Tales of a Bus Commuter Part 2

Upon reading the first part, you might wonder just what of it had to do with “tales” because what I wrote there were more of backgrounds of what happens inside a bus rather than the stories in it. I could’ve written the latter then, but I decided against making post longer than it already was.

As for the true stories of zany things that happened while I was in a bus, I have a few that I’m going to tell in this entry (since there doesn’t seem to have much else going on in my life these days anyway).

Last year I wrote about being seated next to a couple who were at odds with each other, and this Katrina Halili-lookalike kept staring at me because she didn’t want to look at her boyfriend. That was an awkward moment. Funnily enough, things like that happen to me a lot, and I wonder if, for whatever reasons that I’d rather not delve into, I have a tendency to be nearby whenever there are lovers quarreling inside a bus. If that’s true then I sure hope that’s only so when I’m inside a bus.

You don’t really want to know what it felt like to be glared at angrily by a Katrina Halili

Aside from the Halili-stunt-double incident (perhaps the lookalike is the one supplanting the real Halili whenever scenes of scantily-clad women are not required?), I have another ride of being next to an unhappy couple. This time I wasn’t seating beside them, rather, I was standing next to them, and they were not on the verge of creating a scene, but were in the middle of it. The woman did not say anything at all but her anger hung very intensely in the air. The guy, on the other hand, was shouting “What is your problem biatch you told me you wanted to make love with me and I did that last night and now you’re mad at me?! I don’t get you!!!” Are you familiar with the expression often used in animes wherein a person smiles nervously while the eyes are shadowed and there are vertical lines at a portion of the forehead? That’s how I looked and felt like.

Anime nervous laughter, is the face I made 

I was once heckled by this annoying ticket-seller (here in this country, bus fares are paid to ticket-sellers). I gave him the cash as I was telling him where I was going. He asked me to repeat what I just said. So I repeated what I said, but he still didn’t hear me. Naturally, I raised my voice. He replied, “Are you angry?” And then he discourteously handed me the ticket, by dunking it very forcibly on my hand. Sheesh! He wasn’t listening to me when I told him where I was going; surely I had to raise my voice when I wasn’t heard the first two times? What an anal.

Few weeks ago, an urchin who went inside a bus began handing mails to all passengers, saying he needed money for foods. I’m a man who goes straight to the point, or at least I was on that day. I had a pack of dried mango with me, so I gave that to the urchin. Instead of saying thanks, he frowned at me and took the snack grudgingly. Perhaps he didn’t need want to spend the money on food? Perhaps he wanted other kinds of food? Perhaps modern beggars have become choosers?

Sometimes I can see how people react when hearing/seeing something happening on TV. For example, in his interview, Manny Pacquiao, then running for congress, said it’s harder to box than to lead a city. The entire bus was erupting with laughter. Haha, what a glorious sellout! Another time a show had the whole bus laughing was in Gobingo when the host asked a contestant what movie R2D2 and C3P0 came from. The very well-informed contestant answered Spider-man. Oh my God.

I have never saw something as bad as my cousin did, though, and the only bright side of this is that it didn’t happen in Philippines’ bus. I refuse to tell you in what country this incident took place. My cousin saw a middle-aged man cover his entire lap with a towel, and she spotted, to put less crudely, that underneath the towel were violent up-and-down movements from a hand. I should also tell you that my cousin is a girl and is as old as me, which is quite young. This is the kind of scene that kind of persists in a person’s mind because it’s gross; good thing I wasn’t the witness of it. Seriously, what’s up with doing what the guy was doing in public, where young girls can see?

I have to be going home now. I’m taking the bus and I sure hope it’s quiet this time because I need to get the good ole shut-eye.