I hadn't gotten any sleep that night. Nil. Nada. In fact, I hadn't slept for a few days, and the sun was the only thing that I really wanted to see. I squinted in its light, standing in the middle of the road, waiting for the oncoming lane to empty so that I could cross over to the bus stop. An old grandma was already inside the bus stand, and she was fidgeting with her glasses, trying to wipe the lens clean. She would put the lens on and then take them off again, wiping, wiping. As far as I could tell, the lens were crystal clear, and felt a pang for her poor bleary eyes.
She looked over at me."Yuh wearing yo reg'lar coat, dear?" She queried, most randomly, in her Jamaican accent.
There it was. Human contact. I squinted a little more, and cast her a sideways look.
"You never know," I said cryptically.
She seemed overwhelmed with this profound statement, and lapsed into a silence until the bus came and took us away.
*****
In the middle of March, I was on my way home, and though we had some mild weather through the day, as the sun set, it had been snowing again.
My stop was approaching, so I grabbed my bag, descended to the lower level of the bus, hit the button and stood at the back doors, waiting for the bus to stop.
The bus kept going.
I raised my hands in exasperation. Uh, Hello? The bro standing nearby shook his head dismally. I rolled my eyes and made my way up to the front of the bus, and leant against the driver's wall.
"Good nap? You just missed my stop, man." I said, almost conversationally to the driver.
"Oh. Ehm. Ah. I'm sorry," He looked abashed.
"Now I get a NICE, LONG, LOVELY WALK BACK," I said to him in the same almost-friendly conversational tone, my icy smile punctuating the statement with the sarcasm it was meant to be.
"Uh. You ... want to borrow my toque?" He offered his hat to me.
"Nah, don't worry about it," I gave him a sideways look.
He sighed in relief, and opened the doors.
I stepped off.
His hat?
*****
Now it was* April and the weather was amazing!
"Bye!" I chirruped to the random lady clumping down the staircase from the upper level as I ran up the stairs. It was around 6 pm, and she was clearly on her way home, laden with her bags.
"Oh," She blinked, "Bye bye to you too, dear."
I was a complete stranger.
"Have a nice weekend!" I called as she went down another few stairs.
She stopped again, and looked up as I opened the door at the landing, ready to leave the stairwell.
"But, dear, it's only Monday."
"You can never start too early!" I grinned at her, and with a wave, left.
*is
