The Bus Passengers

Part 1: The Wrong Bus

A few years back I got a job cold calling people for an insurance company on the other side of town. I don't have a car so I'm required to take the bus twice a day, five days a week. Which sucks, as does the job itself. The pay is alright though and the benefits are awesome so I've stuck with it.

This morning I got on the bus, silently cursing myself as I made my way to the empty seat with the fewest people surrounding it. I had been running late and in my rush out of the apartment I had forgotten my headphones. I brought them every single day as they're honestly the single most effective deterrent to the dreaded small talk with bus folk. I flopped, sans-headphones, into the seat and slid down, pressing my knees into the back of the seat in front of me. I hunkered down, staring at my phone, and prayed to whatever god there was that no one would talk to me.

My peace lasted eight minutes. As we pulled up to the Orchard St bus stop I felt a tap on my left shoulder. I cringed but attempted to ignore it, staring out the window at the hunched figures pushing themselves up from the benches outside and shuffling towards the bus.

I felt the tap tap tap on my shoulder again, this one more insistent. Reluctantly I turned around and was face to face with the stained, gap-toothed smile of an old man in a dirty flannel shirt.

"You're still you, eh?"

I stared at him for a second, caught off guard. He apparently took my puzzled look as confirmation and his smile grew wider. He tapped his forehead.

"I thought I was the only one." He gestured around at our fellow passengers as the bus squealed and took off with a lurch.

Ramblings of a crazy person. I obviously had no intentions of responding and turned back around, intent on ignoring anything else he had to say and moving towards the driver if things got any weirder. I also resolved to buy a back-up set of headphones and keep them in my bag.

"Look at their eyes," the old man whispered from behind me. A shiver went up my spine and I turned around to face him again in spite of myself. His smile had vanished and was replaced with a look of fear. He stared at me almost pleadingly. Yeah, definitely crazy.

"Please leave me alone," I said as firmly as I could. My voice shook just a little and I hoped he didn't notice.

He stared at me a moment longer until his face suddenly broke into a wide grin again. It didn't seem to reach his eyes.

"Ok. You'll see it soon enough."

Creepy, but pretty much par for the course on public transportation. I sat forward in my seat again and the old man apparently decided to leave me alone because I didn't hear anything else from him as I went back to scrolling Facebook.

I got lost in the monotony of my news feed when a realization jolted me out of my social media trance. I usually spend the bus ride listening to my music and staring out the window, waiting for my stop but today I hadn't been paying attention to the stops in favor of my phone. I had no idea where we were.

"Excuse me?" I said timidly, lightly tapping the shoulder of the person in the seat in front of me. They didn't respond and I didn't want to pester so I turned to the passenger behind me.

"Excuse me, could you tell me if..." The woman was staring straight ahead, unblinking. We were face-to-face, a foot away at most, and she hadn't acknowledged or really even seemed to notice my presence.

"Um, excuse me?" I whispered. "Are you ok?"

No response. She never blinked. Ok, that was weird, but again, bus people are weirdos. I looked around the bus, noticing the other passengers for the first time. Every single one of them sat perfectly still and stared straight ahead.