I Take It All Back – Almost

I feel really bad about raggin’ on the bus driver this morning. I’ll take almost all of it back.
Almost. Here’s why.

The bus was still in my visual range when I realized that my cell phone – the cell phone that I’ve not yet had a week – was not in my coat pocket. I hurriedly rummaged through my bag to make sure I hadn’t stuck it in there even though I keenly recalled shoving it into my coat pocket. Not there.

By then, I hear the bus pulling away from the stoplight on the street where it had just turned. I look up to see another bus right at the stop. I run to that bus and who is driving but the morning bus driver I had until last week! She smiles and waves and then noticing my expression, throws open the door.

I ask her if she can ask my bus to stop. It’s not an easy request to honor but she goes through it. I explain that my cell is on the bus and tell her where I was sitting. A few minutes later, she says: “Yeah. He’s got it. You want them to take it in?” In is the bus center, about 4 miles from my house. No, says I. I’d rather just hop the bus and grab it. Otherwise, in addition to everything else I need to do to officially get my weekend under way, I’d have to drive out there and get my phone!

She can’t communicate directly with the other bus but a few blocks later, we discover my bus is directly in front of us. She tells dispatch and a second later, the bus pulls over. We say goodbye and I fly the half-block over to my original bus. The driver walks off the bus and extends my phone toward me. I thank him.

Part of it was guilt and part of it was his realization that I am now standing 10-15 blocks away from where he originally let me off. “Where exactly are you trying to get to?” he asks. When I tell him, he says, “Hop on. I can get you back there.” And he did. RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR. (Which isn’t a stop. Or even near one.)

I felt a little bad because I’d put him through all this rigamarole. Then, he told me that this was his day off. He’d gotten called in at 4 a.m. He hadn’t gone to bed until a few hours earlier because he’d gotten a call from his mother who’d gotten lost trying to get her sister home from a chemotherapy treatment. Said sister had gotten sick during this journey … I don’t think I need to explain more. His night sucked.

And his day didn’t really start any better than mine. Aw, hell. I’m feeling particularly generous. I’ll take it all back!

I may or may not post any more this weekend. That remains to be seen. All I know is that I hope the ride home is infinitely more uneventful than the ride in!

Let’s get this weekend started …