It starts before dawn. Waking up in the dark is the hardest part. We are loath to turn on the lights because they burn the sleepy eyes. Together we support each other as we stumble down the stairs. Then comes the time for provisioning (cheese and crackers, a yogurt, and fruit in the Eagles Kidsclub Lunch bag) and getting into our gear (boots and snow pants for Wugy Norple and double pants for Exploding Poptart, coats, hats and gloves all around). Now we are ready to open the door and face the cold. The clock is ticking. Will the bus be early today? We lumber in our bulky gear down the steps, sometimes still zipping a zipper or pulling on gloves. The most treacherous part of our journey is the "stink berry part." 
The ginkgo tree a block away drops berries all winter, and if you step on one it smells like puke. Wuggy Norple is beside himself when this happens. He groans holds his breath. (One day we walked out in the street to avoid the stinky part of our journey, but it turns out the berries are there too! And then we are scuffling slowly in snow boots down a busy street hopping on one foot so as not to explode any stink berries. We did not repeat that detour.) But now we are almost to the corner. And once we come to the corner we know we are safe. We rush to look- are there still children at the bus stop, or have we missed our bus? Because even if the bus is already there, we know our kindly driver will stop for us here at the corner. On good days our friends are also finishing their journeys, and we can walk together with enough time at our stop for Exploding Poptart to help Wugy Norple into his back pack, and share a giant hug. Exploding Poptart waits faithfully until the bus finally drives away, waving the whole time. The ending of our hero's journey.
The ginkgo tree a block away drops berries all winter, and if you step on one it smells like puke. Wuggy Norple is beside himself when this happens. He groans holds his breath. (One day we walked out in the street to avoid the stinky part of our journey, but it turns out the berries are there too! And then we are scuffling slowly in snow boots down a busy street hopping on one foot so as not to explode any stink berries. We did not repeat that detour.) But now we are almost to the corner. And once we come to the corner we know we are safe. We rush to look- are there still children at the bus stop, or have we missed our bus? Because even if the bus is already there, we know our kindly driver will stop for us here at the corner. On good days our friends are also finishing their journeys, and we can walk together with enough time at our stop for Exploding Poptart to help Wugy Norple into his back pack, and share a giant hug. Exploding Poptart waits faithfully until the bus finally drives away, waving the whole time. The ending of our hero's journey.
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