A Break from Routine

Every day was the same: wake up at 5am to be on the 5:48 bus into the city, spend 5 hours being yelled at by customers for things that weren’t her fault, eat a quick lunch, spend 5 more hours being yelled at by customers, clean the store, then get on the 6:15pm bus and stand the whole way home, eat dinner, watch some TV, and go to bed so she can do it all again the next day.

In the five years Meredith had lived in the city, the routine had always been the same. The job changed every 12-18 months but the work was the same, the customers were the same.

But one Tuesday, it changed. The bus was running late, which wasn’t too unusual but she’d had a long day and her feet were killing her; she’d had to get new shoes after an incident where a customer stained her shoes and these hadn’t been fully broken in yet so they pinched her feet. When the bus finally arrived, it was emptier than usual but she climbed on amidst the tidal wave of commuters and made her way to the back where she was shocked to find an open seat. She slid into it and her whole body melted in relief.

As the bus pulled away from the curb, she felt her eyelids growing heavier and heavier, as if they were weighed down with anchors, until she could resist no longer and fell fast asleep.

She woke with a start, heart racing, no idea how long she’d been asleep. The rest of the bus was still full so she figured it couldn’t have been too long, but when she looked outside, she didn’t recognize where they were.

There was a sign for 82nd St, then one for Western Ave, then an 83rd St. None of that could be right, though. She lived up on Founders Ave and 24th. With a rising sense of panic, she realized that she must have taken the wrong bus. Had she stayed awake, she would have noticed it going West instead of North and hopped off in time to get back to her own bus line but she didn’t even know how long she’d been on this bus.

Instinctively, she pulled the wire to request a stop. Less than a block later, the bus slowed down and pulled to the side of the road, its doors opening with a ping.

She hopped off the bus and strode confidently down the street, careful not to show any sign of weakness. She continued on for nearly a block until she found an open corner shop and popped inside to develop a plan. Besides, her feet felt like they were about to bust out of her shoes and she needed to stop moving for a bit.

A bell jingled as she walked inside.

Immediately upon entering, she regretted being there. The shop was dingy, looking like it hadn’t been cleaned once in her entire lifetime. There was a man behind the counter who looked to be around her age, maybe a few years younger, with a shaggy beard. His eyes seared into her back as she wandered the store pretending to be looking for something. Hostility emitted from him like radiation from a nuclear reactor. She didn’t want to be around when he blew.

A jingle. Someone else had entered. Maybe they’d distract him so she could leave?

“Hey Terry,” came a woman’s voice.

“Evening,” replied Terry, his voice as gruff as his face.

“Just picking up the usual.” Her voice was moving to the back of the store. Meredith was frozen in place, her back to the voices, holding a can of baked beans. “Oh, and I’ll need two scratch offs. Try to give me winning ones this time!”

A suction sound came as the woman opened a door in the refrigerated section. The clinking sound indicated she’d grabbed some beers, then the door slammed shut.

In the corner of her eye, Meredith saw the woman enter the aisle and walk toward her. She quickly put down the can of baked beans and picked up a tin of tuna next to it.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” warned the woman. “I know it’s supposed to last forever in those cans but those have been there since this place opened back when my grandmother was just a twinkle in her daddy’s eye.”

“Oh, thank you,” rushed Meredith, shoving the tin back onto the shelf.

The woman’s voice became gentler. “I haven’t seen you before, have I?”

Meredith shook her head.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” she asked, her voice just above a whisper.

Again, Meredith shook her head.

The woman let out a heavy sigh. “Hey Terry,” she called. “You’re not giving my friend here a hard time are you?”

“Your friend?” came the response.

The woman put an arm around Meredith and pulled her to her chest as if they had been friends forever. “Yes, Terry, my friend. She’s here for my poker night so you’d better be getting those scratch offs ready or we won’t have a prize pool.”

Her grip was tight on Meredith’s shoulder, giving her no opportunity to argue or even move, but she sensed that she was better off being trapped by this woman than being near Terry any longer. They stayed that way as the woman collected her scratch offs and paid for her beers and a pack of gum, which Meredith was given to hold.

Once they were outside, the woman’s grip eased but didn’t release. She kept Meredith close to her as she walked up the street.

“Where do you live?” she asked Meredith.

“Founders Ave and 24th. I got on the wrong bus and fell asleep.”

“You’re a long way from home. This isn’t a nice neighborhood for people who aren’t from here. It’s not even nice for those of us who’ve been here our whole lives. I don’t want to scare you too much but let’s just say that we need to be getting you home.”

Meredith nodded.

A group of men were huddled together on a nearby stoop. They stopped mid-conversation and watched the two women as they passed, their gazes hungry like lions. Across the street, a woman pushing a stroller stopped and stared at them, a cigarette dangling loosely from her lips.

They kept walking, past the men, past the woman, past more men and more women, past a group of workers leaving a job sight whose eyes narrowed at Meredith, past a drunkard being thrown out of a bar who also glared down Meredith.

Soon they turned onto a side street and, for the first time, Meredith wondered where this woman was leading her. She opened her mouth to ask but thought better of it. Perhaps this woman really was just trying to help her. Or perhaps she would kill her. Either way, she’d soon not have to worry about her situation any longer.

They reached a house with a big red door and went up the steps. The woman unlocked the door and pulled Meredith inside with her. They stopped at a door on their left which the woman also unlocked and led her inside.

It was a living room with a view into the kitchen. There was a door at the end which Meredith suspected led to a bedroom and an open door to the left of it which was the definitely bathroom. In the living room was a raggedy couch, a coffee table covered in textbooks, and an old TV in the corner. It was a bit cramped but still homier than Meredith’s sterile studio apartment.

“You’ll have to stay here tonight. The buses stopped running back into town an hour ago. I’d call you a cab but the drivers who serve this area are worse than Terry, especially for a pretty young woman like you. I have some spare pajamas so long as you don’t mind shorts. I don’t have a spare bed but the couch is more comfortable than it looks. I’ve spent many nights on it when I’ve fallen asleep studying.”

“This is very kind of you.” She was overcome. It had been so long since anyone had been nice to her, least of all offered to help her, a stranger. She also really had to pee. “Can I use your bathroom?”

The woman laughed, a full guttural guffaw. “Of course you can! It’s that door right there.”

When Meredith returned from the bathroom, the woman handed her a set of pajamas, a blanket, and a pillow. There was a glass of water on the coffee table.

“Thank you, really,” said Meredith, on the verge of tears.

The woman waved it away. “It’s nothing. My mother always taught me to help out those who may need it.” She turned to head toward the bathroom herself. “Oh, do you have to be in the city any particular time tomorrow?”

“I start work at 8 at Zany’s Zandwiches on Elm.”

She nodded. “Ok, so you need to be on the 6:02 bus at Western. I’ll be out here at 5:50 to walk you over there.”

When she was gone, Meredith changed into the pajamas and set up the couch with the blankets and pillow. Even with the lights off, the room was bright from a streetlight just outside the window. It shone down onto the coffee table, illuminating the woman’s textbooks on microbiology and environmental science.

Meredith found a scrap of paper and wrote: “You are a wonderful, kind woman and I wish you every happiness that life can bring you. Good luck with your studies!” and stuffed the paper into the microbiology textbook then promptly laid down and was fast asleep in minutes.

True to her word, the woman was in the living room at 5:50 the next morning, looking exhausted. Meredith had woken up with the sun and had already changed back into her clothes, folded the blankets, and rubbed toothpaste over her teeth.

They walked in easy silence the few blocks to the bus stop. It was early enough that most people weren’t out and those that were weren’t awake enough to stare. The woman waited with her at the bus stop until the bus rolled into view, slowing down as it approached.

“If you’re ever up my way,” said Meredith as the bus rolled to a stop in front of her, “my couch is open for you.”

“I may just take you up on that,” the woman said. “Safe travels.”

“Thanks again!”

Meredith boarded the bus and took a seat where she could wave goodbye. It occurred to her that she didn’t even know the woman’s name but she knew that, someday, she’d see her picture in a newspaper either for being a hero or winning a Nobel prize.

The bus pulled away, taking Meredith back to her old life, but the misadventure had changed her: it had given Meredith a belief in humanity again.