Chapter the 3rd
A heavily-bearded bus driver sat hunched over the wheel, his hands tangled around it like a pair of overgrown vines. His massive back pushed up into the roof of the bus.
"Where's your ticket?" asked the driver in a kinder tone of voice than Michael expected from such a giant.
Michael's mouth went dry as he realized he had not bought a ticket and had no money left to buy one. The bus was already on the edge of town and traveling at a breakneck speed. It lurched as it made a quick, sharp, turn, forcing Michael to grab a post to keep from falling. When the driver said nothing more about the ticket, Michael was about to find himself a seat but thought better of it. He reached into his pocket and produced Uncle Martin's letter. The driver glanced at it and grunted.
"You're alone?" the driver asked.
"Yea. Anything wrong with that?”
“You have only half your ticket, then."
"But—“
The driver did not answer. Michael pulled out the envelope to the letter.
"Same half of the ticket," said the driver without looking.
“Does that mean I can't get to Carelin?"
"Didn't say that. Just stay on the bus and you'll get there. With half a ticket it'll be harder. Shouldn't have come alone."
"Who in all the hellish houses in Milton was supposed to come with me?" Michael growled.
“You’re the one who should know that. He almost got on the bus, but didn't quite make it."
Michael scowled to convince himself he wasn’t responsible for letting other people get on the bus with him and then moved back into the coach to find himself a seat. As far back as he could see, there were only a few scattered passengers. He found a place as far away from anyone else as he could find and sat down. He looked out the window but could see nothing but the headlights of cars coming from the opposite direction. Michael put the letter back in his pocket and instinctively reached for a cigarette. It was his last one. He lit it up.
No sooner had Michael taken a puff, then he felt a tap on his shoulder. An old woman so heavily swaddled in her coat that she looked like a cocoon, peered at him. Michael could not even see where the hand that touched him could have come from.
"The smoking section is in the rear of the coach," she told him.
"Oh."
Michael stood up to move back, but just a few rows farther down, he saw a white horse sitting in one of the seats. He blinked his eyes and looked again. The horse was sitting there as if it rode buses all the time. Then Michael noticed a sharp horn sticking out of its forehead. The unicorn looked at Michael with friendly glittering eyes. Michael steadied himself against the movement of the bus and started to move on.
As Michael passed the unicorn, he saw a large dark shape filling up the back seat. The dark thing moved and the street lights of a town the bus was passing through revealed several rows of scales and the shape of a dragon's head.
Michael turned to run, but then he stopped himself. He looked at the unicorn and then back at the dragon. The serpent was not chasing after him.
"Do you know there's a dragon back there?" Michael asked the unicorn.
"Yes," was the unicorn's laconic reply.
Michael took a step towards the dragon but the faintest movement of its body stopped him. He spun around and returned to his first seat and put out his cigarette. No sooner had Michael sunk back in his seat, then the old woman behind him tapped his arm again. This time she looked even more like an insect, with antennae coming out of her head.
"There's a story about cigarettes," she said.
"Oh?"
"There was a boy who smoked cigarettes all the time. He smoked so much that smoke surrounded him until he couldn't see where he was going. Since he couldn't see, he fell into a pit and couldn't get out of it."
"Tough tamales and tacos for him," said Michael with his arms folded.
"There's a moral to that story," said the old insect-woman.
“Yea, I know: Don't smoke cigarettes when you want to know where you're going."
Michael returned to his own thoughts and looked out the window. The bus had entered the expressway and was moving very fast. There were no lights anywhere. Michael wondered to himself what an insect, a unicorn and a dragon were doing on a bus. The insect-woman tapped his arm again.
"That's a very nice dragon back there. You had no need to be afraid of it."
"Now you tell me."
"I gave you a chance to find out for yourself."
"It could have burnt my cigarette and me in one breath of fire.”
"Doesn't mean she would have done it. There is a moral to that."
"Always trust a fire-breathing dragon?"
"No. That is not the moral. She is a mother dragon. She is on her way to Carelin because she wants to lay her eggs there. Dragons lay such beautiful golden eggs. They are good luck if you just treat them as the apple of your eye. Tee-hee-hee."
Michael did not crack a smile.
"I suppose there is a moral to that, too."
"No, there isn't, actually."
"Good."
After that, the insect-woman left Michael alone. He began to speculate on what Uncle Martin and Aunt Edith were really like. He realized he hadn't thought much about that when he decided to leave home. He had only wanted to get away from where he was. The man in the drugstore had been right. He was running away. Now he realized he had to run to something. He had to stay on the bus until it reached Carelin where he would meet his uncle. He was beginning to get the idea that Carelin was a place where unicorns and dragons lived. He wasn't sure he liked the idea. But when he reflected on how few people he liked, he began to think that it would be just as well to give other creatures a chance. Of course, if dragons and unicorns just thought and acted the way people did they would be no improvement.
The bus stopped. The driver bellowed out the name of a town but Michael could not understand him.
"Did he say it was Carelin?" Michael asked the woman behind him.
"That is something he did not say. He said he had just stopped at Correlee. Carelin is still far away."
In the front of the coach, one dark form after another mounted the steps. Some of them appeared to be in the shape of human beings, but Michael was sure he saw a bear and other unidentifiable animals among them. He held on tight to his seat, hoping they would not sit next to him. Just across the aisle from Michael, two mice hopped on to the seats and proceeded to chatter like a pair of old maids. Then Michael saw fire ahead of him. He shrank back from what appeared at first to be another fire-breathing dragon. The flaming creature stopped at the seat next to Michael. By then, Michael could see that it was a tiny flame with only the hint of a body inside it.
"Mind if I sit next to you?" it asked in a pleasant voice.
Michael did, but he did not know how to say that to a creature like that.
"Uh—no."
"Glad to hear it. Don't be afraid. I won't burn anything, not even myself."
Michael looked askance at the creature. He saw hints of a human face that reminded him vaguely of a girl at school whom he dreamed about in some of his private moments. True to its word, the fiery creature did not burn the seat or anything else when it sat down, but it radiated enough warmth to make Michael feel hot under his jacket.
"Let us introduce ourselves," said Michael's strange neighbor. "Who are you?"
"Michael."
“I’m Will. That's short for Will o' the Wisp. My kind are lights in the darkness."
"So I see."
"Are you going to Carelin?"
"Yes."
The insect woman tapped Michael on the shoulder yet again.
"Ever hear of a Will o' the Wisp before?" she asked.
"Didn't want to. Still don't want to."
The insect woman shrank back into her seat, accepting the rejection with more grace than Michael was willing to notice.
"How kind of you to say that," said Will. "I should reward you for trusting me so quickly. Have a chocolate bar."
A bar of chocolate suddenly dropped into Michael's hand. Michael did not recognize the brand or the logo on the wrapper, but he tore it open anyway and devoured it. He had forgotten how hungry he was, and the chocolate was about as good as he had tasted in a long time.
"If you still have a cigarette, you could light it in my flame," said Will.
Michael pulled out his pack. It was empty.
“All gone.”
"Too bad,” said Will. “I can give you another one."
A hand emerged out of the flame long enough to give Michael a lit cigarette.
He took a puff, a most satisfying puff, before he felt the inevitable tap on his shoulder.
"I know, I know," said Michael.
"What's the matter?" asked Will.
"Smoking's only allowed in the rear."
"No problem. We can move back there."
"There's a dragon in the back."
"Don't have to be afraid of her if I'm with you. Follow me."
Michael took another puff of the cigarette and exhaled the smoke with as large a cloud as he could manage just to spite the insect woman. Then he followed the Will o' Wisp down the aisle. His friend's flames lit up the unicorn's face as they passed it. But up ahead, Michael could see nothing through the Will o' the Wisp's flame. He kept looking out for the dragon, but this time he didn't see it. Maybe it had gotten off the bus without his noticing it, Michael hoped. He kept on following Will toward the back of the bus, and then still further back. It seemed that the bus had suddenly grown much longer since the trip started.
Suddenly the bus was no longer moving. Michael almost tripped, but the Will o' the Wisp managed to steady him without burning his hand. Turning around, Michael saw the break of dawn and the bus speeding away in the distance.
"Where am I?" asked Michael.
"Somewhere," answered Will.
"Big help you are."
“Big help indeed,” replied the Will o' the Wisp as it dissolved in laughter, leaving Michael alone on the shoulder of an expressway.