BUS STORY # 422 (Shorts 37)

Downloaded from Instagram > alespm05 #muni #sanfrancisco

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Overheard on a Monday morning:
“How was your weekend?”
“I’m glad to have it off my plate and be getting back to work.”

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One of the riders boarding is a young woman. She sits in the empty row in front of me and begins scrolling through her smart phone. After a few minutes, she realizes we haven’t moved. She looks up and sees we’re still at the stop. She calls out to the driver, “Is there something wrong with the bus?” The driver answers, “No.” She waits for more, but there isn’t any more. The driver isn’t going to explain that she’s either waiting to get back on schedule, or for riders from a connecting bus that may be running just a tad behind. I start to lean forward and tell her the driver is from New England, but I stop. She might not get it, and that would be awkward. Anyway, she’s OK; she’s scrolling again.

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I look up when I hear “Card not valid” repeating like a stuck record. A guy is dipping his pass into the slot over and over, then stops and yells at the till, “Shut up!” The driver takes the pass out of his hand, slides it through the slot, gets the acceptance ping, hands it back to him. He doesn’t reach out to take it, just stands there looking at her with a “How-come-it-worked-for-you-and-not-me” expression on his face. Finally, he takes his pass back, then turns and walks up the aisle. No “thank you” for the driver.

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It’s about 10:00 a.m. on a Friday. The bus pulls over for the three young women waiting at the stop across from Monzano High. Two of them have paid their fares and gone to the back of the bus when the driver says to the third, “Looks like you’re all having an adventure today and cutting school.” The young woman relies, “Oh, we’re out of high school. But thanks for the compliment.”