At Exactly 10.40 am the blue striped orange bus had just stopped in Levenshulme. The passengers trooped in and out, but among them a distinguishable elderly man is seen holding the lead of his brown dog as he boarded the bus. The brown striped dog stood at the bus main entrance, wagged its tail, faced the incoming passengers and barked viciously towards them as they embarked. The other passengers hesitantly ignored it as they squeezed through between the owner and his dog. The owner of the dog stood next to the driver but it did not take long before every Jack and Jill knew this man had a scruffy voice that scratched anything that came on it’s way. The driver was the first casualty caught in the middle of preserving sanity on the bus. Immediately the bus driver was told to F**k off, as the owner declined to silence his dog as an instruction from the driver. He pulled out his ticket from the ticket machine after paying.
As he moved inwards, his dog rushed past him heading to the stairway but unfortunately that destination was not fulfilled as the spiteful owner dragged the dog down and he dawdled it to sit on the front for the elderly seats on the bus, which was appropriate for his age. He sat down quietly as if nothing had happened and stroked his dog now and then. It seemed as if the dog was anxious about something. It was not stable, wagged its tail and swerved its eyes in every direction.
My eyes had never wavered off from him as true to my name Karinga, Karinga the observer. I had to see something at different angles. I always thoroughly enjoyed the benefit of doing it. They are some astonishingly flavours that come out by mere observing and thinking critically and the reward is great. I mean metaphorical flavours. This elderly man had intrigued me so that I thought if it were Shakespeare’s time surely this man would be one of his characters with a personality that entices the world. The man would be a Hollywood star in a few seconds and blown the world with his personality. But alas, at this moment of time there was nobody to interest him in film acting.
I would describe this spiteful man as gaunt, tall and had a long white beard with wider shoulders. He had a rogue character. He had a way that people would notice him and his appearance would last forever in their mind. Some people may call it charisma or whatever name but for him I assure you that it was definitely in his blood. He could not be missed among the crowd.
The bus rolled on and after a few stops I saw the spiteful man rise from his seat and lead his dog towards the entrance. The bus was still moving on. It only signalled that the spooky man and his brown dog were dropping off on the next stop. The next stop was Longsight. He was almost at the front when an elderly woman who was sitting at the front seats just opposite to the driver was attracted to the brown dog. She calmly chatted to the dog. The dog became very excited, wagged its tail, picking up the elderly lady’s scent it jumped up, throwing its forelegs and suspended them a little while and almost knocking out the elderly lady’s legs.
“Get off, Get off,” the spiteful man shouted angrily. The words came out and felt they were more directed to the human than to the dog. It annoyed one of the fellow passengers who was also about to alight from the bus and thought he should take off the heat from the spiteful man and his dog. “That’s no way of speaking to people,” he calmly corrected him. His politeness was immediately dismissed “What if the dog fucking bites her? Will you fucking pay her?” Said the spiteful man as his voice roared like a lion. I saw a number of people laughing and seemingly enjoying the hot conversation and yearning for it not to stop. The polite man realised it was a non-starter and decided that it was better to seal his mouth. The bus came to halt and the spiteful man and his brown dog followed each other as they stepped out from the bus. Outside a crowd of passengers who were about to get on the bus were also drawn to the spiteful man and his brown dog. Whatever the words he spat out when he went out made a crowd of people laugh and they shook their heads as they flocked on to the bus.
They say take one day at time. Surely it was one of the days that was mixed with human flaws and the desire to do well. As for me it was my pleasure guilt hence sourcing me with more dramas of life to write to you.
