The Bus and The Moon

I was 6. My mom and I were living in Paris. Our living expenses were pretty much covered by my father but my mom still worked in a sweatshop. She's a good sewer and whatever money she makes, she uses it to take French classes and travel around Europe. I long for those days, for what I remembered those days were the happiest times of my life. It was so carefree. I was in an elementary school then, since my father lived with his wife/mistress, I get dragged out of school a whole lot and traveled with my mom. Even my teachers get annoyed but who else would take care of me if she's gone?

We would go on these bus tours. They sold tickets in some Chinese travel agencies. We would wake up in the middle of the night and go to a gathering place and hop on these coach tour buses. I would always be the first one to jump on it and run to the end of the bus. My seat has always been the middle of the last row, because then I would be able to run back and forth in the aisle. We have been all around; Marseille, Nice, Lyon, Mont St. Michel, Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxemberg, Munich, Monaco, Roma, London, we've done it all. My mom gave me the job of finding our way back to the bus when we were let out to sightsee. I always thought it all depended on me and somehow I've developed this great sense of direction since, but more often then not the things that I remember was what happened while we're in the bus.

We were always on the bus. There were always interesting people on the bus. I remember hippies; young French white boys that sings and play guitars, nerdy Asian tourists with their camera and zoom lenses, usually in grey suits and wearing glasses chitchatting with one another smiling and excited all the way. I remember having nose bleeds all the time during winter when it's cold and dry, one of the passengers told us that if you put some cold water behind the ears it'll stop, and it worked. I remember passing farm lands with cows as far as the eye can see. At times, a big round moon will be in the sky shining down during the night, they always had to drive overnight. I asked my mom "Why did the moon keep following us?" "It's not following us, it's just so big that you can see it no matter where you go."

Now whenever I'm on a coach, my mind keep going back to those days when I have my mom next to me. We didn't have a chance to spend much time together and my memory of her fades more and more, but I still misses her. Come August she would have passed away for 22 years now.

"No matter where I go, huh?"