So I got off the train, and I walked to the stretch of sidewalk where the buses park when they’re done with one cycle, for the driver to wait for maybe five mintues to collect himself and recently turned-over train passengers. As I reached that block, two buses were already parked. I went to the further one, which is usually the one that’s almost ready to leave, and I stood and waited. Close in pursuit was a crowd of maybe a dozen other train passengers. The driver just sat in one of the back seats, eating a sandwich. He wouldn’t open the doors until he was good and ready, even though it was kind of cold outside. Well, okay. That’s not too strange.
Then another bus came. To make room for it, the driver went up front, and pulled ahead a few yards. Then he parked, and went back to the back, to continue eating his sandwich. The crowd by this time had grown to a couple of dozen people, all standing around, looking at each other. There were three empty buses just sitting there, with their doors shut. This continued for fifteen minutes.
After that fifteen minutes, the bus driver moved back to the front and opened the door. Everyone boarded. The absolute instant the final person had stepped aboard, he slammed the doors and put his foot on the pedal as if he were trying to kill a cockroach. The buss lurched, and everyone sitting down nearly fell over, let alone the people still walking in the aisle. He tore along at a good two and a half times the normal clip of a city bus, screeching to a halt at every light and bus stop. Again, the moment someone stepped aboard, VROOOOM.
In (not much) time, we made it to my stop. So I got up and strode not-slowly and not-subtly-or-anything over to the door, about two yards away, to exit the bus. As I was stepping down into the stairwell, the driver abruptly slammed the door, practically on my fingers, and again tore off, making me lose my balance.
At the next stop I physically lept from the bus, bursting through the doors lest they clamp shut around me. I ran another three or four steps, just to make sure I was clear. The bus was already gone.
Then, well, I walked home.
pubs
