This Is My Stop

I'm an impatient person by nature, but I don't like standing by a toaster that's in action... The anticipation could very easily give me a heart attack.

The bench is cold, even through my dress pants. What a miserable day this is... Can't one thing go right? I wanted this day to go nicely so I could maintain my composure tonight... when I plan to break up with my boyfriend. The only soothing thing about a bus delay is the sound of the rain droplets on the umbrella protecting my head. To be completely honest, I'd rather it be sunny, as the rain is causing me to be even more cold.

 

I am alone at the bus stop, strangely enough, when an old woman appears on the sidewalk, approaching slowly, without cover from the increasingly light rain. She seems sweet, but I turn my head away from her, not feeling very sociable. "What's the matter, Veronica?"

 

I realize I must know her. "I lost my job," I admit rather quickly without thinking.

 

She sits down on the bench next to me wraps her arm around my shoulders. "Can't I have a little bit of that umbrella, dear?"

 

"Sure." I hold it over her head but keep it over mine enough that neither of us are getting wet, which seems rather impossible.

 

"I need to leave." She stands suddenly. I let her go, not having particularly wanted her around in the first place. After a few moments, a bus stops, and I stand to get on; two people get off, a teenage boy and his little sister, hand in hand. I place my foot on the first step, but the driver stops me from getting on.

 

"Eh-eh. I'm going home. The next bus will get you." He shuts the door and speeds off. My shoulders sag, and I have a seat back on my bench. I look over to the park, where the boy and his sister are now playing with a Frisbee, even in the drizzle.

 

Luckily, somehow, my bench is completely dry. I notice a tree has been planted directly behind the bench, and it has grown tall, and I don't even need my umbrella. I close it, realizing this must be how I was able to keep myself and the old woman I know dry, even though my umbrella was only made for one person.

 

I hear the little girl scream, so I glance over again, and her older brother is tickling her, and she doesn't like it, but he won't stop. He's just laughing and laughing. He notices me looking and stops tickling her. In fact, he takes her by the hand and begins walking her toward me. They have a seat on the bench across from me.

 

"Hi." He doesn't tell me his name. "I saw you looking at me, and I realized I have to get to know you."

 

"Well, I have a boyfriend," I tell him, nervously. I look down from his face to the little girl's. She smiles a pleasant smile, one her mother probably told her was polite. She probably heard on TV that it's nice to smile at strangers if they look sad. I once heard that.

 

"Veronica, why do you always think everyone's a pervert? I just wanted to talk to you." I realize I know him, too. The little girl, I still don't know. Not until she stands and kisses my cheek. I blink, and all of sudden, her face is my boyfriend's. There's too much light. It's not like the rainy park. It's my bedroom ceiling.

 

"Ronnie, get up. I made coffee."

 

"Billy?"

 

"Yeah. Who else," he laughs.

 

I laugh with realization. "I had the weirdest freaking dream ever."

 

"Cool," he says. "Tell me about it over coffee?"

 

"Okay." I sit up.

 

"Let's go downstairs. You can tell me all the way there if you want."

 

"Okay." We start out the bedroom door and down the stairs. "Well, I was sitting on this park bench waiting for a bus..."

Author's Note

This was kind of an exercise for me to get out of my semi-writers block. I know, it's the cliched "it was all a dream" thing, but I like it all the same. lol

Reviews

[None]

First of all, I adore your title. Your writing is so entertaining. At one point I burst out laughing and found your writing had me smiling all over the place. Very enjoyable at all points. I like how it turned out to be a dream because otherwise that bus driver needed a good smack. lol. Great style and imagination!

[Lyndsay Castro]

I like the way you make this flow. You do a lot better than I would for it being just an exercise! I like how the intensity of the character's feelings, even though it's just a dream, show us something about her. I like it. I could see this being part of a longer work of fiction.

[Adam Chambers]

I am alone at the bus stop, strangely enough,
:don't know if you need "strangely enough" here...

I liked this short short, Kristen. Very much. I think it was a successful "exercise". And possibly could be made slightly longer, maybe incorporating some twist re. the boyfriend, perhaps prior to the dream sequence (?), then the dream, then the waking up scene and some ironic element maybe about the boyfriend that she notices when she wakes up that could have been actually in the dream (example: like how in the dream she sees the girl's face and then in waking realizes its her boyfriends'-- maybe when fully awake after getting downstairs, she sees a woman's wig on the counter that looks exactly like the little girls' hair in the dream (?) but she knows she didn't see the wig yesterday and asks him for an explanation and maybe he claims to not know and acts dumb so you think maybe he's cheating and she is justified in breaking up with him, but then a knock on the door interrupts their coffee and it is a woman from the hospital coming to pick up the wig she bought for her mother who has cancer and maybe the boyfriend had actually done a good deed and special ordered it made for this person (who is a coworker or something) but didn't want to tell his girlfriend because of...(?) just an idea... : )