Savvy

An old school bus, converted into a Bible delivery truck for the “Heartland Bible Supply Company” (43) and driven by the simple-minded Lester Swan, becomes Mibs’s source of transportation to the hospital where her father lies in a coma. The bus, however, isn’t headed in that direction but away, toward the churches of hinterland villages.

The deteriorating bus at first is a kind of trap, both for Lester and Mibs. It traps Lester in its almost-but-not-quite ability to keep him employed; it traps Mibs by taking her away from her destination while holding out her only hope of getting back.

The bus also serves as the platform for Mibs’s “hero’s journey.” Taking her away from her goal forces her to reassess her priorities and learn to cope with the overwhelm of her new savvy. The bus’s exploding windows and the Bibles that scatter across its floor represent the collapse of Mibs’s old worldview and the end of Lester’s outdated hopes and dreams. For all its decrepitude, the bus makes it through the various crises and gets both characters to their destinations—Mibs to her father in the hospital and Lester to his new life with