Every Step You Take

It was that wet and windy kind of cold that cuts clear to the bone. Sandi dropped off the last kid on the activity bus and was on her way back to the garage. It was dark and the roads were wet but not slick yet—that would come later tonight. She slowed to make the turn onto East Fifth Street that went past the front of the school. A lone soul was sitting on the steps in front of the school. She slowed to see who it was. Nicole. The Parker girl. A nice kid. She stopped the big yellow bus in front, offering to give her a ride after she parked the bus, but Nicole said her dad would be there soon. She closed the doors and let out the clutch at the same time, moving toward the garage. She was feeling pretty good, considering the mess she had gotten herself into. She pulled forward to the door that had to be opened from the inside. Leaving the bus running, Sandi hopped down the three steps onto the gravel driveway and walked around to the left side of the building. She got out the keys to open the door but it was already open. That wasn’t all that unusual; Wes must not have latched it all the way and the wind had blown it open. She flipped the light switch inside the door and the garage lights flickered to life. She walked to the rope and pulled down hard as the door creaked its way up along the metal tracks. When it was open far enough she hopped back on the bus and drove it into the empty bay. She shut the bus down and set the brake, then skipped down the steps and out the doors that she wouldn’t bother to close. She reversed the door opening and closing process and the heavy garage door came down much faster and easier than it had gone up. She turned just in time to see movement to her right. Turns out that would be the last thing she would see. Three reports from the .44 Magnum pierced the frigid night air.