A Magical Monday Morning

It was cold and dark, as she stepped onto the bus, for the morning ride to school. It was early too. Too early for loud talking and laughing. She gently sat her Barbie backpack down beside her and sat down in the same window seat, where she sat every school day for the past two years. She knew every stop along the route and watched eagerly as they approached her best friend's house. "She's not there," she mumbled to herself when the bus driver rolled right past her house. The lights were on at her house, but she wasn't at the stop. She wondered what her friend was doing, as a wave of sadness washed over her and she slinked down in her seat. She stared out the window at the cars and trucks going by and the sun, as it peeked at her through the trees. Her thoughts drifted to the bicycle she really really wanted for Christmas. It was a pink Barbie bike and it even came with a pink Barbie helmet. She warmed herself with a hopeful vision of wearing that helmet and riding that bicycle at her granny's house on Christmas Day. She wondered to herself, "Maybe Santa will bring it to me. I've been pretty good all year, I think. Except for that time, when I really acted up because I had to go to bed early.  Oh yeah, and that time I lied about writing on the wall in my room. Mom and Dad got really upset about that." Her face was expressionless, as she stared out the window. Her thoughts slipped back to that Barbie bicycle and Barbie helmet. "It will be so much fun.." she thought, "..once I learn how to ride." "When I get tired of riding I can go inside and be with granny. There's nothing better than a long tight hug from granny," she thought to herself.

It was cold, it was Monday, and she was on the way to school, but it was the last Monday before Christmas break and soon she would see all of her family at Christmas and get to play with her Christmas toys. Just then she noticed a man in a car beside the bus. He had his window down and was smiling and waving. The kids in the seat in front and behind her were waving at him when a big smile washed over her face. She recognized the silly bald man that came to her class a few weeks ago. She waved back and they smiled at each other for a second then the bus drove by the big church on the corner and they were almost at her school.