A Drama in One Act

Setting: It is rush hour on a weekday morning, on a bus heading downtown. A new bus driver is driving the route while an experienced bus driver sits just behind him at the front of the bus.
Enter stage right: Three angry ladies.
Angry Lady #1: It's about time! We've been waiting, you know.
#2: Do you know why this bus is so late?
Experienced Bus Driver (shrugging, smiling): Ma'am, it's just traffic.
#3: Well I don't understand why the buses can't run on time. Why do we even have a schedule?
#2: Yeah, why?
Bus Driver: Are you serious?
#1: Yes, we're serious. All cities have traffic, New York has traffic, and their buses run on time. Are you-all leaving on time?
Bus Driver (stiffens): Of course we are. We've already ran this route three times this morning, and there's traffic around Lee Circle, you'll see there's a big knot of traffic soon as we get past the intersection with Barder.
#2: Well I think you should do better. I think you need to speak to whoever's in charge and get this straightened out. This is just not acceptable. It is unacceptable.
Bus Driver: I'm sorry you feel that way ma'am.
(Five minutes pass. Some passengers get on, others get off. A man stands up from midway down the bus and walks forward to stand just behind where the women are sitting.)
Man: Excuse me. I hope you three ladies have had a few minutes now to think over what you said and to realize how very rude you were to this man. For you three privileged ladies, living in this city, to get on the bus and jump down his throat, was entirely inappropriate. So I think you should apologize.
#2: We're not going to apologize.
#3: We have a right to complain.
Man: It was rude. And that's not how we do things in this city.
#1: We can have you thrown off the bus, for harassing us!
Man: That's not how you treat people. We are nice to people.
(Goes back to his seat.)
#1: Driver! Driver! This man is harassing us! I want him thrown off.
Bus Driver (laughs): He's not harassing you. He's sitting down.
#2: He's harassing us!
Man: Frig* that! You don't need to be getting up in people's faces like that with that shaz* and you owe him an apology. And if anyone agrees with me, perhaps they could give a signal.
Girl: Um, I didn't see the fight, but that sounds reasonable to me.
Another Man: He's right. You don't need to take it out on him.
#2: I'm not taking it out on him, I'm -
Another Man: It was taken out on him.
(Five minutes pass. A few passengers get on or off. Man leaves by the back door, Bus Driver watches him keenly until he's out of sight. Angry Lady #1 leaves without looking at the driver. A few stops later, Angry Lady #3 gets up to leave.)
#3 (meekly): Thank you.
Bus Driver: You have a good day ma'am.
(Five minutes pass. Angry Lady #2 gets up to leave.)
#2: I'm not trying to make trouble, but I think you do need to speak to someone in charge and get this straightened out. You need to run by the schedule.
Bus Driver: All right ma'am, and you have a good day.
(More people leave. One passenger remains as the bus pulls up to the last stop on the route.)
Bus Driver: How you doing miss?
Erin: I'm good, thanks. I thought you handled that very well.
Bus Driver: Why thank you. Don't you ride the Q14 bus sometimes?
Erin: I do. You remember me?
Driver: Sure do. My name's Brian.
Erin: I'm Erin.
(They shake hands.)
Bus Driver: You know, we do the best we can, to stick to the schedule. We already ran this route three times, so anything that happens in the first route, as far as traffic, it just accumulates by this point.
Erin: I know.
Bus Driver: Plus in rush hour there's always stuff you can't plan for. But we don't like to run late. If we're 15 minutes late, that's coming out of our break time, our time that we had for lunch. So that's why I'm like, are you serious?
Erin: Some people are just in a bad mood in the morning.
Driver: Don't I know it. But you take care now, and I'll see you again real soon.
Erin: Thanks! You have a good day.
(to New Driver)
I thought you did really well.
New Driver: Well bless you. God bless.
(Erin exits stage right. Curtain.)

* Not actually what he said.

So that was my drama for the day. I thought it was pretty funny that the woman actually expected the driver to side with her and throw the guy off the bus, after what she had said to him. Also that she thought by yelling at him she would get him to speak to his supervisor. Even I know that's not how you get people to do things for you.

My theory: The first bus gets slowed down because there's people waiting at every stop. Even if there's no one waiting, on a full bus there's a higher chance someone will want to get off at that stop. The bus that comes after it can go faster, because there are a lot of empty stops it doesn't have to stop at, and it's carrying fewer people. So the first bus gets slowed down, the second gets sped up, and it's natural that they bunch together. The "slinky" effect where there are no buses for a while, then two or three bunched together, is unavoidable. I don't know how they overcome that, even in New York.

I really liked it that the guy stood up and said something. It might not come across in the printed dialogue, but the atmosphere in the bus was extremely tense for a few minutes, they were actually yelling at each other. I felt very uncomfortable and just looked out the window and pretended it wasn't happening until things calmed down. And that's how it often is when you stand up and call attention to something that's wrong. It's very hard to do and very uncomfortable. But it's so necessary. I wanted to applaud that guy for speaking up when no one else did.