It was raining again… Again, it was raining, I’m over by the side of the dirt road, beside the little pine farm, the sky white, my senses… cold.

My Mother had dressed me up again in the frilly white dress and a little bow in my long brown hair.

That won’t stop me from playing.

I love to play with bricks by the puddle, because the puddle is my friend.

‘Bet you don’t believe, but the puddle took my bullies away, it sucked them down, like a straw, to another world, and I’ve never seen them since.

I sigh, my knees in mud, my white dress slowly turning brown as I pick up another brick.

I stand up, hold the brick above my head, then throw it into the puddle, big splash; my face is showered in muddy water.

I quickly kneel again and reach my tiny arm into the puddle, I can touch the bottom, but I can’t feel any bricks, and I swore that I had thrown over 25 in so far.

I realize, suddenly, my arm can go deeper, how is that possible!? I find my hand reaching farther and farther, my hand touches something, now something has grabbed me, its warm, and its soft… it’s ever so gentle.

I feel it softly tugging, as if to say, “Ingrid, come play with me!” and for a second I close my eyes and smile, as I’m slowly being dragged under, when I’m completely under, its like I’m drowning in the ocean, except I can see through the brown water, it doesn’t hurt my eyes…

I see tiny, teensy tiny bubbled floating to the surface, how beautiful I think. I’m about to die...I conclude.

Next, I open my eyes, and I’m on a bus, there is faint laughter…

I looked around myself, it’s only a five windowed bus, and the bus seats are filled with children, all laughing, smiling, and singing ‘The wheels on the bus go round’ and round’, round’ and round’, round’ and round’, the wheels on the bus go round’ and round’, all through the towns!’

I look out the window, there’s the transparent brown water again,

Suddenly, I realize its only one child singing the song, and the child, obviously a girl, shouts suddenly, “TAKE OVER! TAKE OVER!” before the little boy beside me starts singing, after a minute or so, he shouts, “TAKE OVER! TAKE OVERRRRR!” and another child begin’s singing.

He turns to me and glared, “Oh, look who it is.”

“Huh?” I ask, confused.

“You do know, I’ve been on this stupid bus a week now, right? I don’t get hungry, I don’t get thirsty, and I don’t need to go pee-pee or poo-poo.”

“What on EARTH are you talking about, where am I?”

“I could hear you… “Up there”, you know, the puddle isn’t your friend, it isn’t anybody’s friend, it’ll eat you up, and then bring you here. Where there always has to be someone singing…”

“Why? How can we get out?”

I’m interrupted by a low, loud, obnoxious voice shouting, “TAKE OVER! TAKE OVER!”

There is a big silence…

“Stand up from your seat; you’ll see why we can’t stop singing!”

He pushes me up and I look at a little boy in the seat in front of mine, looking nervously at me.

“Uh-oh…” he says.

Suddenly, a hand reaches from the bus-drivers seat in the front, its black and hairy, it looks nothing like a human’s hand, more like a spiders… All of a sudden, six more black hairy hands come out of no where and all of the hands grab seven children’s throats, including the boy in the seat in front of mine…

“HELP! HELP! HELP!” the children yell… Everything is silent as their lifted, by their necks, out of their seats and are carried to the front, where the disappear into the driver’s mouth… I would expect, really, the driver’s whole body is hidden behind the seat; they just disappear behind the large seat…

And then, out of no where, vortex’s open from the ceiling and seven new children fall into the seats.

“Whoa…” I say, amazed.

“They are puddles all over the world, and when children fall in, they don’t come out… It’s all a really weird battle for survival…”

“Shouldn’t there be somebody singing?” I ask.

“Hurry!” he yells, suddenly aware.

‘The wheels on the bus go round’ and round’, round’ and round’, round’ and round’, the wheels on the bus go round’ and round’, all through the town…’

We don’t age, we don’t eat, we don’t sleep, we don’t go to the bathroom, we don’t drink, we can sing, we can behave, we can be eaten, and we CAN’T escape.