What *Really* Happened to The Bus

The bus approaches my stop as an alarmed voice from another driver comes across the radio. "I just stopped at McDonald's over my break, and when I came out... " The voice pauses momentarily.  "When I came out, my bus was gone."

Gone?  His bus was gone?

I wish that I could continue riding until the next stop and listen to the reactions of the other bus drivers as they chime in over their radios and learn the official response from the base.

As I dismount and walk back to my car, I imagine the driver holding his coffee, scratching his head, and staring at the empty space in the parking lot where he last had parked his bus, just like a cowboy would kick at the dirt if he arrived at his hitching post and noticed that his horse no longer was tethered there, or just like when I walk in circles if I exit a grocery store and can't find my car.

A missing bus?  Who in the world steals a bus?  This doesn't happen every day in the public transportation world.

And then I knew.  It must have been the pigeon.

Somebody finally let the pigeon drive the bus.