Bus Report #159

I waited for the 38 this morning with the Russian businessman and the quiet woman.
The man noticed I wasn't wearing my headphones and asked, "What? No music today?"
I just smiled and said, "Nah, not yet."

At Fillmore I waited with some students and the dreadlocked security guard. When the 22 came, right on time, I was excited to see Carmen saving a seat for me.
"You're back from vacation!" I said, slipping into the window seat.
She has a fresh new haircut and a new backpack, and looked happy.
She told me all about her recent summer vacation to her hometown in Mexico. As usual, as I like it, I could barely get a word in, in any language!

A bus must have been off schedule because when we got to Mission there was a huge mob of people trying to get on the bus. The people trying to get off the bus had to squeeze and push and say, loudly, "coming out! I'm coming out!"

A girl with bad neck tattoos, a bad purple dye-job wearing red plaid pants and a horrific pink belt stood in the stepwell and did not understand why the doors wouldn't shut. She finally got it, squeezing up onto the platform and balanced against the Plexiglas.

A middle school kid pushed by one of the homeless guys that gets on at Church.
"Where are your manners?" the man asked the kid.
The boy just sucked his teeth and ignored him.
"You off to school?" The man asked. "Huh? You gotta say excuse me, son."
The kid got off the bus and the man sprawled into the seat behind me. No one would sit next to him because of his smell.
Right before my stop, a teenage girl said, loudly, "Man, someone here smells like mildew."

I quietly opened the window.