Blinking, a School Bus Kids story

So, this week, the children on my “not so ordinary” bus decided to start a new hobby.  Perhaps, hobby is not the correct word, but it’s the best that I have.  One day, I shall increase the vocabulary.  One day.  Anyway, they all decided to tell me about this hobby while we waited for the teachers to come out to the bus.  I wasn’t exactly sure what they were saying to me as they were all very exciting and talking over one another.  They were cute, and I tried to listen to their earnest, overlapping descriptions, but there it is.

It was fun watching them practice their new found hobby, though.  They were trying to disappear here, only to come up over there.  At first, it was only face scrunching, and then, it was a whole lot of face covering, all with the hoods on their hooded sweatshirts.  You could say that it was a touch of science fiction or “Bewitched;” no nose wiggling, though.  Of course, by accident, one of the students would manage to disappear, then reappear just a couple of steps from their original spot.  But no one could really figure it out.  And naturally, they would do this often while trying to exit the bus, and would tie up the whole departure sequence as they would make contact with an immoveable seat or get caught up in a fellow student’s book bag arm strap, though how student and another student’s book bag made contact was not so easily discerned.  And then, there was the incident on the steps of the bus when they tried to exit and the doors were still closed, and book bags, and….well, let’s just say that I, the bus driver, named the moment: The Great Tangle.  But I have been sworn to secrecy by all of the students about that moment.  Anything that you may learn about The Great Tangle could put your hair at jeopardy like, for instance, the “code name” of the incident.  Drat!  Okay, please do not use your hair conditioner for a little while, um…maybe a week.

But on Thursday, as the cool autumn wind and hot summer sun kept one student company at his stop, the child decided to combine both scrunch face and head cover techniques, at the same time.  To his astonishment, and the entire bus’s for that matter, as the bus door opened to swoop the kid up from his stop, he disappeared.  There was much gasping of surprise and delight to see the result.  Fortunately, he reappeared in time to climb onto the bus and make his way to a seat.  He was greeted in triumph; everyone patted him on the back.  And for the rest of the day, he became the sensei and taught his technique with a big toothy smile, which, of course, everyone faithfully copied with full dentition.

As they have progressed, quite nicely I must say, sound effects now accompany the phenomenon.  There is, what can only be, though I am told it is supposed to be a stretching sound, a prolonged “fart” noise, then a brief disappearance and then, a reappearance with a sharp “pop.”  Though I am saddened by the prospect that there may no longer be a need for the “Nuther World” button, I am positive that with perseverance and a whole lot of practice, of which there is plenty, these kids will “blinking” around the whole “blinking” universe in no time.