Bus Report #383

For my homework last week we were supposed to record some overheard conversations. Here are the two I heard on the bus.

The first one:

“Mommy, when I get to middle school, will there be bullies??” asked the little boy, who was sitting beside his mother on a 38 Geary bus headed towards Ocean Beach. His mother, a slim, dark-haired woman who looked Russian answered in slightly accented English, “Well, we hope not. That’s why we’ll make sure you go to a school without bullies. A good school.”

The little boy was unconvinced. “If there are bullies, the principal will send them to juvie.”

The mom got a tube of lotion out of her purse. She started to rub it into her hands.

“Is that lotion?” her son asked.

“Yes, it is,” she said. She squirted some into his outstretched palm.

“So your hands won’t be dry?”

“Exactly,” said the mom.

They both rubbed their hands together until the lotion had been completely absorbed in. the mom pulled the signaler and stood up to go to the door.

“One minute, mom, one minute,” the boy said. “I’m still… There’s still lotion here.”

He got up at the last minute and went to join his mom. As they went out the bus he said, “Mom, mom, my hands feel so good and soft now.”

And the second one:

“Yeah, it was pretty funny, they were filming all over the city. Yeah, yeah. Down by city hall and especially in the Castro. You know, for the Harvey Milk movie. Yeah. Did you know I went to Harvey Milk’s funeral? Yeah, mom took me, I was really little. Yeah. She worked in city hall or city government or something. Yeah. It was really sad. So I’m stoked to see the movie when it comes out.”

-Man on cell phone, slightly heavy set, no older than thirty-five or six, 38 Geary bus, headed towards Ocean Beach.