Before It Rains

The bus ride was uneventful. Really uneventful. I guess it didn’t really register at first just how long a ride we were in for, because I almost threw up when Ruben told me. Almost 24 hours on the bus. Terrific.

So we finally showed up on Wednesday morning at the bus station in Connecticut just before five in the morning. Ruben had somehow fallen asleep, but I was still awake, which was a good thing, or else we would’ve missed the stop.

“Atkins Station, Connecticut. Ten minute stop,” the driver commanded over the speaker. I punched Ruben on the shoulder. He didn’t even move. Lucky heavy sleeper. A train could speed through here and he wouldn’t even hear it. Instead, I took my water bottle and squirted some in his face. His eyes blinked open and fast.

“What the...? Sam, why the...?”

“Shut up, Ruben. Our stop, let’s go.” I grabbed my carryon bag and started down the aisle towards the doors at the front of the bus. He followed.

The bus terminal was even smaller than the one at home. Nearly as soon as we stepped inside, a man was bustling over to us. He was only a little taller than Ruben, with light brown hair and an exhausted but pleased look on his face.

“Hey, you’re, um, here for school?” Idiot. He couldn’t at least remember our names?

“Yeah, I’m Sam and this is Ruben,” I told him. “Are you our ride?”

“No way, I’m your escort,” he told me. “It’s only a half a mile walk. Do your suitcases roll?”

“Um, yeah. Sure. We’re walking?” I asked him. Had he forgotten it was only five in the morning.

“Are you flippin’ serious? I’m exhausted!” Ruben groaned. The nameless escort ignored him and turned to leave, muttering “aren’t we all?”.

The walk back wasn’t too bad. Not a lot of uphill. That was good. I don’t know if Ruben could’ve handled it. Even so, I practically jumped for joy when I saw the sign for the school up ahead. Our escort, took us over to the main office, which I could identify by the sign above the door. Main Office. We were here.

There was a lady behind the desk, looking way to awake for these early hours. She looked kind of like Gram, and was knitting away as we walked up to her desk and the man who had brought us up here disappeared behind a door. Realizing that Ruben was pretty much unconscious at this point, I started conversation with the lady.

“Um, hi, I’m Sam Prindle, and this is my...” I looked over at Ruben, who was leaning up against the counter, practically falling over it. “This is my brother and could we please get our rooms? We’re kind of tired.”

“Sure thing,” she told me. She typed something into her computer. “Samantha Prindle and Ruben Prindle?”

“Yeah, that’s us.” She opened a drawer, pulled out two keys, and slid them across the counter.

“Both in room 32B. That’s the second building after this one. It’s labeled. You should be on...” she looked at her computer again. “The second floor.”

“We’re sharing a room?” Had I heard her right? This was a coed school, but the girls were in one building and the boys in another. How could Ruben and I be in the same room?

“Yes, ma’am,” she told me. “We’re packed full this year and you two registered at such short notice, the only thing to do was put you in the same room. And you’re, well, family.”

Ruben hadn’t said anything. I couldn’t figure out if he had even registered any of it. I saw a clock on the wall. 5:35. The sun was rising only the slightest bit outside. I was tired and he was tired. There would be time to argue later.

“All right,” I said letting out a sigh. “Thank you very much. Come on, Ruben.” And he and I walked off towards building B.

Now that the sun was rising, it wasn’t hard to find. The secretary was right. It was labeled. I was getting the impression that everything here was. I dragged Ruben into the elevator, pressed the two button, and watched the doors close. Only three or four seconds later, the doors reopened with a ping, and revealed a dark hallway to the left.

“Where’do you think our room is?” I asked Ruben.

“I dunno,” he yawned. “Wait? Our room?”

“Yes, Bingo!” I told him. “We,” I pointed to him and then me. “Are sharing a room. It was the only one left. We already went over this!” He swore under his breath.

“Hey, it could be worse,” I whispered, trying to tone it down a little, not knowing how many people were sleeping behind all the closed doors.

“How?” he asked me, suddenly seeming pretty wide awake.

“I have no clue,” I told him. He sighed and walked over to the closest door.

“This one’s 21B. Let’s just keep walking this way.” He pulled the handle up out of his suitcase and started off down the hallway, rolling it behind him. I followed him. And about halfway down, we found 32B. I opened it with one of the keys and tossed the other one to Ruben. I pushed open the door and dragged my suitcase inside, Ruben coming in after me. I looked around in the dim light, and flicked a switch. The lights came on to reveal a pretty decent looking room. There were two beds with their heads against the far wall and two dressers pushed up between them with one, two... five drawers! Sweet! There was a television in the right corner with a couple of chairs and a little table in front of them and a door on the left wall that I assumed was the bathroom. Ruben closed the doors behind him.

“Home sweet home,” he said.

“Hey, it’s not a bad room, Rub,” I told him. “This could be ten times worse.” I threw my suitcase on the bed to the right and sat on it myself, bouncing up and down a couple of times. “Look, the beds don’t even squeak.”

All of a sudden a wave of exhaustion blew over me and I yawn. There was a digital clock by the TV. Six o’clock exactly. I took the suitcase off the bed and shoved it to the side. “I’m going to take a nap,” I said to Ruben, who was opening his suitcase on the other bed.

“I’m gonna unpack. I’m not tired,” he told me. I glared back.

“I wonder why.” He just shrugged. I remembered one more thing.

“Hey, you wanna email Mom?” I asked Ruben. He didn’t even turn around.

“Mom can wait.” My thoughts exactly.