Commuters' Hell

I just love it when I get on my commuter bus at 5:30 AM to find that every pair of seats is occupied by a single person with their bags piled on the seat next to them. Some are even sitting in the aisle seat as if to block entrance to the adjacent and empty window seat. Others are wearing silk, probably scented, eyemasks, or their Bose “Conscience Cancelling” Headphones. Everyone pretends to be asleep, which belies the fact that some of them just got on the bus a few blocks away, or even in the line just ahead of me!

There are no smiles or eye contact as I fumble in the dark having to ask people to move their bags, which they didn’t pay for; so that I can have a seat, which I did pay for, only to find myself having walked into what is apparently a contest to determine the World’s Soundest Sleeper!

I actually have to tap someone on the shoulder to get his attention, and that person inevitably looks up at me as if I were The Grim Reaper, with an expression that screams “With all these other people, why oh why did you have to pick me to be one to give up the comfort of my two adjoining seats?”

Not wanting to begin my day with a confrontation or disrupt an entire busload of people, I must decide whether to move on in vain hope of finding a friendlier face, or persist and sit next to this person who appears to be trying to get me to spontaneously combust!

I sit.

But at that moment, every time it happens, I can’t help but ponder how nice it would be if I really was The Grim Reaper, and that I was only there to cause a bus accident!