Bus Stop

Sarah Browning sat on the uncomfortable, wooden bench underneath the glass bus stop. She looked to her left and smiled at the old woman who sat next to her.

“Alright, dear?” the elderly woman asked, with a voice that shook constantly as if she was leaning against a washing machine running a spin cycle.

“Yes,” Sarah replied, still smiling. “Not bad.”

“Nice day isn’t it? I like it when it’s sunny like this.”

Sarah nodded and turned away to stare at the road in front of her. The road was busy with cars, taxis and lorries congesting the tarmac like fat in a blocked artery. She suspected that there might be roadworks or maybe even an accident further up the road as the traffic didn’t seem to be moving very much. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was just after two.

Great, she thought. The bus is late. She turned to look down the long line of traffic and couldn’t see the bus anywhere.

She had just finished having lunch with Dan; it was something that her best friend, Rachel, had set up to try and get the two of them together, but it really wasn’t going to happen. Dan was a lovely man, he really was, it was just that… well, she found him kind of boring. He talked a lot about his job at the bio-science lab and she only understood less than half of what he was saying. His constant chatter about stem cells, bacteria and viruses seemed to keep him excited, but she found it all mind-numbingly boring. When she got home, she would tell Rachel that he was nice but she won’t be seeing him again. Definitely not. She put her hand over her mouth to cover the sudden cough that jolted her body and made the old woman jump.

Sarah looked at the woman and silently mouthed the word ‘sorry’, as the cough had caught in her throat and she couldn’t speak for a moment. The old woman smiled back at her, deepening the wrinkles around her mouth.

The traffic started moving again and Sarah looked back up the road to try and spot her bus. As a lorry moved towards them, a red double decker emerged from behind it. She sat back a little on the seat, so the back of her head rested against the glass. A woman appeared to her right, holding the hand of a young boy who couldn’t have been much older than five or six years old. The woman sat down on the bench, leaving a space between her and Sarah, and then lifted the boy up to sit him in the gap. The boy looked at her with an expressionless face.

Sarah coughed again. This time, though, there was a roughness to it that made her throat suddenly feel like she had swallowed sandpaper. The traffic lurched forward and the bus soon appeared before them. Sarah stood up and gestured for the old woman to go first.

“No thanks, dear. I’m waiting for the 63.”

Sarah nodded, climbed on to the bus and paid the driver. She turned to walk down the aisle and saw that most of the seats were taken. Her eyes fixed on a couple of spare places towards the back, so she made her way over to them and sat down behind a young couple who were too busy looking at a holiday brochure to notice her.

She cupped her hands to her mouth as another cough came to her, grating her throat once again. When she felt something damp in her palm, she opened her hands to find a small globule of red phlegm. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped away the disgusting blob. She didn’t know where the cough had come from, as she certainly didn’t wake up with it and she didn’t remember being around anyone that had it, either. Now she was concerned that it looked like there was blood coming up with it, so she might have to visit the doctor if it gets worse.

The bus pulled away from the roadside and joined the slowly moving traffic.

As it gradually disappeared amongst the cars and lorries, the old woman and the little boy both started coughing at the same time…