背包走天涯之纽约

People on the Bus

As time passes by the many faces on the bus becomes increasingly familiar. These people take the same good old 14 as me everyday at 8:37 and there are many interesting characters. There is the Justin Timberlake lookalike who reads everyday. The book he carries look more or less to me every time. Maybe it's part of a long series or maybe he is just reading too slowly. There is a black man who is always dressed in a hood and sits right at the back, gesturing and mouthing the lyrics from the songs of his PSP. He seems to enjoy his music a lot. He might be the next Eminem. Then there is the beautiful Hispanic lady who gets off 2 stops after I board the bus. Whenever she alights every guy would be looking at her butt and I bet she must have felt tremendously uncomfortable with her butt being threatened. Later I found out that she works at the supermarket as a cashier. There is an Indian couple who are always bundled up during the winter and I always wonder why they do not speak to each other during the entire bus trips. Most intriguing is the young lady who is always dressed in a Gothic style and her make up is Gothic as well and if she is going to college in that dressing how do the professors possibly put up with that? Sometimes at the bus stop an old lady called Sue would appear and preach to me about the goodness of Jehovah Witness. She passed me these books and articles which I hardly read but I still placed them on my shelf to show my appreciation for her efforts even though they ultimately ended up in the dustbins. What a waste of trees. I told her that my name is Wayne but somehow she always insisted on calling my Chinese name and I would have liked to tell her that calling my Chinese name doesn't make her any closer to me although she had an impeccable pronunciation. I would also like to tell her about the concept of 彼岸 and 此岸 but I didn't want to risk having an argument about religion.

And then there are the weird people. The grumpy lady who wouldn't let me sit next to her because she feels more comfortable with more space. Oh yeah I feel more comfortable with more space too and who doesn't? Another grumpy lady would shout at anyone who speaks too loudly and she would go in a squeaky voice,"The whole bus doesn't have to hear your conversations." There is a guy who has a long face and he intimidated me the most in the beginning because he was always trying to talk to me. Later I realised he talks to everyone, waves to every passing vehicle and has the intelligence of a 7 year old.

"It is a nice weather today ya? Not so cold." he would say,"I woke up late this morning you know. Brushed my teeth and then I saw the time and I knew I was late!"
I replied, "Oh is it."
"The bus is late today. Always late. You know why? It's the school buses!" he would say.
I replied, "Oh is it."
"Looking at the bus! Haha. Haha. Look at the bus!" he would say.
I replied. "Oh ok."
He might be irritating and restless but at least he doesn't hurt anyone.

Sometimes I would sit next to the intern who is doing his PHD and would be here for only 3 months. He is an extremely thin fellow with a thick facial hair that made him look so much older than he actually is. There was once I saw him run through the woods at an amazing speed and I asked him whether he did that because the cold was too much for him and he was eager to get to shelter. He said, "Well, I see it this way. If I can run from one place to another. Why should I walk?"

A long pause. My mouth wide opened.

I was too dumbfounded to reply to that.

There was another time I asked him about the things he did in the weekends. He said, "Do you know about quantum cryptography? It is cryptography using the quantum phenomena of quantum entanglement to detect eavesdropping." He added ,"That is my interest and I hope to make a breakthrough in this field. I also looking at formulating everyday problems in mathematical formulas because once we can do that, we can input them into the computers and computers would churn out software solutions that are absolutely free of bugs and other human errors."

A long pause. My mouth wide opened again.

He asked,"So what is your hobby?"

I didn't know what to reply. Any hobby would have seemed childish next to quantum cryptography. I said finally,"I read."

In a way I respect these kind of guys. They are not exactly equipped with social skills but they are focused and highly intelligent and they make a difference to this world. I could have been talking to the next Einstein for all I know.

(upload album "Saint Patrick's Parade")

posted by wayne @ 4:59 PM