BUS STORY # 323 (Broken)

But most of the time, it's not., a photo by busboy4 on Flickr.

It’s the morning run, and when we pull up at the light at the intersection of Lomas and Juan Tabo, we see another # 11 bus parked at the bus stop across the intersection.  The driver is walking toward the rear of the bus with the reflecting triangles in his hand.

It’s one of the newer buses.  I’ve heard a rumor that the 700 series buses have been breaking down with an alarming frequency, and that no one has figured out why. The 900s are said to be exactly the same as the 700s -- just newer -- and they are not having a problem.

That’s the rumor, anyway.

We can see from the riders standing on the sidewalk that the bus ahead of us was close to full.

We pull past the bus and stop.  The riders pour in, filling all the empty seats and about three-quarters of the aisle.

One of the riders sits down beside me.

“Looks like your bus broke down,” I say.

Well, not exactly, he tells me.

Turns out a kid’s bus pass was expired and he wanted the driver to let him ride anyway.

The driver said no.

The kid got off the bus, and after the doors closed, whacked the side of the bus with his skateboard.

The driver got up and opened the door, and the kid backed off.

The driver sat back down and started to pull away.

That’s when the kid hurled a rock through the passenger side window by the front door.

It didn’t hit the rider sitting there, but there were glass fragments all over him.

This surprises me.  I thought the glass would just craze, but not shatter.

No, he tells me, that rock put a hole in the window.

So did the driver call the cops?

He did. And while he was calling, the kid just walked off up Eubank like nothing had happened.

My co-rider thinks he should be easy to find if the cops get right on it. I’m thinking the bus probably has the kid on camera.

I find myself wondering how he plans to get to school in the future. Although it wouldn’t come as a complete surprise if he showed up at the same bus stop at the same time tomorrow morning. It sounds like he could be that bright.