When I was in first grade, around the age of 6, I was in daycare after school. The daycare was just one neighborhood over from the neighborhood that i lived in.
In the mornings, my mom would leave for work around 7:30 and my step-dad would take me to daycare around 8:30 to get picked up by the bus there. I always rode the same bus, to and from school all through kindergarden, but for some reason the school had an issue with my transportation saying that I was supposed to go on a different bus home because of my home residence, even though they had been told that I go to daycare.
One day on the way to the buses the new student teacher we had refused to let me on the bus that I took to daycare, and basically forced me to take the bus that went to my neighborhood home. I knew I was getting on the wrong bus, and I told her this, but what teacher is going to listen to a 6 year old?
The whole bus ride I was a mess. I had no idea what I was going to do. I was on a bus full of kids I didn't really know (I didn't go outside much as a child), with a bus driver I didn't know. I tried to tell him that I was on the wrong bus and asked him if he could take me to my daycare, but he couldn't. He said that he had to stick to his route and because, for some reason, my name WAS on the bus route sheet, that I had to get off at the stop at the end of my street.
When I got off the bus I walked to my house, but I didn't have a key. This was before cell phones were a thing for kids to have, and I sat on the porch, crying. I couldn't call my mom, I couldn't go inside the house. None of my neighbors were home at 3:00 in the afternoon during the week.
I thought I was going to get in huge trouble for taking the wrong bus home. I had no idea what to do, and as I'm sitting there on the porch, crying my eyes out, a woman walked up. I still remember what she looked like. At least I think I do. She looked to be in her 30's, long blonde hair tied up, glasses, and comforting. She had this determiner about her that just made me feel as though everything would be okay. She asked me if she could call someone for me, but I only knew my home phone number and since my mom was at work that wouldn't help, but she sat with me until my mom showed up, telling me that everything would be okay.
When my mom showed up, she thanked her for staying with me, i don't remember the exact conversation she had with her, but a few minutes after my mom showed up, the principle from the school pulled up. He didn't know how it happened, but told her that it would never happen again. The only reason my mom found out is because the daycare lady called her when I didn't get off the bus.
When they turned around, she was gone. I lived in that house, on the same street for almost 10 years after that happened, and never saw her again. We never got her name, and never noticed which house she walked back to when she left.
When I'm feeling lost, I think about her. I still get that same comforting feeling that I got way back then. From time to time I wonder how she's doing, or whether she remembers me the same way I remember her.