Lev Lazinskiy

Bus

It was a windy day outside. Mid summer, but still unreasonably cold - especially if you take into consideration all of the propaganda that is being spread all over the news about global warming. The bus was running late as usual. I was on my third cigarette. I would probably be late for work again, but quite frankly I did not care.

No one usually noticed when I was late. And if they did, I made up an excuse - they bought it.

The bus showed up finally. It was 5:50 a.m. I was pretty upset because I didn’t get a chance to finish that cigarette, but not wanting to wait for the next bus I tossed it out and got on board. My mother used to always tell me that I would start a fire with my cigarette butts - I always found that quite amusing.

There was this man on the bus who was always there with a protest sign. Every morning he would bundle up and hold the sign close to his heart like a newborn child. He would not let anyone on the bus see it. I even asked one time and he told me to fuck off.

It is interesting, because I went down to the corner where he stands near the Starbucks in China Town. He is very proud of his sign when he is down there, but otherwise he will not let anyone see it. I think that when he is in his special place - he does not care what the world thinks about him. Otherwise, he is very defensive.

His signs were not political in nature, they were not even that provocative. They said very simple things, bland things, things that do not belong on a sign.

Let alone the type of sign that you would carry to the corner by Starbucks in China town.