Chapter 1

Pat Simmons heard the tour bus tires sing out when he got a little over the edge of the mountain road and the tires hit the warning strips on the shoulder. A minor adjustment was all that was needed to correct his mistake. His mind was wandering; he was thinking of the argument that he and Bess had this morning. The shoulder was still paved and the warning strips had been cut to warn drivers that they were about to run off of the road, He was sure that no one had noticed it until the shrew that was chaperoning the girls called out for him to watch the road. Pat didn't respond to the barb and continued climbing the mountain. He was very familiar with this area as he had been hunting in it since he was a child. The area was dotted with old gold, silver and lead mines.

This was to be his last trip for his father-in-law's bus company. Pat and his wife had finally had enough of each other and were calling it quits. Pat had gone in to work today and gave his notice. Naturally his father-in-law had gone ballistic and shouted about all that he had done for Pat and how Pat would never make anything of himself and that his daughter would do well to get rid of Pat. Pat had refused to take the bus out at first but there was no other driver available so he agreed to make this one last run. He didn't want to hurt the kid's summer trip.

Pat and Bess had gotten married right out of college. Bess was an only child and she was more spoiled than anyone Pat had ever seen. Pat had wanted to be a high school science teacher but Bess argued that he should work for her father and take over the company one day. Pat saw right away that Bess' father was mad that Bess had married this man that looked more like a lumberjack than an executive. Bess' father never missed an opportunity to belittle Pat in front of the other employees or try to make him ashamed that Bess was doing better than him.

Pat started out working in the office of the tour bus company. His father-in-law told him that he should learn the whole business and convinced Pat to learn to drive the bus occasionally. Occasionally became all of the time shortly and Pat knew that it was his father-in-law's way of letting him know how little he thought of his son-in-law. Pat had quit several times but, after a week-long argument with Bess, each time he relented and went back to driving the bus.

Comments were often made that Pat would never take over the company; his father-in-law swore that he would sell it before he would let that happen. Pat never wanted to take over the company; his heart was in teaching.

Pat looked in the mirror at the people sitting in the bus. The bus was not totally full. There was the shrew that was constantly haranguing the twenty girls, a woman that was probably a teaching assistant and a very young teacher. This was probably the first year for the young teacher. This trip was supposed to be for one week at a camp higher up in the mountains. Pat figured that it was a junior class trip as the girls looked to be about sixteen or so.

Pat was to drop off the passengers at the camp and then drive the bus back to the terminal. He would then quit, turn in all of his logs and company equipment and that would be it for his career as a bus driver. Another driver would pick up the passengers from the camp in a week.

Pat's mind went back to the arguments of the last several days. The arguments had been getting more heated for a long time now. Bess was climbing up the corporate ladder and she had started talking to Pat like he would never understand the corporate world and the pressures involved and the skills needed to survive. The final straw was when she told him that he was only a bus driver and that was all he'd ever be. Pat reminded her that it was her idea for him to go to work for that bastard father of hers and then all hell broke loose when Bess heard him call her father a bastard.

Bess and her father thought the sun rose and set on each other. Most decisions in their marriage were either approved or disapproved by Bess' father. Even the house that Pat and Bess had bought had to be approved by her father before Bess would sign the real estate contract. Pat usually went along with Bess because he had really loved her at first and he wanted to please her.

Bess had decided to put off having children until she had made her mark on the business world. At first Pat went along with it but later this had caused several arguments between them. They once broke up for a week after Bess had told him that even her father thought that it was best to put off having children. Bess had come to him in tears days later and told him that she would work one more year and then they would start a family. That was three years ago.

In the ten years Pat and Bess had been married, Pat's personality had changed. He had lost his drive and he became quiet and moody. His love for Bess faded until now they were just two people that lived together in a sort of armed truce. Pat had been raised by his divorced mother and he had always sworn to himself that he would never get a divorce. Bess seemed relieved when he told her that it would be best for both of them if they parted and went their own ways. He had wondered for the last year if she was seeing someone else.