After my colleagues have become victims of pickpockets on bus one by one, my nerves will grow intensified the moment I step on the bus, and nothing will distract me from my wallet and mobile until I get off the bus with a sigh of relief. But, exceptions occur.
Last Sunday, a stuffy warm day in Guangzhou, I got on the bus to the sports center in the afternoon. As fortune would have it, seats were all taken, and I wondered why luck would never favor me when I hungered so much for it—an hour’s distance from my home to the sports center. But the fancy was soon discarded and succeeded with my alert when I suddenly noticed a guy who kept peeking around through his glasses not far from me. Subconsciously, I put my right hand upon the pocket while the other one clutching the handrail near the front door, and maintained the same pose until some disagreeable acid smell flowed in when the door opened at the Xiaobei stop.
I covered my nose with my right hand and turned around, in search of the source
of the unpleasant smell, and saw an old man with messy white hair limping up, dirty and stinking, his face wrinkled and his back stooping down. A beggar, I thought to myself. The driver glanced at him in an annoying air, and was returned with an awkward smile.
“Go to the back door.” He waved to the old man with impatience. The dirtiness
and the smell seemed to irritate him.
The old man followed the order, tottered steps forward, and stopped beside a mid
-aged woman on the seat near the back door. Some passengers began to frown, and
some shied away, but no one offered the seat to the old man. The bus stopped at
the next stop, and the woman rose to her feet, cast a look at the old man in a loathing undisguised, and rushed off the bus before the old man took the seat with a grateful nodding to her. Beside him there sat a young man, who had been staring out of the window all the way, not even noticing the successor. I wondered if he had his neck wrenched or caught a bad cold.
A while later, the young man finally turned around, and was taken aback at sight
of the old man beside him. The dislike immediately appeared in his eyes, and restless and agitated he soon became, moving his body towards the window, and turning around from time to time to make sure there was no physical touch with the old man.
But at last, he could struggle no more and vacated his seat and walked towards the back of the bus. The old man then moved to the window seat, for the convenience of other passengers. But the man beside the seat turned a blind eye to his good will, and so did other people nearby. The seat remained empty.
Later, a lady, together with a little boy, got on the bus. The lady took a quick
glance of the bus, and her eyes were soon fixed on the empty seat.
“Go take the seat, son!” She pushed her son, lest the seat would be taken by other passengers.
Her son did not disappoint her and secured the seat. But the lucky happiness took its flight the moment she joined her son and caught sight of the old man. She
finally understood why nobody attempted to take the seat.
“Son, Stand up. Don’t occupy the seat.”
“But why? You told me to take the seat just now.” Her son asked, puzzled.
“My bag is too heavy, and I need the seat for it.”
“But why don’t you…”
“What an inquisitive child you are! Just do what I tell you.” The mother lost
her patience and was about to snatch him up with her powerful hand.
Reluctantly obeying the order, the son left the seat for his mother’s big but half-empty bag.
I peaked at the old man, and found the embarrassing calmness on his weather-beaten face. I could not figure out how he felt. No, I dreaded for such an attempt.
My face kept flushing red on the cool air-conditioned bus. I wondered why the old man had not reached his destination yet, and then, I wondered if the mother and her son would possibly get off the bus later than the old man so that the seat
would not become unoccupied again.
The bus soon approached the sports center. I got off the bus, but my mind failed
to appease. I had been labeling myself as a well-educated man of good breeding,
but for that moment, my self-confidence was shaken—What if I were that young man? What if I were that mother?
