Back of the Bus
Today on my way to work there was a Mexican standoff on the bus between the driver and a passenger. And when I say Mexican standoff, I mean in the Cuban missile crisis kind of way, where someone had to blink - and luckily, it was Khrushchev. Because, really, I think Kennedy might have been so whacked out on pain killers that he didn't really care one way or the other if the world got blown to smithereens.
Anyway, it's pretty much a simple serpent bus, to use the modern parlance, with a few students getting on and off at various stops. All bus entry is at the front door because it's not a transitway bus, it's just a going to work the slowest way we can think of bus.
So, this morning, it's pretty crowded and people are sort of rolling their eyes and putting up with it. I had a seat because there weren't any oldies on the bus (there usually aren't at rush hour in the morning - hopefully, that's because they're all at the grocery store getting their shopping done so they aren't clogging the aisles on Saturday mornings, when the rest of us do our shopping). But there were lots of people standing.
Luckily, there's a stop a few minutes into my ride when most people get off and so it was this morning. Except that when the doors closed, the bus driver yelled back to a passenger who was standing by the side door, "show me your pass, please - you didn't show me your pass".
I sort of glance over, uncomfortably, I hate it when someone gets caught on the bus without proof of purchase - I just hate it, and see a tall black man, obviously a simple serpent, staring in the direction of the bus driver, "no, I will not show you my pass again. You saw me get on the bus earlier and I'm not going to show you my pass".
Ooh. Yikes. Uncomfortable much, now? Indeed. But the bus driver, having asked once, decides to ask again - although not so much in a question, "sir, I need to see your pass. Come to the front of the bus and show me your pass, please."
"No, I am not coming to the front of the bus. If you want to see my pass, you walk back here and see it."
Quiet intakes of breath all 'round. No one is making eye contact. Another back and forth. No one moves. Especially not the bus (we've been stopped for a couple of minutes now).
Finally, a woman, also black, shouts up to the bus driver, in a very measured tone, "he got off to let other people off and then got on again". There's silence. Finally, the bus driver, and you could just feel him deciding to take the out, "so you saw him on the bus earlier?"
"Yes. I saw him on the bus earlier."
Then, "Just drive your bus, sir!" from Nelson Mandela meets Norma Rae standing there at the side door.
I thought that might have been going a bit far, but, buddy bus driver must have decided he'd picked the wrong passenger to challenge (been there, done that, my good man - a lot) and cut his losses, taking the out offered up by Our Lady of the Busses, and we continued on our way.
Later on into the journey, a young guy tried to argue about what had happened with an older guy, taking the bus driver's side, but he gave up when the older guy said he thought it was pretty bad if you couldn't get off a bus to let other people off without being accused of dodging the fare.
Me, I was taking OLotB's side. And thanking the bus driver for taking the out. Later, at work, I realized how many times in life I've taken on the wrong passenger, only to take us both to the mat.
Lesson learned. When you see an out, take it. It'll make everybody else's day.
