BUS STORY # 196 (Bert’s Bus Story # 2)

Balloons and Bus, originally uploaded by busboy4.

Bert* is on his way in to work when the bus stops to take on a mom and daughter.

The daughter looks physically to be in her teens, but is clearly much, much younger in her mental development. When she boards the bus, she tells the driver today is her birthday. She tells the driver this several times with unabated excitement.

Yes, yes, it’s your birthday, honey, now let’s sit down, her mom tells her. She patiently maneuvers her daughter into a seat while the daughter makes sure everyone else on the bus knows it’s her birthday.

When they reach the northeast corner of Lomas and Wyoming where the Rich Ford lot is, the driver pulls over to the bus stop, even though no one is waiting there, and no one has pulled the “stop requested” cord, and the light is green.

Then he opens the front doors and exits the bus.

What the heck, Bert wonders. Where could he possibly be going?

A few minutes later, he re-enters the bus with three large helium balloons. He goes down the aisle to where Mom and daughter are sitting and he gives the daughter the balloons.

Happy Birthday, he tells her.

I imagine the riders looking out the north side windows at the row of cars and trucks for sale, each with a big helium balloon attached.

Well, all but three of them.

__________

*Real name changed.