Yesterday morning I missed the bus. Maybe a minute late. Caught another to Granville, then waited for the next bus on the route I wanted. While waiting, a woman came out of McDonald’s with another man, thanked him, and mingled among us. She then asked all of us for change. Well, everyone except me. Guess it’s time to do laundry.
When it came, she got on the bus and sat in the back. She asked the man across from her for change. She said she was getting a place to live today, she was going to shower and get her act together. She’d been clean for 24 hours.
He reached into his pocket and gave her all the loose coins he had. A sour look, and she said, “Is this all?”
A man dressed in traditional African clothing got on the bus. The woman leapt to her feet and saluted him! “My brother,” she shouted. “My brother! Black power, my brother!”
He looked her up and down. He scowled. He blurted, “Get out of here!”
And she did, at the very next stop, after asking him for change.
