Of a Man Walking Away
I settled into the yellow bus where passengers had cramped like refugees. We awaited one or two more persons to fill up the bus, and it felt like a really long wait. There was a woman strapping a crying child to her back, two other women had guided her into the bus placing their hands strategically at the top edge of the door to avoid a collision with the child’s head.
Shortly after, a man approached the bus. He inquired from the driver the cost of the fare and got an answer that had him shaking his head. Bus fares had increased nationwide following the hike in fuel prices. When he had established that he could afford the fare, he made for the back of the bus, only stopping halfway after a scan of the passengers seated in the bus.
“Woman plenty, I no fit enter” he remarked as he walked away to the next available bus. This loosely translates to “I’m afraid, I won’t be joining this bus because it has a lot of females.” Apparently, he had an issue with being in a bus that had more females than males. Whatever his reasons were, I would never know, but what I do know was that his action got me thinking.
What could he have been through to make him reach such resolve? What was his upbringing with females? Would there have been a problem if a woman had walked away from an almost full bus for the same reason?
