RTD A Lookbook Journey by Shannon Hickman
The alarm clock rang with an
obnoxious pitch that couldn’t be easily forgotten. The woman hit the button to turn it off, but she was never quite fast enough.
same time
The every morning, even on the weekends when she had nothing better to do than sit at home, catch up on old tv shows, eat leftovers for dinner, and try and figure out
why her life lacked excitement.
She got dressed, put on her sensible shoes, pulled her hair into a tight bun (as usual), applied her only shade of lipstick and a swipe of mascara, making sure that she would leave the house at exactly 6:30 to catch the bus to work.
Carrying her worn handbag and walking to the station, she waited for the 6:40 bus with a handful of strangers. One of them was a man her age, whom she had seen there every single day that she happened to be there. In her wildest dreams she imagined:
Striking up a conversation with him, talking about something other than work and the remaining monotony in her own life. Instead, she told herself that he was probably married. After all, he wore gloves every morning and surely he had to be wearing a wedding ring
underneath.
He carried a briefcase and wore glasses that were an odd shape, but seemed to frame his face perfectly. He would hop on the bus and swipe his card, after all he was a daily rider, and would generally move to the back of the bus or wherever there was an empty seat closest to there. He wasn’t shy, by any means. He just didn’t imagine that he had a lot in common with the other passengers on the bus. He made a nice living, but he chose to take the bus because he hated waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic and found that he was much more productive if someone else was driving.
prō,dək,tivətē, prädək-,prə,dək-/ Productivity. 1. element that this man based his life upon.
He would set his alarm every morning at 6:15, because the extra 15 minutes of sleep made his morning run smoothly. He skipped breakfast so that he could get to work more quickly, even if it meant eating his stale donut and coffee at his desk while his coworkers bonded in the break room. He just didn’t imagine that he had a lot in common with the other workers at his office. He worked through lunch, stayed late at the office until he was the last one to leave, and made his way to the bus stop.
One of the nice things about not having to drive home is that he didn’t have to think about which roads were blocked by a traffic accident.
He didn’t have to think.* He ate his dinner alone while watching reruns of Frasier, got ready for bed, and was asleep by 10:15 ensuring that he would have exactly 8 hours of shut-eye. *about what to make for dinner (because he had take out leftovers in the fridge) *how he could be productive as soon as he got home (there was no work left to be done)
The alarm clock did not ring at 6:00 in the morning. She woke up and the clock read 6:20. No, that couldn’t be right...this had to be a dream. She jumped out of bed and rushed to get ready, thinking of what she could do to save time. She decided to leave her hair down, and went without the lipstick. She could always put her hair up and apply her makeup on the bus. As she went to pick up her handbag, the strap suddenly broke.
“Just my luck” she thought. Already
running late she began to panic even more when she glanced at the clock, 6:35. There was no way that she would be able to make it to the bus stop in time.
6:15
The alarm clock rang at . He picked up his glasses, his briefcase, and...! His gloves! Where were his gloves! They were nowhere to be found on the hook right by the door. Where had they gone? He needed them so that he didn’t have to touch the dirty door or the handles on the bus. After all, if he were to catch the flu it would interfere with completing his tasks. The man searched frantically, looking where he wouldn’t think to put his gloves.. “I know I had them in my briefcase” he thought, “Maybe it was on the bus. Yes, someone probably stole
6:40
. The bus! them!” The man looked at the time, He ran out the door, gloveless, in the hopes that the bus might be running late today. He knew that wasn’t likely.
The man and woman both ran to catch the bus. The man got there first, so tired of running that he sat on the bench. He checked the time posted for the next scheduled bus-7:00. Now he would definitely be late for work, and there was so much to do! The man noticed a smudge on his glasses and took them off to thoroughly clean them. It was actually more of a nervous habit for him. At that exact moment the woman arrived, she noted that the only other person waiting at the stop was a familiar face but he was without gloves or glasses at the moment. “He actually looks much more suited without those glasses� she thought. Her feet ached and there was no one else sitting on the bench, so she joined the man.
He put his glasses on again and he noticed this woman he had seen many times before. “Wow, she looks stunning with her hair down” he thought to himself. She reached into her purse and pulled out her lipstick. Just as she pulled the cap off, the lipstick managed to break. “Perfect” she muttered.
“Seems we’ve both had a rough start to our day”. “You can say that again. What happened to your gloves?”
The two sat in silence for a few minutes, and the man pulled of his glasses and began to clean the already-clear lenses. The woman saw this and figured it was some weird habit. “Off to work this morning?” “You know, work has become the main focus of my life lately. I’d rather not talk about it if you don’t mind.” He glanced up and his eyes met hers “I feel the same way. Let’s talk about something
r a n d o m . If this bus could take you to any place in the world, where would that be?” “What do you mean?” She wondered. “Well, if this became a magic bus that could take you anywhere in the world in the same amount of time that it takes to get to your normal destination, where would that be?” This was a wonderful question and she really had to think about it. “Probably Seattle”. Suddenly his mind went to his favorite tv show, “The space needle?” The two continued to talk about exciting things until the bus arrived and they got on. They sat next to each other, keeping their conversation going.
The bus finally took off. “You know, you’d probably be more productive if you didn’t have to clean those glasses all the time”.