connection

“Stay in your fucking seats” Mike had a gun pointed at the bus driver.

Another man named John was in the back with what looked like a machine gun, yelling at the rest of the passengers, there must’ve been about 20 people in the bus.
He kept yelling at the passengers in the front while pressing his gun to the driver’s neck. They were in the highway now.

“Where are we going?” The driver said.

“To the white house” Mike said.

“What?”

“Drive” Mike said and pressed the gun harder into his neck.

          They would be driving for maybe two more hours. These people had no idea what was going to happen. They would all be dead in 3 hours. Yeah, so he and John were terrorists, but they weren’t suicide bombers, they’d be looking for arab looking motherfuckers.

“Where are you taking us?” a lady cried in the front.
John came from the behind her and punched the back of her head. People started screaming.

“Keep your mouth shut, you don’t get hurt” John said.
        
Most of them continued crying, they stopped complaining, after a guy in the back got up yelling and got hit with the machine gun across the face. He was on the floor passed out for an hour.

(Maria)
        
      Most of them were seating next to each other. They had remained quiet for a while, Maria sat near the back, next to an older woman, She grabbed the woman’s hand, and felt her squeeze back. She then turned to the old woman, and started looking in her eyes. At first the woman looked away, Maria squeezed her hand harder, and the woman looked up. They both connected, tears came pouring down.

Something happened, I can’t explain it, I don’t even think I understand it, those two strangers felt something, they saw something.

Maria did see something, she saw her grandmother in that woman, the old woman, saw her only daughter who had passed away years ago in Maria. How? I don’t know, maybe it’s all that mattered in that moment, maybe it was all it took for them to find love in that moment.
I still don’t understand it. Some of the others noticed what was going on, they saw them looking at each other, and at one point  Maria and the old woman smiled…Then I noticed more people started holding hands, man and women, men and men, connecting with each other. Two men, who maybe never met, turned and looked at one another and cried, one saw his brother, the other saw his father, they hugged.

(Mike)

Do they know this is their last night living? They can’t possibly know for sure. Fuck I mean if they are so certain, how can this be the last thing they do or think of?

What do they see? What do they feel that I can’t see, smiling, hugging, what the fuck? I wanted to shoot my gun and ruin this shit for them. Most of them didn’t seem scared anymore.
These people were making me sick.

(Fear)

Mike saw a woman crying of relief and joy, she kissed the man’s hand. Mike got his gun and started walking over, and noticed a guy in the back, he looked terrified. He was sitting alone. It stopped him, he didn’t know why?, he wanted to see fear in their faces. He walked by the woman, and continued walking towards the guy in the back. He was probably in his 20’s yet he looked like a small boy afraid and alone.
        
       Mike dropped his gun…he saw himself int his terrified little boy, he saw everything about him in this other man he’d never seen before, he saw who he is, who he was, who he had become, in this human being. He felt like carrying the little boy…

“We are here” John said.

Written by:Frank Hannen-Pantaleon

Liana

“I hate you,I really do” said Liana.


“Liana you’re just looking in the mirror” he told her.


(Deanne)


Deanne stood by her daughter’s room,listening to the conversation.
She wanted to go in, but something kept her, she just listened. Wanting to know more, she felt like she could finally get to know Liana.


(Liana)


“Fuck you!”Liana said.


He laughed, “fuck yourself”.


She was so angry, she was in tears. He kept laughing at her. He saw disgust in his eyes.The look so familiar to her, a look she had seen many times. A look she saw every day.


“I want to change, I want to be happy” she cried out.


“Be yourself”he said.


“I am”


“Are you?”he smiled.


She looked down, tears kept flowing, was she really herself?


“You act like you have no idea what’s going on, but I know, you’ve known all along” he told her.


“I hate when you talk like this” she said.


“Then you hate the truth” he said.


(Deanne)


Deanne cried the more she listened in, she heard her cry and yell, she felt her pain, her anger. Then she heard her say, “I hate you, I really do”.


She opened the door, and saw Liana, sitting alone in front of the mirror.


Written by :Frank Hannen-Pantaleon