night bus

I was moving in and out of alert consciousness, heading back along the winding roads to Araçuaí on the bus last night. I was somewhere between a dream and moonlit mountains when the bus suddenly swerved and tossed me towards the isle. Someone in the front of the bus yelled “Segura!” [Hold on!] A surge of fear struck my belly and I grabbed the seat in front of me. I heard loud banging and grating from underneath and a strong smell of burning rubber filtered through the windows. As the bus slowed and pulled to the side of the road, the shock that had entered my body had fizzled and dispersed so rapidly that I actually felt calm by the time the bus stopped and the engine died. This calmness surprised me. I felt a kind of relief, almost pleasure. I thought, well, good, it will take them a while to fix this one. It took them more than two hours the last time this happened. I have a chance to catch some peaceful sleep without the constant vibration of the bus in motion.