Thursday, October 22, 2015

The Woman From the West Indies

The Woman From The West Indies

Riding on the Greyhound Bus
Williamsport to Philadelphia
1983

My hopes of having the two seats on the bus to myself are shattered as this tall woman leans over to me and asks, “Is anyone sitting here.”  I contemplate lying to her but the bus is filling up and if she doesn’t take the seat, maybe the old, smelly man coming down the aisle will.  So I surrender begrudgingly and move my bag.


She effortlessly slithers into the seat.  I speculate by her accent that she must have been from the British West Indies.  She grabs my arm as she speaks to me. Her hands are rather spidery and something unnerved me as she wraps her long, spender fingers around my forearm and leans on my shoulder and quickly falls to sleep.

No comments: