It was one of the hottest summers on record in Pina, Louisiana. Everyone in town was sweating up a storm, and the two grocery stores in town were wiped of fans and ACs. Someone even tried to steal one of the store's ACs, that’s how bad and hot it was. But on a July day in particular, the sun was at its peak heat. A man dressed head to toe in a suit and suede leather shoes rolled into town.  

      Some older locals asked the man what his business was. Why would he come here? The man simply responded that he was in search of his life purpose. “The only way to find the correct answer is from a bus ride.” An older local man started to laugh so hard he began to wheeze and spit up after. “You see, Pina has a bus stop which is at the edge of town but it hasn’t been in service since 1925; it’s now 1963, so you see, it’s been a few years…” 

     “Bus ride? You ain’t getting no bus ride here!” said an old woman whose skin looked as hard as the man’s suede leather shoes. The man had no time for these locals and their old nitpicking ways. He knew exactly what bus he came to town for, as he had been chasing it down for the last year…He started to wonder if the bus was real or if his life purpose was to chase the bus. But he figured he’d spent so much time searching for this bus, he had to get ahead. The bus makes five stops every year, and if the man’s calculations were correct the bus was stopping in this town at exactly 10:10 pm. So, the man looked straight ahead and started to walk to the edge of town. When the man reached the bus stop, all that was there was a broken down sign and a bench with overgrown weeds. 

     Day grew into night and the sky was filled with millions of stars. You couldn’t really tell that it was close to 10 p.m. because of how bright the stars lit up the sky. By this time, the man had been sitting on the bench all day waiting for this bus to arrive. The man was so dehydrated from the summer heat and became soggy like a wet sponge. His suit was soaked with his sweat and created puddles in his suede leather shoes. But sure enough, a long, black bus arrived at the stop. The location on the bus read “out of order.” But as the doors of the bus opened, the area around the man grew pitch black as he climbed aboard the bus, hoping to find his answer…