BUS STORY # 262 (Shorts 21)

Discover A Book, a photo by busboy4 on Flickr.

A few blocks after picking up the first motorized wheelchair rider, we stop for a second. First time I’ve seen two at the same time. The driver asks the folks on the bench seat and first row behind the driver’s seat to move back so he can make room for the wheelchair. One of the displaced is an older woman in a quilted lavender jacket. She makes her way to the back platform, sits down, looks at the rest of us, then asks, “Is this the Lomas bus?”

***

Little guy, second or third grade, gets on the bus with his mother. He’s got a Lakers coat on and the hood is up. They climb up to the rear platform and sit next to one another. He sits forward and keeps his eye on the front windshield. Several blocks into the ride, he jumps up, pulls the cord, and shoots down to the back door. “Not yet!” his mother shouts. “Next one, driver.” The driver waves an OK. Mom adds, “He just can’t wait to get to school.”

***

When we stop at the Circle K, the driver leaves the bus and goes inside the store.  While he’s inside, a high school kid wanders over to the bus and boards through the rear door.  He takes the last seat in the last row on the driver’s side.  Maybe a minute later, the driver comes back outside and heads for the bus.  About halfway there, he veers to his left, toward the rear door.  Uh oh.  He walks in through the rear door, looks at the kid, and says “You don’t board through the rear door.  Understand?  Now come up front and take care of your fare.”  The kid is quiet.  He goes up front and has some trouble getting his money into the fare box.

***

It’s quiet this morning. I look up from my magazine and see a guy looking at what appears to be a child’s picture book. He’s maybe in his 40s. Long hair and beard streaked with gray. He’s wearing roughout work boots, blue jeans, a black sweatshirt, and on top of the long gray hair is an outrageously garish Iron Man baseball cap. The book is a big one. He’s got it opened wide and balanced on his thighs, and he’s examining the pictures with care and interest. I will catch the title later --The Loathsome Dragon -- when he puts it back in the Discover-A-Book bin before he gets off the bus. But right now, there’s a fascinated kid in his face.