Not actually, but yesterday one of the passengers apparently came this close to dealing out major pain with his fists! See, the bus was late (it's usually late), and apparently this one dude -- apparently not a regular rider; otherwise he wouldn't have been out there so early -- had been waiting at the station for over two hours to catch a bus to Laurel, which means that his transfer had expired by then.

Anyway, when the bus finally did show up a half hour behind schedule, he waited for everyone else to board... and then got on and began arguing with the driver that he shouldn't have to pay the full fare because it wasn't his fault that the bus was late and his transfer expired and blah blah blah. I was kind of amused -- apparently he was either a senior or was disabled in some way, because the full fare for him was only thirty-five cents, and thirty-five cents which he had -- but one of the passengers was not pleased with the holdup.

"THE FUCK!" he shouted. "THROW THAT MOTHERFUCKER OFF THE BUS AND LET'S GO! I'M TRYIN' TO GET HOME!!!" He shouted this several times, and a vein throbbed visibly beneath the skin of his temple.

Finally, the Route 88 newbie reluctantly paid the thirty-five cents and sat down -- whereupon the irate passenger shouted, "THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, MAN? HOLDIN' EVERYONE UP LIKE THAT! FUCK YOU -- FUCK YOU!!!"

"Oh, shut your mouth," responded the n00b.

"THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO ME? FUCK! THE FUCK?"

"Shut your mouth."

"WHAT?!?!?" Here, the angry passenger rose from his seat and began moving towards the front of the bus, where the other man was seated. "HOW BOUT I WHOOP THAT ASS, YOU LITTLE BITCH?!?!?!"

The man said nothing.

"YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT, YOU LITTLE BITCH! LITTLE BALD-HEADED BITCH!"

(The furious passenger was also bald.)

As he turned around and began to make his way towards the back of the bus, the first baldy said, "God bless you."

"WHAT?"

"May God bless and keep you!"

"I'LL SEE YOU WHEN YOU GET OFF, BALD-HEADED LITTLE BITCH!"

And then the fuming baldy returned to his seat and fell asleep.

He seemed better later on -- as we pulled into town, one of the other passengers asked if he was okay, whereupon he responded that he was, now that he was almost home -- but I wonder what happened after I got off the bus. Did he, in fact, see the "bald-headed little bitch" after he stepped off of the bus? I mean, I know he was probably blowing smoke, but at the same time he was making threats on a bus filled with people -- and not following through with them would make him look like the bald-headed little bitch, wouldn't it? Granted, I doubt anyone on the bus actually cares much about him one way or the other -- hell, they just want to get home, too! -- but I wonder how he perceived the situation. I mean, I've never threatened anyone in public as an adult, but back in elementary and middle school I found myself forced to hit several people simply because I'd said that I would and would lose credibility if I didn't. If you were in his place, what would you do? I have a hard time seeing myself behave like that at all, but if I did, I think I'd feel like I had to give the guy a bit of a thrashing -- or at least disappear from the bus for a while.

And oh yeah, Scary-Crayon got updated last night with Dusty Plastic HELL: Hot Flash #46! Enjoy, and do feel free to post a comment about it in the SC blog. 🙂 Ja!