It took Gibby twenty minutes to walk to the main road to catch the bus. The friendly bus driver stopped for her and asked her about her destination. She was going into town to do some shopping for dinner. It was her turn to cook. She was going to make her famous “Champs” which was a big mealy pot of sauteed cabbage mixed with fried onions, mashed potatoes, and tofu.
The original recipe called for salt pork, but with all the vegetarians in residence, she adapted it to include some substitutions. It was a hearty dish that would satisfy their appetites for carbs to stave off the bone chilling cold.
Carbohydrates were featured in all their cooking. The students couldn’t afford meat and rarely prepared it. Rice and vegetables, vegetarian pasta dishes, and potatoes with cabbage was derigeur. Occasionally they would all join purses and go out for fish and chips or boiled hamburgers that came out of a can. Such was the English fare.
She liked the look of the bus driver. His dark unkempt hair, blue eyes, and friendly manner led her to her plan to seduce him. She rode the bus everyday, so they were already flirting in that harmless way that men and women do no matter what their marital status.
“Hello, beautiful,” he smiled at her as she stepped up into his realm. “Where are you goin’ today?”
“Scoulton,” she answered him flippantly. “Like where else is there to go…? But when I catch you on the way back, I think I’ll ride to the end of the line with you, if you don’t mind.”
“No, not at all,” he encouraged her. “If you haven’t had supper yet, we could stop and get some fish and chips at a place I know.”
“That sounds like fun,” Gibby said as she was planning his seduction. She glanced down eyeing his crotch. English guys had such big baskets. She wondered what he was packing down there? She was determined to find out.
She had no illusions. Mr. Bus Driver was married and unavailable which was perfect as far as she was concerned. She wanted a fling, a sexual diversion, to end these endless dreary English days.
The bus driver wasn’t expecting to get lucky. He stopped in the last town before the bus yard to pick up two greasy bags of hot food for the two potential lovers to share in the back seat of the big empty bus. They were both hungry.
When he finally parked in an isolated spot at the end of the bus lot, they devoured the crunchy fish and fries wiping their hands and mouths with thin paper serviettes. “How to make tracing paper,” Gibby joked. “First, buy a bag of fish and chips…”
They both laughed at her joke, and then there was a moment of uncomfortable silence before Gibby crashed into his mouth and arms. It wasn’t long before they were disrobed and panting, rocking that bus to the rhythm of their frenzied coitus.
Their passionate union continued every week for months until feeling too guilty about his wife and children, Gibby ended it. By this time, she was pregnant, but she didn’t tell him. “Why complicate things any further?” she explained to her friend.
She went to a local physician. She walked into his beautiful wood-paneled office and told him her story. He gave her a packet of pills and said, “Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. You’ll just have to take your chances. come back if you have any problems. No charge.”
“No charge?” Gibby thought. “That would never happen in America… ” Then she remembered they had socialized medicine in England.
She took the pills as she was instructed and a few days later she had the biggest period of her life with lots of cramping, blood clots, and excessive bleeding. Damn it! Why did sex have to be so complicated for women? Birth control, pregnancies, STD’s, gossip that could ruin your reputation…
She met the wife one day while out shopping. Two small children who bore a strong resemblance to the bus driver were clinging to her skirts. The two women didn’t speak as they finished getting their meat orders wrapped at the butcher counter. The wife was getting a pound of chopped meat, and Gibby was splurging on a whole chicken which she intended to roast with some root vegetables.
“I’m glad you ended it,” the wife said under her breath. “I didn’t want to divorce him, and you don’t care about him long term anyway…” The kids were staring up at her quizzically.
The wife was right. All Gibby wanted was a few quick screws. She would have never been serious about him. Anyway, she was off to Greece where further adventures awaited… and besides those English baskets she was so curious about were oddly fluffed out by long thick cotton underwear. “Ooompa…!”
(First published 12/3/12)
