The Brokeback Bus Ride

‘Anatomy of a Rogue Wave’

Greyhound ran a bus out of L.A. to San Francisco that took fifteen hours to complete because it stopped at every bum-fuck town in California, the places time forgot. This was the Lost Soul Run, the Ghost Bus. It picked up young men who had to get away from the small towns they were born in. They went looking for jobs so they could get out of their parents home. They dressed them like dorks, made them wear dorky clothes so they would get hired and not come home. The Army and Navy wouldn’t take them, because there was something wrong with them. They would meet other rejects and losers on the bus. They would strike up a conversation, and move to the back of the bus. Young Mexican mothers clutching children to their bosom, shut their ears and eyes. Service men began to board. They…