RACING FOR A SECOND CHANCE

Lungs burning, gulping breath, she could hardly see.

Keep running: her mantra.

The bus was gaining speed rapidly.

Keep running. Have to catch it! Have to stop him!

Best thing in whole life … How could I …?

But submission to her family’s pride was a life-long habit – nearly impossible to break.

Keep running!

You’re making a fool of yourself.

Keep running!

I AM a fool: I let him go!

Keep —

The bus suddenly screeched to a stop … pulled away again.

Too spent to chase it further, she dropped to her knees, squinting through the exhaust fumes.

He stood there, suitcase in hand.

She had no breath for words, but her eyes said it all.

~~~

I wrote this story for this week’s Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. But I also wrote the other side of the story — from the guy’s point of view — for the new writing challenge  — AS I SAT ON THE BUS — over at Bumba’s blog.

So if you’d like to read the companion story, click the title here: “As Cody Sat on the Bus”

`