Connections
Made

I.
Two people who’ve never met board different buses at different hours of the day. She is traveling west towards 34th St. on the blue line. He is traveling east toward Freedom Ave. on the green line. She is going to work. He is going home.
   It is morning where she is, the sun is just rising above the horizon. She is tired and knows that today, as all days before it and probably all days to come, will be long and painfully boring. But at the end of the day she will go home and have a glass of wine and the world will become just a little bit better as she watches the sunset before going to bed to dream of the perfect man. She’s lost hope of finding him but she still dreams of him, and he is wonderful and handsome. She read somewhere that every face you see in your dreams is the face of someone you’ve seen in real life, though she likes to think that she’d remember seeing someone as handsome as this man. The dreams are not what she lives for, but in the slow moments of the day she finds herself thinking of them, daydreaming of her perfect man.
   It is evening where he is, the sun already lost below the horizon. He is tired but satisfied with the day's work. All he can think about is the food that he will make. He’s got some leftovers in the fridge, or he could cook some pasta. Pasta is always easy and if you use the right sauce it’s pretty healthy for you. He doesn’t think he has the right sauce, or any sauce, but leftovers just seem too sad to eat. Too limp and old. He’ll make his food, whatever it ends up being, and he’ll sit down in front of the TV just in time to catch the news, followed by Dancing with the Stars. It’s a guilty pleasure of his and he knows all of his friends would mock him if they knew how religiously he watches it. He even votes. It’s a way to relieve his stress, to shed his worries about the day.


II.
Two people who’ve never met, and probably never will, board the same bus on different days, headed in the same direction. It is the red line traveling south towards Cotton Rd and, more specifically, the Cottonfield Cemetery.
   The day she goes is grey and rainy and perfectly fits her mood. She is going to visit her husband who died the year before. She’s brought flowers to put on his grave, the same flowers he brought on their first date. She remembers how happy they were then, how quickly they fell in love. It was a whirlwind romance that took them across the continent, across the ocean, and to foreign lands. It began so quickly, and it ended that way too. Not his death: that happened slowly and in a hospital bed and she was there by his side for all of it. No, the day she fell out of love was the day she realized he didn’t love her back, not like she’d thought. The final years of their marriage were cold and hard and even her memory of them is dark. He was always gone away to someone else and she was left alone. But it’s been a year since his death and she needs to forgive him so that she can move on. She needs closure.
   The day he goes is sunny and that makes him happy. It makes him feel as though maybe his wife is looking down on him, and liking what she sees. He has brought flowers to put on her grave; sunflowers. She used to love sunflowers and every year for their anniversary he’d buy them for her, even though they didn’t grow locally. And in the years that he forgot their anniversary, which he sometimes did, he’d buy her something else, a shirt or a notepad or a picture frame that had a sunflower on it, to make up for his forgetfulness. They were married for fourteen years and he misses her dearly. He’s brought a picnic so that he can sit and talk to her for a while.


III.
Two people who know each other, but not well, board different buses on different days at the same time. She is traveling west towards the park on the blue line. He is traveling east towards the sea on the green line. She is going to think about things. He is going for a fishing trip.
   She doesn’t know what to do. Her boyfriend of three years has just proposed to her and she very badly wants to say yes. She feels awful for not saying it right away, though he swears he understands that she needs the time to think things over. She just isn’t sure that now is the right time. Her parents are getting older and her brother is sick and she feels the burden of them. Her family weighs on her mind and she feels as though accepting her boyfriend’s offer will just shift that burden onto him. She worries that if he shoulders her burden he will come to hate her eventually and that would break her heart. Worrying so much is breaking her heart already. She just doesn’t know what to do. She hopes a walk in the park will clear her head and maybe show her the path to take.
   He is trying to get away from his roommate. His roommate just got a new girlfriend and they’re going at it like bunnies. It’s been two days and they haven’t left the room except to get food from the fridge at odd hours of the night. Well, and the one time they both went to take a shower. He needs some space, and he wants to let them have it as well. He hates feeling like a third wheel in his own home, in his own fridge. He hopes that fishing will help him quell his jealousy, maybe allow him to see things in a more positive light. He also hopes that if he spends long enough on the water he will be able to return to an apartment that holds only his roommate, or better yet, no one at all. He needs his space too.


IV.
Two people who used to know each other but don’t anymore board the same bus at different times. It is the yellow line traveling northwest towards Castor Ln. and the best deli in town.
   She has just gone on her lunch break and needs to get out of the office. Not that she doesn’t love her work but it is a very humid day and the office feels like a sauna. She has high hopes for the food of this place, though she’s never been there herself. A coworker told her about it and even wrote down the directions for her. It sounds like a nice place and she’s been wanting to get to know the city better since she moved there. It’s hard to get around, but at times like these she feels that maybe she is the one that makes it hard. She’s always at work or at home, never going out with friends. They invite her, of course. Coworkers and old friends alike will ask her out for a beer or dancing but she doesn’t go. She begs off, saying she’s got too much work or she didn’t budget well enough this month and when she says it it’s the truth. But some part of her knows that it’s not. Not really.
   He is going there to break up with his girlfriend. He thought he loved her, a month ago, but now he’s realized that he’s not ready for love. Not the kind of love that she wants. Not commitment. He wants to give her that, to promise that he’ll always be there for her, but he knows it’s a lie. He still feels the call of the wild, all the places he hasn’t been. He wants to explore the world and she wants to build a home. She’ll cry, he knows, and he might too (in private, of course). It doesn’t change anything though. At least he’ll be able to get some good food out of the whole ordeal, if he can manage to stomach it. He always picks this particular deli to break up with women because after they storm out in tears he can sit back and wallow in his misery with the help of a double decker turkey sub. It helps him absorb the pain and start to heal, or so he tells himself.


V.
Two people who know each other but don’t like each other board the same bus. It is the orange line going north towards the main train station.
   She gets off at the first stop, because she sees him at the other end of the bus.
   He sees her on the sidewalk as the bus pulls away and thanks his lucky stars for a bullet dodged.


VI.
Two people who don’t know each other board a bus.
   They both see a free seat and head toward it, hoping to give their feet a rest. It is the end of a long day and neither of them is in the mood for a long, crowded bus ride. They collide and in their apologies someone else takes the seat. They smile at each other and complain about the seating on public transportation. She is blushing and hopes he assumes it’s from the heat and the press of people. He is smiling too much and hopes she doesn’t assume he’s crazy or on drugs. They flirt a little, then move into deeper conversation territory. They realize they’ve been taking the same bus for years and wonder that this is the first time they’ve met. They discover they’re both headed toward the same stop and each can’t help but think how many times they passed the other by in their rush to get where they are going without even seeing those around them. She wonders if she’s seen him her dreams. He wonders if she likes Dancing with the Stars.
   After they depart they go their separate ways, but now they’ve meet each other. They’re no longer strangers.


VII.
Two people board a bus.
   But hey, you’ve probably heard this story before.