Journey | The Unexpected

Leo thought of his mother. Had she stepped off, once? Had there been a journey she never told him about, a life tucked between the lines of her careful days?

Leo stepped off the bus.

For the first time in his life, Leo smiled and walked straight into the unknown. the unexpected journey

But he was already breaking his own rules. What was one more? Leo thought of his mother

“You found the key,” she said. “Now you have to decide. Stay on the bus, and it takes you back to your lists, your Wednesdays, your Sundays. Or step off, and see where the road goes.” Leo stepped off the bus

Terminus was a bus depot. The grimy, forgotten one on the edge of town where the number 47—the “ghost route,” locals called it—still ran once a night. Leo had never ridden it. No one had, as far as he knew.