A Special Man’s Thoughts on Fellow Bus Riders

In 2006, I worked right next to my current job, so I’ve seen a lot of the same people in my travels on the bus. One man in particular, I still see all of the time.

He is quite a special man.

He is short, bald, black, mentally challenged, and has eyes that point in two different directions. He is always on the bus.

One day in 2006, he was at the bus stop I was heading towards. He saw me walking to the stop and he saw the bus about a block away. I had more than enough time to reach it. He was worried for me though, and started yelling “come on, you can make it! Ill tell the bus to wait!” And other such things.

He then proceeded to tell me about his sister buying him new sneakers and a new metrocard. I listened politely and was nice to him.

The next time I saw him, he started telling people “thas my fwiend,” as he pointed to me. Again, I was polite.

Another time, he sat next to me on the bus and kept talking and talking and talking. I was polite and talked back. Special people can be lonely too, right?

Well, one day a few weeks ago we were on the same bus again. A tall white man was waiting by the stairwell to get off, minding his own business, when out of nowhere the special man began yelling, “Don’t you touch me! Don’t touch me!”

Everyone on the bus turned to stare. The poor white man was like “I didn’t touch you! I’m nowhere near you!”

The special man started screaming, “driver! Driver! He touched me! He hit me!” The other man just said he did not.

THEN, the special man started saying the other man was a racist, and there were other black people on the bus. He pointed to a black teen in the middle of the bus and yelled that he would help him. The black people wouldn’t let him be hit by a racist. An ugly racist.

Now the white man lost his temper and yelled that he was not a racist, that man was crazy. Special man kept calling him an ugly racist, saying get off the bus. White man said back, “who are you caling ugly, you freak? You get off the bus!”

Luckily, at this point the bus reached the man’s stop so he got off and escaped the special man’s abuse. But instead of quieting down, the special black man turned around and saw saw a spanish teenage girl sitting behind him. She was minding her own business, with her headphones in.

The special man said, “shut up! You talk too loud! You’re a racist! Go sit in the back of the bus! I don’t want to see your ugly face!”

The poor girl at first was willing to ignore him. But as he kept repeatedly yelling at her, calling her an ugly racist, she said “who are you calling ugly? Look at you! You go sit in the back of the bus!”

Special man started his whole “there’s other black people on the bus” thing again. Oddly enough, none of the “other black people” were willing to help him out. The entire bus was staring and silently laughing at his outburts.

That’s when I got off the bus.

Unfortunately for me, the very next day he was on a different bus that I happened to get on. There was only one seat on the bus, so I sat down in it. I couldn’t fit all the way in next to the other person, so I kind of sat diagonally, but I was staing out the front windows.

Out of nowhere I hear, “stop looking at me!” Special man was in a seat nearby and somehow figured I was staring at him, thinking racist thoughts. “Turn around! Don’t look at me! You’re ugly! You’re an ugly racist!” So I stood in the back of the bus, away from random-outbursts-retard.

We both got off at the bus depot. He was walking before me, and we both crossed the aisles to get to the other bus stop. He turned around out of nowhere and told me to go away, I was ugly. An ugly racist, ugly, go away, ugly, ugly, ugly. He just kept repeating it and all I said was something like “what the fuck” as I walked to the other bus.

I’ve seen him constantly between 2006 and the present, and I’ve always been polite and kind to him. So keep in mind after his outburst the other day, I planned to never look at him again and tell him to fuck off if he ever spoke to me again.

Well. This MOTHER FUCKER was just on the bus with me and had the balls to wave to me and say hi. What the hell! I just ignored him, but I would have liked to smack him so hard his cross eyes saw straight.

There’s other stories about him. More to come.