So, there I was, sitting on the bench at the depot, when the young woman next to me asked what bus I was waiting for. I told her the Prison Bus. (No I didn't, I answered appropriately.) "Where does that go?" I told her. She ascertained that it would get her where she wanted to be, which was good, because the bus she thought she had to take instead wasn't for another 50 minutes. I know, this story is fascinating so far. Bear with me.
Now, the woman had with her a disabled child who was a different race than she was. Said child did not look biracial in the least, so I was mildly curious, but I just assumed she was the girl's mother. An older gentleman arrived, asked what bus we were waiting for (same one!) and then proceeded to make small talk. It was from this that eventually it came out that the woman was not the little girl's mother, but instead a private duty nurse. Apparently--and you would think I would have known this, working in pediatrics n' all--children with trachs or G tubes are not allowed to attend school without a one-to-one nurse. Can you imagine the expense of that? It boggles the mind. So this young woman had worked full time with this four year old for the last year and a half, 7am to 5pm, four days a week. She said it was a good job.
More people show up to wait, the prison bus being very popular. The bus is late. Other buses pull in, falsely raising our hopes. In truth, it's a nice warm sunny day and I am in no hurry to get home or anywhere else, so I don't mind. Other than the fact that I wouldn't have drunk the medium iced coffee I did if I knew I was gonna be waiting so long, ifyouknowwhatimsayin.
Eventually, another woman gets off one of those buses pulling in and comes over to us. She's probably my age or a little older. Old enough to know better and too young to be senile, okay? She asks us if we know where The Happiest Place on Earth is and how to get there. The nurse tells her that, well, it's far. She can't walk there. Well, can she take a bus? Which bus? We tell her to get on the same bus as us. If it ever comes. She asks me if there was any other way to get there from where she started. With my vast knowledge of the MBTA (seriously, I can tell you how to get anywhere on the T, it's one of my superpowers; they should give me a job), I tell her the one other way she could have done it, which wouldn't have been any easier. Then she asks us how far "far" is. Couple/three miles. So, she could get in one of those taxis and be there in 5 minutes? Eh, maybe ten.
Then she turns to me and says, completely out of the blue, "Do you think the iPhone is a good phone?" I noncommittally say that a lot of people have them. It is a very weird conversational jump and I am glad when the prison bus arrives just then. It gives me the opportunity to sit far away from her. She sits across from the nurse and the little girl instead and grills her on her cell phone options. Maybe that's why she was going to the store, to buy a new phone. I kinda think you'd have done some research beforehand, not depended on asking strangers' opinions, but different strokes n' all. She also repeatedly asks the nurse to let her know when she's at her stop. The nurse tells her she's getting off before that, but that she's sitting on the right side of the bus, just, y'know, look for it. It's hard to miss. When the nurse is trying to get off, with the small child and the stroller, the woman is demanding of her as she struggles to do so, how many more stops? The young woman, obviously way more patient than me, finally snaps and says she doesn't know, JUST LOOK OUT THE WINDOW. And then when the woman does finally arrive at the big box store of her dreams, she asks the bus driver, oh, is this the last bus of the day? He doesn't know, but he doesn't think so. (Seriously, I know more than the MBTA employees. If I had a dollar for every time I heard a bus driver tell someone the next bus was in x number of minutes and be completely wrong, I could buy...I dunno, something expensive.)
So I am completely befuddled by this whole thing. How do you set out to go someplace with no idea of where it is or how to get there or how you will return? What would possess you to just randomly head in the direction of the town it's in and assume you'll get there somehow? And why would you think strangers would not just give you directions, but would hold your hand and babysit you till you arrived? And tell you what cell phone to buy while they were doing it? Though, shit, maybe if this woman did have an iPhone, there'd be some kind of app to direct her through life. Steve Jobs and his minions should get right on that!
In summary, people are very very strange.
xoxo
3 comments:
"How do you set out to go someplace with no idea of where it is or how to get there or how you will return?"
My whole life has run on those tracks.
When I was a kid, I remember reading a Russian fairy tale in which the hero was told "to go somewhere, you don't know where, and bring back something, you don't know what."
Either this woman was separated from me at birth or you have fallen into a moment of abstruse literature.
You must understand that I was raised y someone who, when he had to go somewhere he had never been before, would do a "dry run" prior to the actual excursion, so he would know exactly where it was, how to get there, and how long it would take. I seriously have had to train myself out of doing that too, so this whole "just set out and hope for the best" shit is extremely foreign to me :-)
Perhaps she was just an adventurous soul. Though it seems she was more the clueless type of soul.
When I first read "Happiest Place On Earth" I thought she was joking..or crazy. But reading on I realized it was a store. lol And recalled you using that phrase before. Ive never been to the Happiest Place on Earth, I dont think. Though Jai Shanti is pretty close, and I spend less money there, Im sure :-)
People *are* strange. Im wondering perhaps if this woman wasnt just anxious about the bus ride and finding the store and such. Which, if she'd researched a bit more before leaving home might have been reduced.
Ive done the dry runs too during times of high anxiety (job interviews or going to new events and not wanting to be late) Over planning does not guarantee things will go smoothly, I have found.
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