Bus tales

I get on the bus. It is dark and the weather is inclement. It seems as most people have already made it to their cubby holes since the streets are nearly empty. The bus contains scarcely half a dozen passengers. I locate a seat I like near the window and begin to zone out for the ten minute ride to the subway. Suddenly, operatic singing breaks out. The bus is an echo barn and my first thought is, "geez, the driver sure has got the radio on loud." Behind me, I hear two teenaged girls giggling. Slowly, it dawns on me that the bus driver is singing. Clearly using his diaphragm, he is belting out one mean solo. The singing stops in conjunction with the bus as new passengers are taken aboard. Then the singing begins again. I watch the new passengers as the same consternation at the "noise" crosses their faces. Then one by one, smirks and smiles and raised-eyebrow glances around as they too realize that we have an opera singing bus driver.

And the smiling is contagious, as the teenaged girls continue giggling. At the end of the bus route at the subway, we all file off smiling and thanking the driver. What good cheer this man has spread, I think as I descend into the tunnel, all because of his lack of self consciousness. He knows it's odd, but doesn't care, and in a strange magical way brightened our day.

Thank you opera singing bus driver man!