Synopsis

Adapted from the Coincidences episode of This American Life, “Bus Trip” is the story of a young girl’s trip to rehab. 17-year-old Casey has woken up in jail for what seems like the tenth time at least. After years of a laissez faire attitude toward child rearing, her struggling single mom decides to intervene. She gives Casey an ultimatum: get on the bus or be thrown out.  Equipped with scarcely enough money for one meal and no cell phone, Casey boards the bus against her will.  She meets some fellow riders along the way, one of whom she opens up to about not having a dad and how she attributes much of her failures to that circumstance. Out of nowhere, at a bus depot along the interstate, a man approaches her and tells her that he is in fact, her dad.  With one fateful encounter she has to decide if she’ll continue on the destructive path she’s been following or get clean on her own terms.