BUS STORY # 183 (The Old Couple)

Old Couple taking one last bus ride?!?, originally uploaded by hirenhp.

They’re sitting to my right, across the aisle from me and one row up.

At first, I hardly notice them. It’s the woman’s headscarf, and then her face, which get my attention.

The scarf is dark red, with what looks like a corn stalk pattern in muted greens and yellows. She has it knotted under her chin, and even without seeing her face, I’d’ve thought “old, peasant.”

Her face is ancient and deeply etched with crisscrossing lines. Her expression is of near-infinite patience. Her eyes change back and forth between closed and half-open, but she is not drowsy. Watching her, I realize she is engaged in an ongoing conversation with the old man sitting next to her in the aisle seat.

He’s wearing a buffalo plaid flannel shirt and some dark mustard-colored pants. I see one slippered foot, and a sock that reminds me of the support hose my mother had to wear in the hospital after her surgery to prevent clots. He’s wearing glasses. (And I realize she is not.) I can see past his ear through the left lens, and it is thick. He’s wearing a mesh baseball cap, and I can see through the mesh that he is almost completely bald. A wooden cane hangs from the seatback in front of him.

The conversation is inaudible, but I can actually see it. When she is not speaking, she faces straight ahead, and her eyes are closed. When she does speak, she turns her face ever so slightly leftward, and her eyes open, half-lidded.

He keeps his head facing forward whether he is speaking or listening. But when she speaks, he tilts his head toward her. When she is finished, his head straightens back up and he responds quickly.

She waits a minute or so before responding, as if mulling over what he has said, or what strategy she should use in making her response.

Once, he raises his voice. I can hear his voice, but it is still much too quiet to hear the words. I sense he is provoked. While he is speaking, the woman closes her eyes and shakes her head, very gently, no.

I get the impression this conversation has been going on for the past half century, with little or no change in form, content or outcome.

At this point, I am daydreaming. I’m imagining them young and in love, and how each of them looked to the other. I’m wondering if either of them knew then how their conversations would eventually go, and if either one did, I can guess what made it not matter.

They are still talking with, or at, one another when I reach my stop. It’s been a good 20 minutes or so.

I imagine something else. After one of them is gone, the other will continue the conversation alone. And there will be precious little satisfaction in not being contradicted.
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The photo at the top of this story is titled Old Couple taking one last bus ride?!? and is posted with the kind permission of hirenhp. You can see this and all hirenhp’s photos on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hirenhp/2571612577/