The Bus Stop

I call him the “Look Straight Ahead Guy.” I call him that because he looks straight ahead.

Every morning at 7:51 I catch the number 80 at the Longueuil bus terminal. And every morning he’s there. There are three fold-out seats, with their backs up against the wall. The door outside where the bus stops is to the left. So the bus actually comes up behind those of us who are seated. And the Look Straight Ahead Guy always shows up wearing the same winter hat and the same sunglasses, even when it’s cloudy, and he makes himself comfortable, and he, well, he looks straight ahead. He doesn’t read a book or a newspaper, he doesn’t even listen to music. He just sits there until the bus comes and he looks straight ahead. He doesn’t move. There’s not much to see either. This is at the far end of aile G, and “aile” means “wing” in French, though in this context I guess it means “aisle” – no surprise. It’s a narrow hallway and there’s a window which reflects what’s behind, and it’s a window which reveals what’s in front, so one has a kind of hybrid view of what’s there and what’s somewhere else, and I wonder whether the Look Straight Ahead Guy thinks about that.

He doesn’t get on the bus. Presumably he gets on the 185 which comes a bit later. That’s not my problem, not at all. Because I get on the bus and I leave the Look Straight Ahead Guy behind, until the next morning. I get on the number 80, and I ride to Boucherville, where I work. The ride goes along the St. Lawrence River, with the city across, and there’s a great view of La Ronde, which is big amusement park, and Olympic Park, which is the stadium, and you can even see Mt. Royal. I don’t look much out the window though. Mostly I read. These days I’m reading From Here To Eternity among others. But if I look out the window it’s nice.

On the way home I also see some regulars. But I don’t really have names for them. I should, I think, but I don’t. There’s the very nice lady, and the guy with the goatee and pony tail. They talk to each other quite a bit so I wonder whether they work together. She appears to be quite a bit older than him. He could be 20, she could be 40. So I don’t think that they’re married or anything. And funnily enough, there are two other people that I see, maybe once or twice a week, a man and a woman, though not together, and the woman reminds of the very nice lady, and the man reminds me of the guy with the goatee and pony tail, though he is older, and maybe that’s odd, and maybe it isn’t.

The place where I work is on top of a CLSC, that’s like a medical clinic – well it is a medical clinic I guess – and it’s for seniors (“seigneurs” the sign says, though the dictionary I have doesn’t use that term for “senior”, it translates “seigneur” as “lord” – maybe it’s a Canadian term) – and that’s not relevant or anything. I’m waiting for the weather to warm up just a bit more, then I can go out and explore this neighbourhood, and I can report my findings.

Thing is I wouldn’t notice any of this stuff if all I ever did was look straight ahead. So I look right and left and up and down. I look back and I look forward. And I see more than just that one view of that reflective window.

I wonder whether the Look Straight Ahead Guy has a blog. Maybe I’ll ask him – if he ever turns his head tolook at me that is…