Andy's Shorts to GA Prompts - 36. Prompt #172 - another Hallowe'en prompt

It was Hallowe’en night, and Suzie McNamara had been working since six o’clock that morning. She drove bus route number 391, and was just about to start the eleventh and final run of her route for the day; only another fifty minutes or so, and she would be able to clock off. She had quickly done her shopping before she was due to make this final run, and she had a carrier bag with her dinner in it, sitting underneath her seat. She had picked up a couple of saddles, and was planning to cook a rabbit and prune stew.

The first part of her route from George Street to Richmond train station was always on the quiet side, but tonight was quieter than usual; she didn’t have one passenger to pick up. She actually arrived at Richmond station about five minutes early, so there was a wait until her scheduled departure time.

A few people boarded her bus at Richmond train station, including one rather bizarre trick or treater who was dressed as Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street, and he was actually brave enough to travel via public transport in full garb; fake razor glove and all. In spite of how realistic ‘Freddy’ looked, Suzie had actually been narked when he first boarded the bus, as all he had to pay his fare with was a twenty pound note; and not the correct fare in exact change. The one thing guaranteed to royally piss off a London bus driver is to try to pay your fare with a twenty pound note.

By the time the bus reached the intersection of Lower Mortlake Road and the Lower Richmond Road by the gasworks, which was actually only three or four stops further along, the bus was standing room only. The passengers were enjoying looking at the various people who were out in fancy dress, and there were more people than just ‘Freddy’ in full Hallowe’en dress on the bus.

There was one cute little girl, who was perhaps eleven or twelve years old, and she was drawing quite a lot of attention from the preteen boys on the bus. She was dressed up as Grumpy Bear from the Care Bears; yet her disposition seemed anything but. She was wearing what was clearly a homemade costume; complete with Grumpy’s patented little storm cloud sewn into the front of the costume. The little girl was travelling on her own, so as she always tried to do in such situations, Suzie kept a close eye on the little girl just in case any trouble arose.

The bus was running up the nearly deserted Great Chertsey Road, and Suzie almost didn’t notice the two elderly people waiting at the bus stop with their hands out, signalling for her to stop. They got on board, and flashed Suzie their bus passes. Even these two old guys had evidently gotten into the Hallowe’en spirit of dressing up; they were done up as a couple of garden gnomes, each complete with a beard, a hat and a fishing rod.

The bus now started along the more metropolitan part of its route, as it travelled along Chiswick High Road, and by the time it started along the King Street proper some twenty minutes later, Suzie had practically forgotten about her little Grumpy Bear whom she had wanted to keep an eye on.

When the bus stopped on the Glenthorne Road, Suzie was suddenly reminded about the girl, as another kid got on who was also dressed as a Care Bear. The boy, who looked to be about ten years old, was dressed as Bedtime Bear; and he was also wearing what appeared to be a homemade costume. This one had Bedtime’s sleeping crescent moon and hanging star sewn into the front, and the boy was also wearing Bedtime Bear’s traditional purple and yellow night cap and white slippers, and under his arm he was carrying an aqua blue pillow that not only matched his costume, but also matched his eyes. Suzie thought that the two of them were probably going to the same party; after all, it wasn’t every day that she had two Care Bears on her bus.

The rest of the journey passed without incident, and the bus arrived at its final stop, the Empress State Building in West Brompton, and all of the passengers got off the bus; all of the passengers that is, except for little Grumpy Bear.

Suzie quickly checked the bus, and as it was only a single decker, it quickly became apparent that Grumpy wasn’t aboard. She jumped off the bus and quickly caught up with the little boy dressed as Bedtime Bear.

“Excuse me, little boy?”

The boy turned and recognising the bus driver, said, “Yes, ma’am?”

“I was just wondering if you noticed a little girl dressed as Grumpy Bear get off the bus?”

“What little girl? There wasn’t anyone dressed as Grumpy Bear when I got on. Perhaps she got off, before I got on.”

“Thank you.” Suzie pondered what the little boy had said, and true enough, she had forgotten about the little girl, but surely, she would still have noticed her get off the bus. Suzie just shook it off, got back on her bus, and took out the money tray. She went back to the garage, handed in the money tray, and signed out for the evening, but not before asking the night duty manager if someone could pull the CCTV footage because she wanted to make sure her little Grumpy Bear had gotten off the bus okay. She was actually feeling guilty over having forgotten about the little girl, and was hoping that nothing untoward had occurred.

The next afternoon Suzie had a phone call from the day manager at the garage.

“Hi Suzie, it’s Jim. I picked up a message saying that you said you wanted to look over your CCTV footage from last night to look for one of your passengers. We’ve just pulled it, and we can look over it whenever you’ve got the time.”

“Thanks for humouring me on this, Jim. I’ll be in in about twenty minutes and I’ll show you the girl in question.”

Suzie arrived at the garage and she sat down with Jim, the day manager, to watch the CCTV.

“OK, Jim. Here we are arriving at the Lower Mortlake Road stop where she got on.” Suzie watched as three passengers got on, but there was no Care Bear in sight. “Jim, what are you pulling? Have you fudged with the CCTV?”

“Of course not. That’s your footage, look at the time clock.” Sure enough, the time clock showed the correct time, and it didn’t show a jump, but Suzie couldn’t explain the absence of Grumpy. They both watched the CCTV footage three more times, all the way through from the start of her run at five minutes past seven in Richmond, to its conclusion at three minutes to eight in West Brompton; there was absolutely no sign of Grumpy Bear at all.

“Suzie, is there any chance you imagined it? Or maybe you got mixed up? There were a lot of people on that last run in Hallowe’en dress.”

“Come on Jim! I know I’m getting old, but I’m not getting senile.”

“OK, OK. I’m sure there’s an explanation, maybe sleep on it and it might come to you. Look, let’s go get a drink. I was due to finish twenty minutes ago and I need one. Join me?”

“Sure. Why not.”

They walked down to the pub at the end of the street. They were passing by an evergreen tree, when Suzie spotted a missing poster stapled to it.

“Jim! That’s her! Look she’s even wearing the Grumpy Bear costume.”

“Suzie, that’s not funny.”

“What do you mean? I’m being serious. That’s her. I’d know her anywhere.”

“Suzie, that poster has been there for three weeks now. That little girl lived next door to me and Maxine. She went missing on October 6^th, and she was found three days ago.”

“Well if she was found, why do you think she couldn’t have been on my bus?”

“I should have said her dead body was found three days ago. She was buried yesterday evening, my wife and I attended the service.”

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