“176. to. Tottenham Court Road,”
the amplified voice, female, informs me.
“Westmoreland Road”. I know her sister.
Or maybe it is her — in a former job.
They are similar — Words. With. Gaps.
As the machine selects the apt phrase
For the location.
"Next Left Turn” — the car GPS guides me,
a bland, unflappable backseat driver
I can insult without fear of reprisal —
when she informs too late or too soon,
or tries to take me down a road that is
now no-entry, her memory frozen, unchanged by
experience or observation. She cannot see Road Works,
road closures, diversions, her bland blindness
often causing me to ‘suspend guidance’.
But on the bus I cannot turn her off.
She intrudes into my reading, my iPod listening, writing.
Insistently and robotically repeating her set route markers;
going up; returning: “176. to. Penge.
Do not. Rest. Do not. Sleep. I cannot. Allow. You to.
Miss your. Stop.”
4 comments:
do you sit at the top or at the bottom of the bus - crucial question
Invariably at the top, if travelling any distance. Legs too long for any seat but the one immediately behind the stairs. Photo shows I am at top of bus, downstairs the sign is behind the stairs.
Why Crucial?
just felt I needed to know...as one who sit downstairs I feel that the upstairs sitters know secrets I will never discover
You see an elevated view of the urban landscape, and escape the bustle and forced standing of lower deck passengers; there are more seats up there potentially than down, but these advantages are offset by the peril of a very likely fall (likelihood increased by carrying heavy bags and the need to get down before the bus stops) on the stairs which makes you grip that handrail for dear life as you descend. I know someone who was crippled without compensation by a fall down the stairs of a bus. Her injuries did not develop into a serious disablement until her claim had been dismissed. So I can understand a preference to stay at the lower level.
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