I was riding a bus, headed for home, as we rounded a corner at an intersection. Because of a bus’s length, it has to go almost all the way through an intersection before the driver cranks the wheel for the turn, and this driver misjudged the distance. As we came onto the new street, our bus bumped over the curb and lightly smacked a telephone pole.

We’d only been going 5-10 mph, so it wasn’t a big bloody wreck, but the bus was taken out of service, and some guy in a suit wanted witness statements from all the passengers. Everyone was asked the same questions and everyone gave the same answers, and it all seemed pointless and bureaucratic, so when the guy with the clipboard came to me in my seat ans started asking, I refused to answer. He called me an asshole, I agreed, and then he was asking the same questions of the person sitting behind me.

A long time ago, I was on a bus that had a fender-bender, and it wasn’t like this at all. First thing that driver did was get everyone off the bus, but this driver was still in his seat. And nobody had come ’round asking questions so quickly, so I was starting to think this was a dream.

Then a second bus came, and all the passengers got onto the second bus with a second driver, to finish our trip. We’d been delayed way too long, so everyone was grumpy and I was grumpiest, but I took the same seat on the second bus as on the first bus, and we rolled along.

Then the bus rounded a corner at an intersection, and I could see what was about to happen. Like the Shangri-Las doing “Leader of the Pack,” I sang, “Look out, look out, look out!” but as we came onto the new street, our bus bumped over the curb and lightly smacked a telephone pole.

Again? Wait a frickin’ minute, I said to myself, this can not be real. So I forced my eyes open, hoping to wake in my recliner at home, but I was still on a bus.

What had happened was, I’d fallen asleep on the bus, and dreamed that the bus was in a wreck, and then dreamed a second bus was in a second wreck. But of course, there’d been no wrecks at all, and I woke in the same seat where I usually sit, second row on the left, same seat I’d been riding on both buses that wrecked.

I’m blaming Donald Trump for the dream, but when I woke, the bus was only a few stops from home. Maybe that means something?

3/1/2025

Transit Takes

itsdougholland.com
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