The School Bus

Chapter 5

"Who the hell is that?" snapped Sergeant Anderson as he turned to see a car with it's headlights flashing and horn blaring coming up the wrong side of Rapids Street in an effort to bypass the long line of cars that had been backed up by the police activity.

"That's my husband!, that's my husband!" repeated Wils mom as she stepped off of the corner into the street and began waving to her husband Jim. Driving the families new gold toned mini van, which was purchased with money received as part of accepting his new job in Red River Valley, Jim Sims now approached the corner, slammed the vehicle into park and jumped into the middle of the confusion that had overtaken the day.

"Wil's lost, Wil's lost" cried Joyce Sims as her husband embraced her in a hug that could only be shared by parents facing the trauma of a lost child. "It's OK, we'll find him, I promise" replied Wils dad as he tried calm his wife, while at the same time being overcome by the fright that accompanied the words he had just heard.

Continuing to hug his wife, Wil's father turned his head in the direction of Sergeant Anderson to ask, "what's going on officer?" "where is my son?" In a tone of expected compassion, Sergeant Anderson took a calm step in the couples direction before saying, "Sir, I'll explain everything, but first I'm going to have to ask you to move your vehicle." "We've got enough traffic backed up here, I can't have the intersection blocked like this."

At first, Jim Sims reaction bordered on the brink of explosion. His child was missing, his wife was understandably distraught, and the first thing he heard from the police was a request to move his car. "You've got to be kidding me!" words that raced through his mind but then in a moment of better judgement, were not spoken.

As requested, Jim returned to the mini van and quickly pulled forward into the first driveway on his left to clear the street. "Thank you Sir" said Sergeant Anderson as reached his hand out to shake hands with Jim in a now more serious and formal manner.

"My name is Sergeant Bruce Anderson" "I've been here with your wife for the last 30 minutes and I want to assure you that we have officers looking diligently for Wil" said Anderson as he and Wils father began to talk about the events that had unfolded since dismissal time at Red River Valley Elementary School.

"Looking where? what the heck do you mean by that? said Jim Sims in the raised voiced that would be expected from a parent in fear for their child's safety. Sergeant Anderson then repeated what was already known. Wil appeared to have boarded the bus at the school, several patrol cars were now back tracking along the route, and another officer was soon to be at the school to speak with Wils teachers and other school officials.

"If he was on the bus, where is he now?" asked Jim to no one in particular as he tried to grasp the swirling bits of information that he was gathering from his wife and Sergeant Anderson. "What about the other kids?" he continued. "Didn't anyone see him get off? Where the hell is the bus now?" Jim roared as it finally dawned on him that although swarming with police cars, the intersection was now absent the bus that his son had been assigned to ride home from school.

As Sergeant Anderson had already told Wil's mom, the details of the last few minutes were now explained to his father. The bus had been released from the scene to allow the remainder of the students to be taken home. A veteran Red River Valley Police Officer was on the bus and would remain so until the last student was off. At that point the officer and the driver, Shawn Carlton, would return to the school where they would be met by police and school officials.

"OK, that's fine" said Sims before adding, "but I'm not going to just sit here and wait for the damn bus driver to get back to school before I do something else." With that, Jim Sims kissed his wife on the forehead and said, "you stay here, I'm going to look for Wil myself."

Not as a direct order, but as a suggestion based on experience, Sergeant Anderson then told Jim that the best thing he could do was to stay put and let the police department do it's work. "Sorry officer, I'm going to look for my son" replied Jim as he began to run towards his van. "I understand, I understand" answered Anderson before turning to one of his junior officers and quietly saying "run a criminal background and outstanding warrant report on the bus driver."



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