It starts off where you're not really sure what's happening. What's normally a mundane transaction that you see out of the corner of your eye becomes slightly off and then you're staring to figure it out.
When people tell me they don't want to or are afraid of riding the bus, I think twice about telling them stories like what happened yesterday. I don't want to feed into the panic.
After the driver loaded up a wheelchair on the #30 bus, he opened the front door to the rest of the passengers. A guy got on that I noticed had ran from another bus that crossed in front of us—no big deal, no fanfare. Then another guy in a red shirt starts getting on and it seemed like the guy behind him fell into him or ran into him by accident. Then, that little alarm that goes off in my head when I can tell something just isn't quite right went off and there stood before me a full-fledged, clumsy fight scene by the fare box.
The 2nd guy hadn't fallen but had pushed the 1st guy into the fare box. Then he started pulling things off of him—a headset, a backpack, a phone. He kept shoving him and mumble/yelling profanities about him stealing his stuff. He threw the phone, which went towards the bus driver, who was trapped in his little bus-driver seat box corner. The guy being attacked seemed almost unaffected and amused. He held his hands up like he just touched something he shouldn't have and kept trying to just get out of the way of the maelstrom. When the pushy guy got off, I thought it was over and just a weird aberration to the day but then he insisted on continuing the drunk fight scene (there were a few people in the back of the bus who didn't get to fully appreciate the first few moves). He kept pushing and picking up small items (the same ones, it seemed) to throw at the unaffected red-shirt guy. Finally, after about 3 or 4 re-boardings and almost falling into a woman and her daughter who yelled "get off me! get away from me!", a conflicted-looking bus driver grabbed the guy, pushed him off the bus and told him if he got back on his bus, he was going to kick his ass.
It sounds very active and very eventful but most of us sat there watching with mild interest. I can honestly say that it wasn't until the pushy guy got somewhat close to me that I even felt my heart race a bit. Most of us seemed pretty bored, with the exception of a couple giddy teenagers in the back seats.
A few people and the bus driver called 911 while this guy stood ranting and raving to anyone walking by outside the bus. The driver couldn't even let anyone else on since this guy was obviously hell-bent on getting back in.
The cops showed up. Phone calls and texting commenced. The attacked guy never actually denied having stolen this guy's stuff. No one really talked about it with each other—just threw around a few knowing glances and rolled eyes. Apparently, most of us had seen worse.
Eventually, another bored, casual-looking cop showed up about a minute after the drunk guy had hopped on his alarm-yellow bike and swerved down the road. I assumed I would hear about a pedestrian/vehicle accident when I got home.
Then it was over and we headed on our way.
No comments:
Post a Comment