As I Sat on the Bus #1: Roxanne’s Ride Home

This is a continuing story. To read subsequent entries go here As I Sat on the Bus.

As I sat on the bus for my final trip home I couldn’t help but fantasize that I was going anywhere but. Kids were jumping all around me throwing paper out the windows, acting asinine as always but even more so on this the last day of school. I found them to be extremely annoying, but then I find most people extremely annoying.

I had hoped to go to the community college in the fall but there is no money. I got a few scholarships and some grants but I have to get a job. My mother can barely afford to house and feed the three of us on the little she makes (minus beer money) and now that I was 18 her assistance had been cut. She never apologized or made excuses, she just told me flat-out “Roxanne, you the oldest just like I was. You git a job, just like I did and maybe if we’re lucky your sister might be able to go to school for nursing or something”.

Dad still owed her thousands of dollars in back support but he would rather go to jail for non-payment than to help us out for a minute.

I don’t know why he hates us kids, he was never around much for us to get on his nerves. The only time he shows up now is drunk, late at night.
In the morning he comes strolling out of my mother’s room in time to kiss us on the forehead and give us each a dollar before we head off to school. I don’t even want his damn money but I take it, and then I give it to my little sister. A dollar won’t even buy a candy bar most places we can walk to; the stupid son of a bitch.

Crap, here’s my stop.
I’m home.

This post is in response the writing challenge As I Sat on the Bus.