Highway 59 and Groven Road was rural bus driver Ed Tuttle’s last stop to pick up kids before he entered the city. As usual, five middle-years students were waiting for him at the stop: Marty Nolan and his brother, Johnny, Lyle Esposito, Chloe Streamer, and Susan Moorgate. Just as usual, the kids were rambunctiously yelling and pushing at each other, as Ed pulled up in a cloud of diesel fumes.

Ed Tuttle was a former police officer, driving bus in his retirement years to supplement his pension, and the students respected the big, burly ex-cop.