📯 From the Desk of Virgil Twobyfour, Shwami & Semi-Retired Confectioner

🗓️ Posted just now from a device he keeps in a biscuit tin

Evenin’ all, or whatever time it is where you’re sittin’. Thought I’d best jot this down while it’s still fresh, although it weren’t exactly fresh when it happened. More like lukewarm and slightly moist around the edges.

Miss Grubbe's diary entry from earlier has got me reminiscing.

Now then—The Empty Bus.

Yes, THAT one.

It was some years ago now, though I couldn’t rightly tell you how many, as I was going through a period of time confusion on account of the mushrooms behind the potting shed (it turned out later they weren't mushrooms but the lost hats of the 1953 Cub Scout troupe, long since sprouted roots).

I’d been out foraging for nettles, hedgehog clippings, and moral courage when I heard the hum of an engine. This was curious, as I was two miles from where the road used to be before the council spirited it away in 1987.

On looking, I found the road had returned, and just down the lane, under the flicker of that sodium lamp that never works unless you’re not looking at it, there it was. Just parked. The Empty Bus.

Not one passenger. Not even a driver. But the doors were open, friends. And the engine was just... idling, in an expectant way.

I did what any self-respecting folklorist would do: I fumbled for my phone, which I’d cleverly placed in a sock full of sage for protection, and I took this photograph. It’s not much, but then again neither am I most days.

I didn’t go aboard. Oh no. Last time I entered an unmanned vehicle I came back two hours earlier than I’d left and covered in Latin.

The photo’s a bit fuzzy, but that’s only fair—it’s hard to capture something that might not be entirely on our timetable. So if you’re ever out late, and you hear the faint ding of a bell from no visible source… maybe check your bus pass. Or maybe don’t.

Yours, cautiously,
Virgil T. 🚌🌫️👀

#TheEmptyBus #FolkPhenomena #VillageMysteries #NeverBoardTheLastService #SodiumLampLore #VirgilSawItFirst #DingAndGone #CountrysideCuriosities