There are some of you I feel I've neglected
There is no reason or excuse for this
I've been a little off, a little unfocused
I have been thinking of you often
Just felt the need to say that
Will blog properly later many thoughts, no sequence yet :-)
Read Part 1 first.
8:30pm, Friday
Brad turned the bus’ lights off and opened the door thankful that he was early and could have a cigarette. He’d parked the bus at the first stop on his next, and final, route of the night. He maneuvered himself out of the driving seat and stood on the bottom step as he lit his smoke. Looking up the street, he saw his first four stops, he could see as far as the McDonalds sign before the road curved to the right. The only waiting passenger was at the shelter just before the shopping centre, definitely female from that profile, he smiled as he thought.
Faint voices carried through the night air and Brad again looked in the direction he was soon to drive. There was now a group of people, mostly young men by the looks of it, nearing the bus shelter. The group came to a stop when they reached the shelter and appeared to crowd in front of the young woman who was still seated. The voices he could hear were too faint to make anything of them.
He took another drag on his smoke and checked his watch. Something about his waiting passengers, the woman in particular, was making him uneasy. He didn’t have a sister or wife, but if he did he certainly wouldn’t want her traveling alone at night. He put out his cigarette, even though it was only half finished and it still wasn’t quite his timetabled time to leave, and maneuvered himself back into his seat. He wondered how some of his co-workers, with their middle age spread, managed to squeeze past the ticket machine to the drivers seat.
As he started the engine, closed the door and turned the headlights on Brad didn’t take his eyes off the group down the road. It was too dark to see what they were doing, they were all too close together. He put the bus into gear and pulled out behind a dark green Ford Falcon, the only other vehicle traveling on the road at that moment.
He traveled the several hundred metres to the shelter quite quickly and pulled up. He had been right, there was one woman and he counted six young men, probably in their twenties waiting at the shelter. The group only noticed his impending arrival at the sound of the high-pitched squeal of his worn brakes. Brad opened the door and turned the interior lights on. His eyes focused on the young woman, now standing and clutching her bag, and remained fixed. To him she looked shaken, frightened even. The young men were still crowded in front of her, now blocking her access to the bus, but made no move to themselves get on. Not a word had been spoken since Brad opened the bus’ doors and all eyes were on the woman.
“Excuse me fella’s, you want to get on the bus or get out of the way?” Brad eventually asked, more politely than he was inclined to be.
One by one the men turned to face him, still silent. Their expressions spoke volumes when they did face him. None of them were happy about his arrival, but slowly they stepped aside. Head down, the woman made her way to the bus and stepped onto the first step. As she did one man reached out and grabbed her by the elbow pulling her close to him and whispered something in her ear. Visibly shaking the woman freed her arm and climbed the remaining steps. Brad closed the door behind her and began to drive even before he’d taken her fare.
© 2005
8:15pm, Friday
Rose walked with her head held down, watching but not seeing as she crossed each crack in the concrete without stepping on even one. She was lost in her own world of thoughts as she made her way to the bus stop. Rose was twenty-five and had never found it necessary to get a drivers license. She lived and worked in areas where public transport was mostly reliable.
She was happy to be different, in fact she prided herself on those minor differences. While her peers had always dressed in their trendy label clothes, Rose always opted for comfort and her own tastes. When Rose turned seventeen and all her friends had booked their driving tests for their birthdays she had instead simply celebrated. Now as she reached the bus shelter, and read the timetable only to realise she had twenty minutes to wait, she sighed and sat on the dented aluminium seat. While the neighbourhood provided reliable public transport it wasn’t a place that made a young woman traveling alone at night feel safe.
Crossing her legs and leaning back Rose again praised herself on her latest clothing purchase. The new charcoal jeans she was wearing were a size twelve and she had been surprised to fit into them. She was also glad that having lost some weight she hadn’t lost any from her chest. The pale pink singlet she had on made the most of her body’s natural curves.
As she sat Rose looked across the street. Watching the car park of the small local shopping centre slowly empty. Next to the centre was a McDonalds which, as is often the case, had become the meeting place for young people before they head out elsewhere. Rose watched as a group of young men walked through the car park, having just left the McDonalds, and made their way to cross the road. She counted six, but there may have been more, the shadows of the trees that lined the footpath made it hard to see clearly. Each of the men she could see, and now hear, as they got closer, seemed to be in their late teens or early twenties. Several of them were wearing white muscle shirts two sizes too small paired with pants two sizes too large. They apparently call that fashion, she thought to herself.
Rose looked up the street hoping the bus would arrive before the young men got much closer, but it wasn’t yet in sight. She was nervous, without really knowing why. Holding her bag just a little closer she reminded herself that not all young men in the area were thugs. All the articles in the local newspaper looking for young perpetrators of muggings, break and enters and an array of other crimes were the exception, not the rule. She felt only slightly more comfortable knowing that she always carried some money and her keys in the pocket of her jeans. If anyone wanted to take her handbag they could have it. This line of thought was not uncommon for Rose, she was at times overly cautious when it came to human nature, some may even call her slightly paranoid.
The group was at the side of the road when Rose looked back, waiting for several cars to leave the car park before they could cross. She could hear fragments of conversation, not enough to know what they were talking about, and occasionally the group would break into laughter. Just a group of friends heading somewhere for a good night, Rose thought to herself, I just hope they don’t need a bus to get there too. As the young men crossed the road Rose saw one of them look towards her and smile. She turned and looked up the street, again hoping to see an approaching bus.
© 2005
Well we survived the holiday
Not quite as relaxing as I'd have liked
More social than I anticipated
But a good getaway none the less
Little Boy went back to school today
For once he looked forward to it
I'm not aware of further "buttplug" comments*
Three frustrating days searching for Brad and Rose
I found them, will get reacquainted this week hopefully
* Little Boy spent time with a couple of teenage boys while we were away and picked up some of their more colourful language, briefly
Just a quick note to say hello :-)
You've all been blogging away and I'll have to wait 'til I get home to catch up (apart from the rather entertaining shit happening over at Tom's blog hehe You are a bloody drama queen Tom). I've been down here 4days, or there abouts, yet it feels like at least twice that! Went to party, which was not as bad as I anticipated and I was drunk anyway. Have had people coming and going the whole time I've been here. Managed to get a swim in yesterday although it is debateable just how good an idea that was, it was a little cold. I haven't had my pen and paper out AT ALL, so that idea went out the window pretty quickly. Well that's it in a nutshell, will blog properly when I get home!
