The People On The Bus: Emiliano

Or, how can I possibly 'recognize' a figment of my imagination?

There's a guy who I see on the bus some mornings who gets on at 16th and Mission. I call him Emiliano because he looks just like a character from one of my stories, who is named Emiliano. Obviously it's not really him.... the fictional Emiliano lives in Boston, anyway!

Anyway, I saw the flesh and blood version this morning. I can't ever help it, I always smile at him as if I know him. He tends to smile back, if a little confused. Today he was wearing a plaid shirt and a red knit cap, so he looked like a member of Team Zissou.

There was a bookish boy on the 22 this morning. He had hair like Duckie from Pretty In Pink and a ring through his septum. He was carrying a stack of paperbacks tucked under his arm. I tried to see what they were when he moved. The ones I got were: Life On The Mississippi, by Mark Twain, something by Paulo Coehlo, a book about Sufiism, and a few others I couldn't catch.