Staple Characters
The morning bus ride can be interesting on occasion, people are fascinating when you really analyse them. Of course there are the staple characters that populate every mode of public transportation; the hoody, the nutter, the businessman. So common are they that we largely don’t even notice them we’re too wrapped up in own little bubbles to people watch even though it can be rather entertaining sport.
I get on and already the driver looks bored perhaps a few hours into his working day before mines even started, I swipe my card and he passes a lazy glance my way nasally and noncommittal with his “Good morning”. I shuffle my was past the reluctant mother texting not watching her sprogg smear chocolate on the window, when she finally notices anger erupts from her Jeremy Kyle style causing the whole bus to feel sorry for the tiny human.
I take one of the elevated seats in the middle of the bus across from a couple of young hipsters clearly on their way to college. I can’t help but hear them discussing a band long since dead as though they’re hot new property, I smile shaking my head inwardly before glancing over at them. Their carefully crafted hobo look seems to be a mixture of styles and eras, I imagine they would class is all as ‘vintage’ though the overall look screams 1996.
“What about stilton?”
I’m distracted from the hipsters by the old couple directly in front of me. It was the lady with the classic cloud of hair who asked the question her giant earrings threatening to tear her earlobes off.
“Henry is lactose intolerant.” A gruff boom echoes from a bald head in reply.
“Nonsense, how can you trust a man that doesn’t eat cheese?” An important philosophical question I almost miss as the truly shrill sound of her voice makes me cringe, though her perfect Queens english phrases is beautifully. Only the upper classes would even ask such a question, I can’t help but roll my eyes thinking what a strange world we live in. Ready to tune said world out I put my earbuds in and get comfy for the ride ahead.
