BUS STORY # 304 (The Last 12 Hours: Rider # 2)

Chelwood Park Layover, a photo by busboy4 on Flickr.

The following morning, on my way into work, we pull into the Chelwood Park layover, and I see a memorable rider from about a year ago. She’s the little lady with all the baggage. (You can read about her here.)

This time she’s about three miles east of where we picked her up the first time I saw her.

She’s standing at the till with a bill in her hand.

The driver knows her. She tells the woman how she’s told her over and over that she needs to have exact change. The woman turns to the rest of us.

A young woman near the front immediately goes into her purse. I can tell by the way she moves she really wants to help this poor, little old lady. She has change, and all is well.

Again, the woman exits the bus, then re-boards with two duffle bags. She sets them down in front of the bench seat behind the driver.

Then she looks at a young man sitting on the opposite side and asks him to help her carry the rest of her bags on. When he gets up and follows her out, everyone else on the bench seats moves to other seats.

As I watch the young guy bring a second load of bags aboard, it occurs to me that someone must have helped her get all her bags to the bus stop. She can’t possibly be moving around with all this baggage by herself. And how is it that once she was at Wyoming, and now she’s up here at Chelwood Park?

I remember the “lipstick telephone,” and keep an eye on her. But this time, she sits quietly in her seat, with her head down.

I get off before she does. But I wonder what happens when she gets to wherever she is getting off? And where does she go from there, and how? A second reunion -- and a second bus story I don’t have.