The Signing School Bus

I was on my way to work one morning. I stopped at an intersection waiting for the light to turn green.  Ahead of me, on the other side of the intersection, was a large school bus facing me. I saw the dark silhouettes of children moving around on the bus. With nothing else to look at, I continued to stare at them. Suddenly, I realized that they were signing. Their hands moved around excitedly producing what looked like signs for "Right, right." "Ha, Ha." "Funny." "No!" In the back of the bus, a pair of hands rose high in the air and threw around more signs participating in the conversations. The black shapes of the signing children against the background of the dusky pink sky was quite beautiful.

I wondered if one of my former students was sitting on that bus as it went past me disappearing in my rear view mirror.

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