#948 on the #147

Another bus ride. It could be so plain, so blazé, such a perfect time to tune out. I don't. I watch, knowing that sooner or later I will be rewarded.

The driver lurches the vehicle ahead just as an elderly woman is turning to take her seat. A young black man in the next seat over reaches his long arm out around her quickly so she doesn't loose balance. The reach, the way his hand went around her side, it's not how one usually touches a stranger. But the look on his face is only concern. With the aid she recovers. They smile at one another as if to say "isn't it funny?"

People cling to poles and straps waiting for seats to open up. A man with nails rippled from poor nutrition and smooth hands holds onto the bar in front of me. A woman whose hair is dyed the color mine used to be sits two seats ahead. By the sight of her roots, her natural hair color is the same as mine, as well. Her dye job looks fake under the flourescent lights. Did I look like that? Hair splashes over the fur collar of her coat and the strawberry blonde mixes with thick black.

At Bryn Mawr we reach the usual snag thanks to a deep hole that prevents usage of the right lane. An older man gets on. He's tall and skinny and lopes up the aisle. His clothes aren't tattered but they droop a bit on his frame. His chin hasn't seen a shaver in about a week and the silver stubble seems to fatten his cheeks out a bit. He's lifting his shopping bag to make sure not to hit anyone with it. His lips are covered with magenta lipstick. Covered like he tried to eat the lipstick covered. Magenta like a pure printing ink. Some sort of extreme treatment for chapped lips? Did he make the mistake of grabbing something in the bathroom that he thought was chapstick and his wife got a good joke instead? What IS in that shopping bag?

People look up at him and quickly dart their eyes to the floor. A little girl in the front row wearing pants the same shade as his lipstick gives him a big smile. Magenta lipstick on an old man... that's a pretty good reward for a Thursday.