She sat in the bus window, nobody sitting next to her. In fact, the bus was slowly emptying as they came to their final stops, the driver happy to be able to go home and see her kids soon.

The girl sitting in the window seat was excited to be almost home as well. It wasn’t that she had a particularly troubling life at school, or that she had no friends. It was simply that she would rather be at home, because it was almost Christmas break, and she believed that the time was meant to be spent with family.

The school bus wasn’t a particularly nice one, but she liked the ride. She liked seeing other lives rush past, especially in the snow, when the world seemed to be rapidly changing at a glorious pace, and always for the better. But the best part of this bus ride, was that it seemed as if all the local businesses and neighborhood blocks had gotten together and put their Christmas lights out.

The shining lights, combined with the blinding snow, made for a strange affect. It was beautiful as it was every year, as it was every day that it was like this, but this bus drive, a new show of lights, besides the ones on the building, caught her attention. These were no twinkling Christmas lights, but the glaring flashing of police cars, and an ambulance. The siren screamed down the opposite road, trying to save someone’s holiday.

It wasn’t long before she came to the sight of the accident from which the ambulance had come from, and it wasn’t hard to see that it was the accident that the ambulance had come from. Not only were the tire tracks a prominent sign, but the blood on the side walk, along with the large rifle, also did their part to alert the passerby’s of the evens that had occurred here earlier.

The bus driver took notice of lights, the same as the girl in the window. She turned on the radio to a local news radio, and turned down the over head radio as she heard the report of a jewelry robbery gone more wrong that it already was. The prominent local figure, the owner of the store, was shot while running after a man that had moments before ran in, broke the case with the butt of his gun, grabbed a thousand dollars in merchandise, and ran back out. It was reported by an employee that the stolen item was a simple $200 pair of opal earrings, but the owner ran out after the man. The employee said that it looked like the trigger was accidentally pulled, as the owner grabbed the barrel of the gun, pulled, and effectively pulled the man’s finger that was on the trigger, putting bullet in his gut. He was in intensive care, going through surgery.

The radio described the suspected man and his clothing, said that he was on foot, and that if any one had any information that they should call their local police station immediately.

The girl sitting in the window seat of the bus thought it was stupid. She thought the whole situation was stupid, the whole picture, and any person that partook in the affair. The storeowner should have just let him take the earrings; was it really worth being shot over? Was a $200 pair of earrings worth loosing a life over, especially ones own? and then the man that stole the earrings- he couldn’t have just worked for them? Saved up his money like she had saved up hers for the laptop she now owned? She figured that you have to work for things in this world, not just take them for ones own.

She was staring out the window while she thought of these things, and she noticed something more exhilarating than the lights and snow- it was the man. The man that had shot the owner of the shop that had stolen the earrings!

He was hiding in the recesses of the shadows, staying closer to the street than she figured he really should. The girl sitting in the window seat could barley make out the smatter of blood on his coat.

The bus stopped at a red light. The girl sitting in the window seat reached for her cell phone, debating whether to call the police or text her best friend first. But while she was still watching the man to make sure he hadn’t escaped, she noticed another man step out from a wing. The women went and stood in front of the man. When he reached into his coat pocket, the girl in the window seat knew that he was reaching for the stolen earrings. The women looked down at the object in his hands, and then hugged him with a joy that could be seen from a mile away. And the girl sitting in the window seat could easily see it as well. The women didn’t seem to notice the blood smattered on his coat, or his somewhat frightened state, but she was easily happy about this gift.

The man hugged her back. For all his work, and all his fear, she liked the gift that he had worked so hard for. Maybe he didn’t work for it the honorable way, but he worked for it all the same. Just not in a way that was repayable.