The public transport in this city is a joke; nevertheless, I checked the bus app at my desk and planned my exit so I make it to the right bus -I have no choice. This is how governments all over the world get away with all kinds of shit: tax paying slaves without a better option.
It always takes me an eternity to shut down, pack up, go to the toilet and haul my many bags to the lift. Why do I always have so many bags? Unknown. There's always at least 2, some days a paper bag for shoes and then an embarrassing tote. Really, I could stay the night. Eventually, I'm out of the headquarters, the great blue & silver Aragog! I cross the road, walk up the hill & my face slowly sinks, not having to smile at everyone anymore. I find it more and more exhausting every day, having to smile. Especially when they come over to your desk with some unnecessary question they could have messaged, or just to chat. Compulsory smiling is draining and it's in bad taste. I make a point of delaying its commencement, displaying the struggle that it is. For some curious reason I have not been abandoned by the entire office yet.
I was supposed to miss the first bus & linger at the bus stop on K Rd for about 10 minutes. But the public transport being a joke, the bus is so late I might make it. I hate K Rd. The look of it, the smell of it, the lurking surprises and the fact that nothing looks strange enough for it. Well, I just deleted a very long paragraph detailing all the ways and reasons I hate K Rd but it's a bit sick to write a paragraph about something you wish to not see , isn't it?
As I'm waiting by the road, scrolling & refreshing my phone screen with boredom I notice a young woman yelling at someone across the road. I can't hear her through my noise cancelling headphones, but I can't fully ignore the street, where any minute someone or something may get thrown at you. The woman is large, roundish and barefoot. In fact it doesn't look like she's wearing anything except for an oversized stained pink T-shirt. She's gesturing to a man across the street with her middle finger mouthing "fuck". Now, I don't quite follow the street talk but it looks less like an insult and more like an offer. She's messy, her hair is all tangled up in a bird nest style, with the ends orange yellow. With one hand she's holding a can of drink and some other unrecognizable object and with the right hand she continues to show the middle finger to the man, then to passers by, then to a woman at the bus stop, then to some hippie-looking woman walking towards the bus stop. The hippie-looking woman stops & talks to her, searching in her bag for coins I assume? or a condom for the services she's offering? I look away. So do 90% of the people around me, they look from the corner of they eyes, their curiosity tingled and then look away not wanting to be part of it. I can see the middle aged woman in front of me is anxious to get on the bus that's stuck at a red light down the street. The woman with the pink T shirt continues to approach people walking up and down the street, with little success. I get on the bus & sit by the window. The bus moves on & stops at the next light. The woman walks past our bus, swaying slightly, then right in the middle of the sidewalk she squats, balancing herself -impressively for her size- on her toes. I look in mild horror, not wanting to believe this is the familiar pose, the peeing squat. The way she's squatting she must have her entire front part -not private anymore- open to the oncoming pedestrians. & then to my continued astonishment a trickle of urine marks the sidewalk & continues long enough to flow down into the new cycleway. I look at the faces of the pedestrians coming towards her, the plain faces not even looking, not surprised, not averting their eyes at all since they don't see her in the first place. She's done, she gets up and walks down the street, approaching a couple, a man, a few shop fronts. If it wasn't for the couple slightly swearing out of her way & laughing as they pass by I would have thought she was a figment of my imagination.
The bus rides down K Rd and we pass her by, swaying into the evening crowd, invisible.
-Originally written on 17 Dec 2022, not published. Probably thought it was too weird or could be improved.
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