Four Cycle: pt7 - The Nurse From the Quilting Club by Drake Iowa

[LIGHTS UP on BUS DRIVER and MONSTER. BUS DRIVER is driving the bus.]

BUS DRIVER

Most every law that's there's there to make your life better though it never shows till you break it. I once had a buddy call me up cause he needed to get his dog to the vet hospital three counties away. Well, I stopped all right, and picked up the dog. He looked sick enough - big furry thing: some kind of malamute, saint bernard mix, I think. Saddest, sickest dog I ever did see. Now, I want to get this dog to the vet a.s.a.p., and I'm driving fast. Faster than I should, but I can still see all the cars well enough ahead that I'm not gonna wreck. Well, the worst possible thing. A little terrier - I don't know what kind, Jack Russell, maybe - he runs right up and jumps. Smack.

The thing is that cute things, little dogs and baby deer and such, they make a cute thud. It's a noise nobody ought to ever hear ,the most sickening, pathetic little sound. [sighs] So the little dog is hurt and I can't find its owner, I figure throw it in the bus. I'm going to the vet hospital anyhow. So, two dogs, one sick and one injured. I'm speeding even faster now. I passed a sheriff and he just blinked his lights. Didn't chase me cause he knew I had to get somewhere, and I wouldn't go any slower after he gave me any ticket. Just blinking those lights once to let me know it's trouble. The dogs, I needed to get them there quick, and I kept telling the man not to worry, and I kept adding a little more speed. Coming around a corner, the little dog got thrown on top of the big dog some way, and the little angry thing got the other one mad too. They fought, just a little fight, but I guess it was enough to use up all the life left in both of them. So we're not even to the vet yet, and these dogs. Well, God rest 'em. My friend, he cried and he said he wanted out right there and he'd walk home so he got out and started walking back, carrying his great big dead furry dog with him. That little dog didn't have tags, so we found some hunk of metal, who knows what, and we used that to dig a little grave in the gravel, you know. I was watching that buddy of mine trying to haul that dog back in his arms, and I promised myself right then I'd never break another law, even if it seems like I could help someone. So that's the kind of bus driver I am nowaday. [beat] You know where that ticket I bought you will take you?

[MONSTER looks at BUS DRIVER. The expression is more fearful than quizzical.]

Doesn't matter. End of the line. You find a place you like along the way, I'll let you off.

[MONSTER turns away from BUS DRIVER. He is looking out the window. Pause.]

There's a dinosaur.

[MONSTER follows it with his eyes as it fades into the distance.]

MONSTER

I am a monster.

BUS DRIVER

Aren't we all.

[SLOW FADE TO BLACK.]