A white guy, scruffy goatee, boarded in a hoodie, on his cell phone, voice loud. Sun-baked so that you wouldn't know 23 from 48.
"Listen, listen. I need the money, what do you want me to do? [...] No, you're an asshole, fuck you, you never listen. [...] Ok, but I'll come over and work. Why would you say that? I did it right the first time. [...] Why are you such an asshole? No, you're the asshole. [...]" He was so abusive to the person on the other end, the person he needed money from. There was a lot more, but I've happily blocked it out already. I could feel and see - in shoulders and posture and eye contact - everyone else on the bus slowly tense as this guy went on and on.
Then some white ladies boarded a few stops later, one of the social service stops at 3rd and Virginia. Woman #1 in a wheelchair wafting alcohol sweat so strong that I could smell it at the back of the bus. Bus driver, "Is that alcohol?" to her bottle. "Water!" "Yeah, sure, ok." Blonde-grey hair stringy and unwashed. Belligerent, badgering the other woman who was trying to wrangle two dogs, into helping her. The bus driver wouldn't take woman #2's fare, and thanked her for helping woman #1 and being so kind.
During the boarding, woman #1 was going on and on about how she was meeting a friend to fill her Orca card up for her, and she just needed to get the courthouse at 5th and James. Getting to the courthouse is a super common theme among the bus-riding belligerents, it's got like a one in three incidence with the out-expressers. She was having trouble moving her wheelchair around and paused in her monologue to yell at the second woman, who was trying to rearrange her dogs and help.
This caused angry needy cell phone dude to shout, "FUCK! Why isn't anyone helping her?" with a huge sigh. He got up to storm to the front of the bus as woman #2 moved woman #1 into place, while managing both dogs.
Dude backed off and retreated to his seat, middle of the bus, to bitch loudly to anyone who would listen about how long it was taking to get anywhere on the bus. At least he was off the cell phone for the moment.
Woman #2 came to the back with us, and it became clear to everyone that she didn't even know woman #1. She had tears in her eyes and I could see she was angry with herself about that.
Everyone perked up to see the dogs. Several petted Lady, the mournful-eyed basset mix on a leash. Once woman #2 had a minute, the various men nearby started talking to her quietly about dogs. A black guy with long dreads, a gold winged angel pendant, maybe on a cross, I couldn't tell, and such a gentle smile. A mixed race guy with a Vin Diesel voice who had a dog walking service, and had talked to woman #2 on a bus about dogs a few months ago. The black guy sitting next to me in a black leather jacket and shades, who was determined to not interact until Lady asked him politely to please pet her with those impossible-to-deny Basset eyes. I laughed as they all shared stories, in my odd outside-looking-in participating-not-participating kind of way, and the woman would look sideways to me from time to time (it was all men except for us) and give me this bewildered smile. Those little sisterhood moments women constantly share.
Woman #2 gets the King County Bus Passenger Heroine of the Day award, which I just made up. And good on the bus driver, too, for his plethora of small kindnesses and his carefully kept temper as woman #1 talked at him all the way to James.
"Listen, listen. I need the money, what do you want me to do? [...] No, you're an asshole, fuck you, you never listen. [...] Ok, but I'll come over and work. Why would you say that? I did it right the first time. [...] Why are you such an asshole? No, you're the asshole. [...]" He was so abusive to the person on the other end, the person he needed money from. There was a lot more, but I've happily blocked it out already. I could feel and see - in shoulders and posture and eye contact - everyone else on the bus slowly tense as this guy went on and on.
Then some white ladies boarded a few stops later, one of the social service stops at 3rd and Virginia. Woman #1 in a wheelchair wafting alcohol sweat so strong that I could smell it at the back of the bus. Bus driver, "Is that alcohol?" to her bottle. "Water!" "Yeah, sure, ok." Blonde-grey hair stringy and unwashed. Belligerent, badgering the other woman who was trying to wrangle two dogs, into helping her. The bus driver wouldn't take woman #2's fare, and thanked her for helping woman #1 and being so kind.
During the boarding, woman #1 was going on and on about how she was meeting a friend to fill her Orca card up for her, and she just needed to get the courthouse at 5th and James. Getting to the courthouse is a super common theme among the bus-riding belligerents, it's got like a one in three incidence with the out-expressers. She was having trouble moving her wheelchair around and paused in her monologue to yell at the second woman, who was trying to rearrange her dogs and help.
This caused angry needy cell phone dude to shout, "FUCK! Why isn't anyone helping her?" with a huge sigh. He got up to storm to the front of the bus as woman #2 moved woman #1 into place, while managing both dogs.
Dude backed off and retreated to his seat, middle of the bus, to bitch loudly to anyone who would listen about how long it was taking to get anywhere on the bus. At least he was off the cell phone for the moment.
Woman #2 came to the back with us, and it became clear to everyone that she didn't even know woman #1. She had tears in her eyes and I could see she was angry with herself about that.
Everyone perked up to see the dogs. Several petted Lady, the mournful-eyed basset mix on a leash. Once woman #2 had a minute, the various men nearby started talking to her quietly about dogs. A black guy with long dreads, a gold winged angel pendant, maybe on a cross, I couldn't tell, and such a gentle smile. A mixed race guy with a Vin Diesel voice who had a dog walking service, and had talked to woman #2 on a bus about dogs a few months ago. The black guy sitting next to me in a black leather jacket and shades, who was determined to not interact until Lady asked him politely to please pet her with those impossible-to-deny Basset eyes. I laughed as they all shared stories, in my odd outside-looking-in participating-not-participating kind of way, and the woman would look sideways to me from time to time (it was all men except for us) and give me this bewildered smile. Those little sisterhood moments women constantly share.
Woman #2 gets the King County Bus Passenger Heroine of the Day award, which I just made up. And good on the bus driver, too, for his plethora of small kindnesses and his carefully kept temper as woman #1 talked at him all the way to James.
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