BUS STORY # 283 (Shorts 23)

Untitled, a photo by chuckbiscuito on Flickr.

She looks like she oughta be a cheerleader: tall, slim, long blonde hair, conventional California-girl pretty face. But I know she’s not. It’s not just the custom, well-worn skateboard she’s carrying, either. That pretty face is also pretty cool. She’s got faded jeans (not tight), a gray tank top (neck and arm holes tight), and a leather band around her wrist. Before she sits down, she acknowledges someone in the back of the bus with a nod. Just a nod; no smile, no wave, no “Hi, there.” Kill Bill’s Uma Thurman comes to mind, followed by the image of some poor quarterback whose season ends early when he tries to move on this chick. Definitely not a cheerleader.

***

Standing room only, and the woman who’s just boarded and ends up just ahead of me is strikingly tall. And rising from the top of her head another good six inches is an assembly of beaded corn row extensions that lift up, then go cascading down over her shoulders. The next person who boards is a little girl. She walks up to the woman, stops, looks at the woman’s belt, then tilts her head back and looks up and up, until she reaches the top. She stands there staring, open-mouthed, like a kid who’s never seen a skyscraper before.

***

A woman boards the bus with two older children and begins haggling over the fare with the driver. The driver says he doesn’t cut deals with the riders. She gets angry and tells him what she thinks about that. He tells her to stop cussing him. She says she’s cussing the fare business, not him. She lectures him on the difference. He tells her to either pay the fare or get off the bus. She grabs a purse from one of her daughters, pulls out some change, and starts feeding it to the till, still carrying on the whole time. He tells her if she doesn’t like it, she can get off the bus. She says, you know what? She doesn’t like it, and she herds her kids off the bus and her right behind. When the bus pulls away, the guy sitting in the seat by the door tells the driver this same woman pulled the exact same stunt right here on the same bus about a month ago. Go figure, he says.

***

A rider pulls the cord. There is plenty of time between the pull and the stop, but the driver sails right past the stop. “Hey, driver! Stop!” The driver realizes his mistake and immediately pulls over. The rider heads to the front door from the back. We all know he’s got something to say to the driver. So does the driver, who apologizes for missing the stop. The rider replies he knows the driver is really busy and has a lot on his mind, and he appreciates his pulling over for him now. And then he says thank you, and steps off the bus.

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The photo at the top of this story is unititled and is posted with the kind permission of chuckbiscuito. You can see this and all chuckbiscuito’s photos on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckbiscuito/. 

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Thanks to JM in Brooklyn for this week's featured link: One Year Ago In: Birmingham, Alabama