BUS STORY # 306 (The Last 12 Hours: Rider # 4)

20101009 1546 - NYC - subway - breakbusker - IMG_2244, a photo by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL) on Flickr.

I board the San Mateo bus and the first thing I see is the hand dancer sitting on the bench seat behind the driver.

The bus is crowded, as usual, and I quickly figure out the place to sit is on the surprisingly empty bench seat directly across the way.

I’ve seen the hand dancer several times since that first time on the bus, but never on the bus. I’ve seen him at bus stops around town. And every time I’ve seen him, all of him is dancing. Energetically. Right out there on the sidewalk before God and everyone. He’s impossible to miss.

This morning, he’s dressed the same as always: earphones, black hand splints, tank top, shorts, boots. But either I missed all the tattoos the first time, or he’s added a whole lot more since then.

He’s effectively occupying three seats. He’s square in the middle seat, but his legs are spread wide and are moving, presumably to whatever he’s hearing in the headphones.

His arms are down by his sides, each hand on the empty seat on either side of him, but they sometimes can’t help themselves and gesture to the music before returning to the seats.

His face alternates between just listening, and contorting, sometimes ecstatically, sometimes darkly, to whatever is playing. And then I read in his face an ongoing effort to control himself until he gets to wherever he’s going. He’s barely containing himself.

The atmosphere is a bit tense up here in the front of the bus. A young woman sitting two seats away from him shoots me a meaningful look.

At a stop where several people are boarding, he surprises me by abruptly moving into the last seat on the bench and making himself compact enough to open the other two seats. One of the boarders takes the seat at the other end of the bench. She is, probably fortunately, on her cell phone and oblivious to everything else.

But he stays much quieter now until we reach his stop. He pulls the cord and leaps to his feet, shoots to the front door. When he exits, he throws both hands in the air and lifts his legs in an exaggerated march.

I don’t know if he got to where he was going, or if he just had to get off the bus and let the spirit out. 

Later, when I think about whatever he was listening to, I wish I had tracked the wires from his headphones. I’m wondering if the music really is all in his head.

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The photo at the top of this story is titled “20101009 1546 - NYC - subway - breakbuster - IMG_2244,” and is posted with the kind permission of Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (Clint JCL).  You can see all Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (Clint JCL)’s photos on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/

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See This Week’s Featured Link for the Rev.’s video of the same breakbuster performing on the NYC subway.