Public Transportation Ch. 01

(This is my first attempt at a longer story. I am going to put it up in shorter chapters as I finish them. It may take awhile, but the whole story will emerge eventually. Don't expect anything hot and heavy at this point.)

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Lenny Sanderson waved at the PACE bus from across the intersection on Plainfield Road, willing the driver to notice him. He could see it was that cute black driver that was always smiling at him and calling him sweetheart or honey. Sure, she called everyone that, but Lenny liked to imagine that she actually meant it when she said it to him. It was one of the only bright spots in his lonely life. He felt a sense of relief when she waved at him. He could see her eyes sparkling from across the street.

Lenny, like many of his friends, had completed his associate's degree at Joliet Junior College. His was in literature. That was so... useless, kind of like what that guy in the movie Waiting had said. It was only good for managing a restaurant or substitute teaching... his heart held back the next word.

His brother Frank was Downs and he never could stomach anyone calling him that evil word. The only fights he had ever been in at school had been protecting his brother's honor. Sure, he and Frank had called enough other names, told their mom on each other, tried to beat the crap out of each other and such, but they were brothers. No one else was allowed to touch his brother, but him.

When he had started working at Steak N' Shake, it was only supposed to be a part-time job, to get some spending money while he took classes. His father's dead had changed all of that. There wasn't time for classes or dreams of teaching anymore. Someone had to provide for Frank and their mom. Her classroom assistance salary barely stretched to meet the rent on their run-down apartment. He had to come up with enough to keep the lights on and buy Frank his favorite cereal, Captain Crunch. Frank was going through job training, but it was obvious he would never be independent. He would always be there, needing help and support.

Lenny loved Frank, sometimes more than he felt he loved himself, but the plan was always for his parents to take care of him. Lenny was supposed to become an English teacher, to marry a pretty girl, to have beautiful children and visit their Uncle Frank on Sundays after church. Sure, there was the knowledge that someday Frank might have to live with him, or he might have to help him with an apartment or group living situation, but that wasn't suppose to come up for another twenty or thirty years. Damn it... Damn drunk driver. Not even the love of Jesus had let Lenny let go of his anger and hate. He tried, but he still felt it clenched up in his gut, along with his anger toward his father for leaving them early and resentment toward his brother for not being normal... capable of taking care of his own shit.

One instant his father had been traveling his normal route from Mokena to Joliet. His old Ford station wagon, still functional after thirty loving years of care, was filled with the songs of Doris Day and Frankie Avalon. He had just received a promotion to daytime manager at the drugstore and a raise to boot. He was headed home to give his lovely fifty-something bride a boutique of roses and a box of her favorite Russell Stover's Candy. The next minute he and his care were crushed between a semi and a drunk driver with an American Flag flying from the door of his white Land Rover.

The morning was cold and misty. He found himself running across the intersection like the Juice through an airport. He leapt a ditch dug by the city of Joliet six months before (with no indication it would ever get filled in), through the traffic barriers and then almost was totaled by a red Toyota truck turning right. The bastard had actually turned when there was a pedestrian waiting to cross! Crap!

Something inside him felt sure the bus would disappear on him before he could reach it, just like every potential friendship with any human female had ever done. He could almost hear the driver's thoughts, staring at him dashing toward him in his Stake N' Shake uniform. He could almost feel the revulsion she must feel as he flipped the bird at the quickly vanishing bronco. His shoulder length hair, pulled back in a ponytail, was soaked with weeks of grease from working the breakfast grill. Surely she must notice, even from a distance. Today might be different though. He was coming in for second shift, to train to wait tables, at last. Part of his heart felt happy. The other part laughed at him, realizing it was just one more step in a dead-end job.

As he neared the bus, Lenny could even feel revulsion flowing from the cute, 2D Hooters girl splastered across the entire side of the bus. Her news-print eyes grew colder as he dashed toward her, trying not to start at her shapely poison. The driver might think he was some sort of pervert... most surely did think. He wasn't. He was just... lonely. Ya, that was the answer.

He almost jumped up the stairs, still filled with a youthful energy, which in years to come time would slow to a more halting, stiffness that was more in keeping with his outlook. He mumbled his good morning at the driver, not able to look up at her smiling, green shadowed eyes. She waited patiently as he rumbled in his pockets, looking for his buck and a quarter.

"Sure is depressing out there today, huh?" the driver's soft voice asked.

Lenny risked a quick look up at her, taking in her chubby, but cute face and soft pink lips. "Up, yup... Sorry, looking for my change."

He had always loved her voice. It was quiet and soft, but with a hint of nasalness to give it power. It wasn't what most people would find sexy, but he found himself imagining it talking to him at night, telling him he was a good man; a good provider and lover.

A soft, short fingered hand, with long, sparkly green nails gestured reassurance. He almost felt that if his hand had been near the money deposit, the hand would have patted his. "Don't worry honey. There isn't anybody but Henry on the bus this late."

A balding emaciated man in a wrinkled black trench coat looked up from the first seat and gave them both a toothless grin. "Love you Norma Girl!" He said, giving her reflection in the above mirror a wink.

"Love you too Henry Honey. Stay sweet, but stay in your seat." The driver gave him a cross look in the mirror, but winked at him.

Lenny felt oddly jealous. He wished she would wink at him, just once. He stood for a moment, fishing through his pockets, then came up with an assortment of coins that did the trick. As he dropped the coins in the slot, he flickered his gaze at her again, taking in her pleasantly plump frame stuffed into a Pace uniform. He had never gotten a good enough look at her to be sure of her age, be he imagined she was probably in her early twenties, like him. His quick looked stopped at her face. It seemed like the world stopped and then slowly advanced, frame by frame, as one emerald covered eyelid closed slowly over a creamy brown eye.

"Better stop staring and get to your seat, unless you're going to buy me dinner." Her voice didn't hold a hint of mockery, only gentle teasing. Lenny found himself staring at her for a second longer, taking in her soft, shoulder length hair, her round but pleasing face and her plump pink lips. Just as quickly he felt himself turn red and stammer an apology, before nearly running past her into the bus. He stumbled down the aisle in his embarrassment, stripped up the stairs leading to the back of the bus.

Lenny slumped onto a bench, trying to hide behind the utilitarian metal pipes that supported the bus's interior. He looked up at the advertising ringing the top of the bus's walls, trying to make sure she knew that he was NOT looking down the long aisle at her. His eyes locked onto a mini-poster of Jack Black en Nacho Libre, featuring the pretty nun, the freaky wrestling partner and the little fat kid. The words were in Spanish. Lenny read them over and over again, waiting for his stop to come. Finally the bus pasted Movies 10 and the big Barnes and Nobles, dropping him off right at Steak N' Shake.

He usually went out the front door of the bus, even if he was sitting in the back, enjoying that one last glance at the back of her head, of her telling him to have a great day. Today he snuck out the side door, shouting a harsh thank you, before leaping to the curb, not waiting to see if she said anything back. Crap... He was such a fool. She had winked at him though. His heart clung to that wink life a lifeline, while his head cursed him for a damned fool.

To Be Continued...