What People Say On The Bus

What People Say On The Bus(Stephen Holland) Patrick Blake stepped onto the bus and handed the driver his ticket. “Where to?”, the bus driver asked, “Dublin”, he replied and went to the middle of the bus and sat down at an empty spot hoping that the bus wouldn’t fill up and no one would sit beside him. He put headphones in his ears and put on his best angry face to dismay other passengers from taking the seat beside him. But, after a couple of stops the bus got so full that he had a man by his side.

“How’re you doing? Names John, lovely day isn’t it?” the strange man asked, “Yeah, it’s great” replied Patrick “My names Patrick, I’m grand. Um, how are you?” This was the one thing he didn’t want to happen, weather conversation, why can’t we all just keep to ourselves and just ignore people. “I’m not too great”, 'Who the hell says that!?' he thought to himself. “What’s wrong?” he felt he’d no choice but to ask. “My daughter tried to kill herself last night in her college dorm”. He didn’t know how to react to this. Patrick gets uncomfortable calling to put credit on his phone, he didn’t have the first idea of how to talk about stuff like this. “Are you ok?” he awkwardly stuttered “Is she going to be alright?”. “Yeah she’ll be grand” he seemed angry, “she pulls this sort of stuff all the time”. “Well, it must be hard on you” he didn’t like where the conversation was going. “I wish she’d just grow up, we all have issues you know? No need to ruin my day because of it, and I know she’s my daughter, but sometimes you wonder about these things, if they’re going to try and kill themselves, why don’t they just go and do it, it’s all attention, me, me, me”.

Patrick didn’t say anything. “I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t even say this to you. Being a parent’s hard I’m sure.” He hoped the conversation would end there. “Yeah well, hopefully I won’t be a parent for much longer.” Patrick started to feel a void in his stomach, like he was being sucked into himself, his body didn’t feel like it should be his. He was having a panic attack. The man ignored him and started listing off all the times she’d ruined his life. Patrick eventually worked up the courage to stop him mid rant and tell him he thought if he was his daughter he’d want to kill himself too because she had obviously such a horrible upbringing with a father like him.

The father looked as if this was completely uncalled for, and told Patrick he’d understand if he had children. Patrick stood up, and at this point everyone in the bus was looking at him, he said “I hope I never understand you, you’re the one who should be suicidal you arrogant piece of crap”, he then got off the bus. He could get the next train to Dublin, and hopefully the man’s daughter would realise that it’s not her who’s the problem. It’s an unfair world, populated by every type of person. The father then looked around the bus and announced to passengers “it’s a disgrace the things people say to you on the bus”.