Saturday, September 5, 2009

The cops on the bus

2006

An ordinary day, going to work,
the bus is dark and cool, and practically empty for once.
We make this hair pin turn and then straight.
I hear a person yell and the bus stops at the next bus stop and waits.

Two red haired police men come to the bus, one is a head shorter (a little brother?) Both have a short spiky haircut, a nose with a bump and milky white skin.

The taller one comes up the steps a bit and tells the bus driver she might have hit a car. The woman whose car was hit is screaming and cussing outside.

I have to get to work, the people inside the bus start talking to each other.

The woman whose car was scraped is still yelling as the bus is inspected by bus driver and police.

When I first got on the bus, the driver was talking to a stocky guy in dark glasses and golfing cap, dark opened jacket. He stood up front and spoke to her and i heard her say that earlier that morning at 4AM the cops had stopped her car. It was not the driver's day.

Most of the bus passengers are outside. Some are smoking. Some are examining the bus giving their version of the story. The woman whose car was hit is still yelling.

MTA comes in a jeep.

Inside we wait. I stay inside and write. Next to me is an elder with a little girl with a big blow up Dora doll, there's a lady with a pony tail who said she used to work across the street and wished she still did. The guy with the hat who was speaking the bus driver earlier gets on the phone, he is standing front and center. He says, "You up in my house, you got my money."
"what you doing in my house with out my money MF?"
"you better get out my house now or there's gonna be trouble."
I'm like WTF.
So he gets off the phone and goes outside. The older lady and I just burst out laughing. We look at each other in shock.

Looking out the window, the sun is glaring on this upset, cussing, yelling woman who no one is taking seriously. Cops, bus driver, MTA, witnesses all there.
Finally, everyone gets back on the bus and the woman is still shouting as the bus pulls away.
The bus driver said she was not in error. It was the womans' fault, she opened her door as the bus was driving passed.

A woman with braids and a tie sits back down directly in front of me. She picks up her word search book and looks back at me. She says "That woman out there tested me, but i said to myself i am not going to jail again. Not today. I have control of that."
And then we stopped at the next stop, the bus got crowded and loud and normal.

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