.”

I looked back and forth between the two.

“Vacation? Do you realize what problems we have now?”

Alice smiled.

“Robert, dear, calm down. He is on vacation. He told us that just before,” she waggled her fingers in the air as if to cover everything, “crap occurred. So why not take him on vacation, explain it all to him and see if he can help us finally find a way to come out.”

“I am out.” Robert narrowed his eyes looking at Alice.

“Sometimes you are so dense, Robert. I swear, you might be my nephew, but sometimes it is like you’re from a different planet entirely.”

He’s out?

I could hear the approaching ambulance now. I figured less than a minute from now the place would be swamped with police, ambulance, and the missing ladies from our tour group.

“Well, Handsome. Gee, you know I still haven’t gotten your name yet, time to go.”

Rob walked up, lifted me onto his shoulder like I was nothing, and carried me back onto the street.

“He could walk you know.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” I managed to sputter that out, feeling so like I had walked into a bad Twilight Zone episode.

“NO!” Alice and Rob said in unison.

“Oh.”

“So am I taking you both to Florida still Alice?”

“Well as much as you both might enjoy the Keys, I think it might be better if we go to Mexico. Less chance of anyone running away till we figure it out and we all get a chance for a tan.”

“I don’t tan,” Rob groused.

“But you look so good in swimwear.”

“Alice!”

“Alright, alright. I’m old, not dead. Besides you always draw a crowd.”

“Forget it.” Rob turned and I couldn’t see much as I lay across his shoulder. As he spoke I could feel his deep voice rumble and literally hit me in the groin. “Canada it is then.” Rob turned and hustled us out of the alley, while Alice followed close behind.

Alice pouted, but that was the last thing I remember as I was hustled into a car. Who knew superheroes existed? Not only did they exist, but now I was being taken hostage till they figured out how to announce their existence to the world. How did my world become so complicated?