Usually I take the bus 199 to go to work. Today I decided to take the bus 101 to have a change. It goes into the small winding streets in the residential areas and arrives at my destination in one hour instead of thirty minutes. Since I had some extra time this morning I thought it would be a nice tour to take a look at the wealthy west side of town.
When the bus arrived I saw that the bus driver was a young man at his late thirties. He wore a professional looking short-sleeved blue shirt, smiled charmingly at every passenger that passed. I boarded the bus happily, thinking it would be a very pleasant ride. I was totally unaware of what I was getting myself into. What happened afterwards would remain with me for the rest of my life.
The bus started getting full after two or three stops. There were about twenty to thirty passengers. I was listening to music through earplugs and looking out of the window most of the time, so I wasn’t paying attention until I saw four passengers surrounded the driver - the young and handsome professional looking driver - with one man scolding at him, other people also seem very angry at him. I removed my earplugs to listen to what was happening.
It was impossible to make out what they were arguing about as I was sitting in the middle toward the rear side of the bus, but all seemed to have something against the driver. They started harassing him. One mid-aged woman with brown pony tail poked her smart phone next to his face, shouting something with a critical face, apparently taking a video of him. More people approached the driver’s seat, all seemed angry. I started to worry about our security.
The bus continued its tour. It had to make it to every station at exact time by minute, so I guess the driver was seriously under pressure. I wish I could do something to stop these people, but with the increasingly aggressive crowd there seemed to be very little I could do. I looked around nervously, saw five or seven people remained in their seats. Some of them seemed confused, some of them just looked outside of the window.
The attack was escalating. One man shouted into the ear of the driver, something that sounded like: “Get the fuck out of here!”
The pony-tail woman pulled at the collar of the driver’s blue shirt, trying to get him out of his seat while he’s trying to drive. The driver tightly grasped the wheel in order to stay in place, while dodging a fast sport car from the opposite lane very skillfully. The mob did not seem to marvel at his driving technique - they did not even notice the sport car that could’ve crashed into our bus and induce a severe accident, they were completely taken away by their anger and focusing on harassing the driver. I couldn’t see his face, but I felt so bad for him, and my admiration is deepening.
A woman from the back of the bus suddenly stood up and rushed to the front, couldn’t go pass the thick crowd now packed near the driver’s seat, she screamed:
“Get him out of here! He’s gonna kill us all! I have a daughter to raise! People like us have nothing to count on!”
She bursted into tears after these words, a man next to her gently tapped her shoulders as she dissolved into righteous wails. Her appeal fired up the crowd. They all went at the driver.
By now I had been looking for a way to get out the bus, but the angry crowd was blocking the exit and nobody could get out even when the bus stopped by the station. We are all trapped here. I nervously looked for an emergency exit on the interiors of the bus, and found a sign above the window that said:
“Bus 101, we bring democracy to the world!”
I got into panic and pushed through the crowd and managed to get off the bus at the next stop.
(End)
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