My Bus Ride Home

I stayed late at work today. In fact, I still intend to continue working once I'm done with this post. The office is kind of slammed with having lost one of our employees, so I'm pulling extra hard on my end to keep everything running smoothly. With this in mind, waiting for my bus today was unbearable. I had places to go and things to do. My bus finally showed up and we got going. Since it was such a late bus, it was almost empty. A few minutes into the ride, I heard someone singing (it happens) and then the lights went off. This doesn't happen, so I got kind of scared. They stayed off until we pulled up to a Starbucks and the driver pulled over and started to get off the bus. This never happens. Right before he got off, he noticed I was on the bus. Apparently, I was the only passenger and it had been him singing because he thought the bus was empty. He got embarassed and apologized for the lights and the singing and offered me a coffee, which I declined, and then asked if it was ok with me if he got some. I of course said yes, even though I was in a hurry. He came back with a biscotti for me in thanks for not being mad.

We got back to driving and I start chatting with him because, hey, it's not every day a bus driver buys me a cookie. We talked about the movie Pay it Forward. Don't ask how we got on that subject, I'm not sure. But apparently, the bridge in my neighborhood was featured in the movie. After a few minutes, the bus veered the wrong way and I remembered that one in three #17 buses has a different destination than mine, and I had not seen the sign on the front when I got on. My fault. I said, "oh, I'm on the wrong bus, I need to get off and wait for the next one!" Driver asked where I'm going, and made an on-the-spot decision to use his break to drive me all the way home. All the way home. On his dinner break. I refused, because it's way out of his job description to make sure I get on the right bus or get home, but he didn't accept my refusal and changed his route. I can't describe how grateful I was. I would have been waiting for probably an hour for the next bus.

We talked about all kinds of things over the ride; Cuba, movies, death, the afterlife, Greece, library archives, architecture, Spain. My bus driver was from Cuba and was interested in someday seeing his ancestors' birthplace in Spain. He pointed to the exact spot on the bridge where the scene from the movie was filmed. As we neared the end of the bridge into my neighborhood, I offered to buy him dinner in thanks for taking me home, and he turned it down. He told me just to pray for him and to pay it forward.

Pay it forward? I had a huge burden for at least 5 blocks before I found a homeless person and emptied the contents of my wallet into his hand. I am not sure I totally paid it forward. I think I'll pray for him forever, and maybe make some sandwiches for the homeless people that were standing out on Lombard Street.