Riding the bus.
- joneworlds@mailbox.org
The Reckoners run their flea-markets a few weeks
every May, so I'm making that journey out to the
country. There's a road-train out to there, but
the station's across town, so I'm taking an
auto-bus to there.
When I get on the bus, I see the auto-driver's
paint is peeling a lot. And his lower jaw is
missing. So it's pretty creepy to hear him
barking at me to pay up. "Please deposit fare
immediately!" But his coin slot's busted, so I
guess it's my lucky day. And I think his voice is
stuck too, as it keeps repeating that over and
over. They're really barely trying to keep these
auto-busses running anymore. Kind of sad, really.
"Please deposit fare immediately!"
I go to sit, and I groan a bit inside. The only
one on here except me is a giant lumper, one so
big it takes up the entire back of the bus. And
they're pretty chatty, so I know I'll have to
talk, though I'm not in the mood. It's already
wriggled an eye tentacle up to my face, and I can
hear it jabbering already. Ah-la-la-go-du,
ah-la-lo-ga-da? Ah-la-la? Ah-go-go. I go and
sit as near as its big purple body allows.
The auto-bus closes its door and sets out.
"Please deposit fare immediately!"
The lumpers are surely the most friendly kind, for
better or worse. But I think they like to talk
more than listen. I don't even know what it's
saying, but it surely sounds invested in it. It's
got two mouth tentacles and five eyestalks
wiggling around right in front of my face, talking
the whole trip. All I got to do is put in a few
words of acknowledgment here and there, and it's
good to keep going for another few minutes in its
low rumbley voice. Ah-go-la, da-du-go-lo-ah-ah,
da-da. Ah-go?
"Please deposit fare immediately!"
In about thirty minutes we're across town. The
auto-bus pulls into the bay crooked and bumps into
what's left of the shelter. And I get out, and
somehow that lumper squeezes its gelatinous body
out the door too. I turn to wave goodbye. Its
main mouth on its body stretches out a wide open
grin. And then about half its eye stalks wink all
at once to me.
"Please deposit fare immediately!"
Its larger outer tentacles grab on the end of the
auto-bus, and to my surprise it lifts it into the
air with the front pointed up. The lumper's mouth
stretches out wider than I thought it ever could,
and it starts lowering the back of the bus into
it, feeding on it. The fumes from its solvents
make my eyes water. I shake my head and walk away
to the road-train station.
Well, I guess that bus was pretty old anyways.
But still, there's only so many left by now.
"Please deposit fa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa... zz .. zz"