Yesturday was Today, Tomorrow

The following is a piece of fiction and was not intended for any particular person.

“Clarity”

The smell of gasoline invaded Jack’s nostrils as he stepped onto the bus. The street was busy, it was peak hour. No space for thinking. He regularly noted the amount of cars and people. There was always the old lady with the white handbag, the tall man in a pinstripe suit and most distinguishable of them all was a little girl with golden-straight hair. But of all of these details he made sure that he was safe, and not just on the bus.

Jack had become accustom to each and everyone’s company on-board. Like himself, for sitting only on the left-hand side, each one of them had their own distinct behavioural characteristics. Jack chuckled every time he would overhear the music through someone else’s headphones on the opposite end of the bus. If it wasn’t the music he was listening to, then it was the gentle calm whistling noise of the breeze passing by his ears when the windows are down. He would like to sometimes imagine that voices were talking to him through the wind, trying to reach out to him and tell him something valuable. He enjoyed the one and a half hour bus rides. Whenever he could, he would lay back deep into his seat, with closed eyelids and picture the rest of the journey home.

One afternoon, where the sun seemed to light-up every part of the bus, Jack noticed a person come onto the bus. This was no ordinary person; this was a person Jack had never seemed before on his rides home. He was curious as to what behavioural characteristic he was going to remember this person by. The skinny long legs, the dark coloured sunglasses identical with the hair would be enough he thought. The person had a tattoo on their ankle, he couldn’t make out what it was, but its importance was matched by the sheer size of it and amount of skin it was covering. The person gently sat down one seat in front of Jack, placing the almost-seemingly weightless bag beside them and falling back into the seat. Appearing to be asleep, Jack leaned forward enough from his seat to whisper, “Hi, are you new around here?”
Silence at first, rising from the seat and turning around was a snapped response,
“Afraid not, are you?”
Breaking a smile, Jack noted how friendly this person was by the facial expression;
“Nah, I live way out over there…”
He announced while pointing through the window into the distant nothingness.
“…But I do like it around here, there seems to be quite a number of quiet people so I guess it’s a nice feeling coming here”

From then on, the two spoke as if they knew each other their whole lives for the entire journey until the person bluntly interrupted Jack to mention their stop was next and will not return back onto the bus since it was only a one-off trip. Jack, apart from being a little sadden by this, was surprisingly upbeat since his day got better knowing he made at least one person happy today.
The person stepped off the bus, paused, turned around to wave once and starting walking. Jack nodded, waved once and pierced the sky to see how clear it was.

He thought he could change a person’s life today that would change his own life tomorrow.