CHAPTER THIRTY-ONEA bus piled high with luggage on top and people hanging out the windows made a comedic, lopsided approach as Jesse waited on the dusty edge of a two-lane blacktop road. The destination sign on the bus said “Puerto Angel.”
The driver stopped and let Jesse know the only place he could possibly ride was on top. The bus was completely packed with a crush of sweating passengers.
Jesse shouldered his backpack and climbed the metal ladder on back to get to the top of the bus. The driver took off so quickly that Jesse had to throw himself onto the cargo to keep from falling off the back. He and his pack became hopelessly entangled in taut tie-down ropes. It took some struggling, but he eventually wiggled out of the pack and managed to lift his head above the jumbled pile of bas
