On the bus, an old woman was shouting at a small girl and even making fun of her parents. But then the child did something out of the ordinary.
I took the bus home from work and was as tired as usual. It was dark. The passengers were as exhausted as I was, and they sat silently in the gloom, gazing at their phones.
At one stop, a woman who looked to be in her 60s boarded. She was well-groomed, sporting a chic handbag, a tight ponytail, and fashionable clothes. Naturally, there were no free seats. She exhaled deeply, rubbed her lower back, and cast a critical gaze at the passengers seated. No one moved.
In the back of the bus slept a young girl with messy hair, a phone, and a large bag. She was actually asleep, with her lips open and her head thrown back.
She was approached by a woman who said something. The young woman said nothing. Then the woman yanked her hair and started to yell:
“Have you not been taught to respect your elders?” she shouted for everyone to hear.
The girl woke up, looked up, and gazed around, confused.
I was asleep. “You could have just asked,” she said calmly and quietly.
Keep quiet. The atmosphere on the bus became tense. The woman must have thought her calmness was weakness.
How rude! “What a terrible upbringing!” she repeated, her voice rising.
It got uncomfortable. The girl didn’t move, yet her gaze didn’t waver.
“You had no right to touch me,” she added calmly. I would have offered you my seat if you had asked nicely. But instead you yell at me and insult me.
She grew even more enraged and started slandering the girl’s parents, saying things like they were irresponsible, needed to be re-trained, and hadn’t taught their child etiquette.
The woman was quiet when the girl made a gesture that startled all of the passengers.
Clearly wanting to do it rather than becoming hysterical, the child calmly removed her water bottle and poured it on the mother.
She whispered softly, but loudly enough to keep the bus silent, “Don’t talk about my parents.”
The woman said nothing. “Wow,” someone whispered, while someone else chuckled uneasily.
That’s enough, isn’t it? — a man’s voice said from behind.
Others spoke up:
She was just sleeping.
What connection does it have to her parents?
The woman sat stunned. Her face was pouring wet and her makeup was ruined. The girl calmly got up and arranged her backpack instead of gloating.
To be honest, I would have given up my seat. Before stepping off at the next stop, she added, “But nobody was nice to me.”
The silence that followed was deafening. No one knew for sure who was right. Everyone asked in quiet, “And me? What would I have said?
The woman cleaned her face with a tissue. Maybe she was carrying a lot of pain, maybe she was really hurting. Or maybe she was just tired of being invisible.
The driver turned around and said:
— After one more situation like that, I’m going to kill everyone. That’s enough. I’m more tired of life than the two of you together.
“And if it happened to you, which side would you be on?”
