Waiting for a Bus

Waiting for a Bus

Two people, a woman, and a man are sitting together at a bar. They were a few seats away from each other up until a few minutes before, but she moved over to talk to him. “Hi, my name is Jody. I’m new in town. I have a story about what happened today while I was waiting for a bus. I really need to tell someone about it, and I don’t know anyone. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to tell you the story. I’ll buy your next beer.”

The man nodded his head, and said, “Go ahead and tell it. I was getting bored sitting here by myself anyways. For a free beer, I’d listen to anyone.”

“Like I said, I am new in town, just moved into a house two blocks away. My car is in the shop getting the brakes fixed. I wanted to go shopping. So I decided to take the bus.”

"When I got to the bus shelter, I saw that there were two people already there. They were a couple. They were talking softly and looking into each other’s eyes like newlyweds. If I were the jealous type I would have hated them right away, me being newly divorced and all. But their happiness was contagious. I smiled at them, and they started talking to me.”

“I know that it sounds strange, but I really enjoyed listening to them talk. Then the woman, her name was Martha, she said the strangest thing. She said to me, “You know, not many people wait at this bus stop anymore. You’re the only other one that we have seen here in quite some time. It’s nice to have someone here along with us while we wait.’”

“When I asked Martha why it was that no one waited at this bus stop, she replied with a cryptic answer. “Oh, you’ll find out soon enough, honey. You won’t want to hurry it. The reason will come to you.”

“I had no good answer for that, so I said nothing. She did not look like she was going to elaborate on the subject.”

“We waited in silence for a while, me wanting to ask her what she meant, her just looking at her husband and smiling.”

“Now, I’m not usually the patient type. I want to know things right away. I thought and thought about how I could get her to explain about what she had said. I decided, ‘Okay, I will make some bland conversation, and then maybe find a way to direct her back to her strange remark.”

“So I asked them how long they had been married. That got her started, and even her husband, who introduced himself as Arthur, got involved too. I liked that. Maybe he would be the weaker link in the information chain.”

“’So tell me Arthur, why is it that you two wait at this bus stop when no one else does? ‘ He hemmed and hawed a bit, and looked at his wife with a question on his face, and then said to me ‘Well, you see. It is not like we have much of a choice.’ At that point he stopped talking, like he actually thought that would satisfy my curiosity.”

“Impatient, but thinking that maybe I could get my answer by out-smarting him. I then asked him, ‘So do you two live close to this bus stop? Is that why you come here?’”

“His answer only raised more questions.”

“’Live here….No, we don’t actually live here now. But we used to up until five years ago. Now we just come to this bus stop like we did in the past.’”

“ I wanted to yell at him. I wanted to say, “What kind of answer do you call that?” But the good manners that I was raised with overcame my impatience. But I was still steaming inside, almost ready to boil.”

“So again, we waited for a while in silence, then I right out asked Martha. ‘So when will the reason come to me. I’d really like to know. I suspect that the bus will be arriving sometime soon.’”

“She looked at her watch, and said, “Anytime now dear. Anytime. You’ll know when your answer will arrive.’”

“I turned away from the two on them and looked all around the area of the bus stop, as if somehow that would give me the answer to my question. It was a nice looking, area, very middle class, with flower gardens everywhere. Even right beside the bus stop there was a garland of freshly-cut roses hanging from the branch of a nearby tree.”

Then the couple did a very strange thing. Suddenly, without any kind of warning, they both raised their right hands and pointed in the same direction. Martha said in a solemn voice, “Look over there.’”

“I of course looked where they were pointing, and saw nothing. But as I did, I heard the oddest sound. It was like squealing brakes, only it sounded far away. Then there was no sound coming from anywhere. And even though I was still in the bus shelter, I felt a sudden gust of wind hit me from the back. It knocked me over. When I got up, a little dazed, I looked back to see what might have happened to the couple. But they were gone. No matter where I looked, I could not see them. A few minutes later, the bus came. The wait was over.”

Jody looked to see how the man sitting beside her reacted. To her surprise, he smiled.

“Jody, I think I can explain what you experienced, and what it was that Martha was talking about. You see, Martha and Arthur died five years ago to the day. The bus they were waiting for swung away from a very young child that had toddled halfway across crossed the road without looking for traffic. It smashed into the shelter and killed them instantly. They didn’t want to scare you by having you see the spirit bus come and hit them yet again. Like many others in this town, I have heard ‘ghost stories’ about the couple returning on the anniversary of their death. That’s what I guessed your story was about when you said you experienced it while ‘waiting for a bus’. I would have listened to it even without the offer of a free beer.”