A Rainy Night With No Place to Stay
It was dark, and I was far from home.
It was dark and rainy when the bus pulled into the station in Crescent City. It had been a long and uneventful day staring out the window as I made my way north. I started my day in San Francisco after leaving Los Angeles the day before. My plan was to make it to Ashland, Oregon, where I knew there would be a ride board at the food coop. My ultimate destination was Loomis, Washington, where I hoped to find work picking apples.
When the bus pulled in, everyone deboarded because it was the final stop for the day. One by one, each of the passengers claimed their bags and left the station. When I peered into the luggage compartment of the bus, I could not see my green backpack anywhere, and I began to fear they lost my luggage. Those fears were confirmed when the last person claimed their bag and my backpack was nowhere to be found.
A feeling of helplessness set in and I asked the driver what options I had to recover my backpack. He told me that, in all likelihood, my backpack would be on the next bus.
“When is that?” I asked.
“Tomorrow morning.” He replied.
I thanked him and left the station. They would be locking it up soon, and there was no reason to stay. There would be no more buses that…
