BUS STORY # 243 (Not A Scam)

Pssst! Wanna Buy A Ticket?, originally uploaded by busboy4.

We pass someone running our direction through the intersection and waving madly. He wants the bus to wait for him at the stop on the other side, of course. And the driver does. 

He’s a fairly young guy, and he looks like he’s put in a long, hard day at a dirty job. He leans against a pole and pulls out his wallet. From the wallet, he pulls a cluster of bills. 

He sticks the wallet in his jacket pocket and begins sorting through the bills. 

“Man! All I got -- ” 

He breaks off, peels a bill from the top, and goes to the rider closest to him. 

“You got change for a five?” 

The rider shakes his head no. 

He tries a second rider with the same results. 

Then he calls out to the rest of us. 

“Anybody got change for a five?” 

No one answers. 

He goes back to the driver. 

“All I got are fives and twenties. When we get to Central, if you could just let me dip into McDonald’s -- ” 

The driver tells him not to worry about it. 

He sits down on the bench seat across from the driver. 

When we’re making the Lead-University-Central-Yale loop, he pulls out a cell, makes a call. 

He tells whoever is on the other line that he’ll be late, he’s catching the Lomas bus and there’s an hour wait after the seven p.m. 

He also says he’s got some money, and the way he says it sounds like it is especially good news to listener and caller. 

He says he’ll be ready for a bedtime snack by the time he gets there. 

We turn back down Yale and stop across from the McDonald’s. All of us get off here. 

I’m waiting for the light to change before crossing the street when I notice the guy with the fives and twenties jitterbugging through the traffic, heading for McDonald’s. 

Hmmm. Well, even if he really intends to get change, he won’t get back out before the bus is gone. 

The bus is still there when I start crossing the intersection. I’m almost to the other side when I see the guy come flying out the door and head back across the street, ducking traffic, heading for the bus. 

I stop on the sidewalk. I want to see if this is really gonna happen. 

The bus starts to pull away. 

Our rider starts yelling and running and waving his arms. He’s heading for the driver’s side window when the bus brakes. The driver’s seen him. Our guy cuts back toward the rear of the bus and around the back end where I lose sight of him. 

But the bus is waiting, and I can hear the front door open. 

This is the best I’ve felt all day.