Time For My Bus

Today I was rushing around W H Smith in Richmond, buying some souvenirs of my trip… err… home to take… err… away with me to give to my friends… err… as far away from home as it’s possible to get.

Yes, yes that’s all the right way around.

I looked at the DVD case on the end of an aisle – I think 4 of the movies on display were My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bruce Almighty, The Passion Of The Christ and Wimbledon.

Unfortunately I was looking for Bagpuss.

If you’ve been paying attention, then you’ll have concluded that if I was rushing around buying gifts for my New Zealand friends, then I must be flying back tonight.

I hate being in a rush.

To prove the point, I raced and just caught the bus. I had to get home and finish packing. I got out my money – I had no change – only a tenner. The driver looked at it from behind his reinforced plastic barricade and shook his head at me. “Nah,” he said in a monotone. “Nah, I can’t take that.”

Funnily enough, neither could I.

“Okay FINE!” I said to him. “You don’t know where I have to get to, by what time, or what I have to do tonight, but that’s fine, I’ll just WALK!”

I got off and headed for the back of the bus, hoping to catch another one.

There was a beeping sound. A honking. He was honking his horn.

After a moment I wondered if he was actually honking at me.

I walked back to the front of the bus. He was smiling and gesturing for me to come back. Refusing to let my frownish guard down I got on.

He said “I wasn’t refusing to take you, I was going to take you for free.”

…

Typical. Absolutely typical. Other people seem allowed to get stroppy, but not me. Oooooh noooooo, not even allowed to once.

So I did the only thing I could do, I thanked him, in front of everyone, apologisied, in front of everyone, and sat down.

During the sluggish journey that I probably might as well have walked, I realised that I had to make things right. I mean he may well have simply been lying about his intentions in order to save face, but I shouldn’t have tailored a crime to fit his measurements.

Before I got off, I said to him that I’d had no right to presume the worst of him, he chuckled and reiterated his claim, we both smiled and went our separate ways in peace.

As I walked up to my street, I reflected on the three things that had just happened.

1. God had taught me a lesson.

2. Hopefully God had taught him a lesson too, if only about communicating clearly.

3. God had given me a free bus ride home.

It was all oddly familiar.