It was 27 February 2002, and I was some distance
from the bus stop on my way to school when I saw a
young man in his twenties standing in front of the
bus stop’s long, wooden bench. The bench in that bus
stop faced west. At the first sighting of him, I
felt a bit of infatuation and so having reached up
to the bus stop, I decided to stand beside him to
wait for the bus rather than sit down. I could feel
a sort of warmth while standing near him. Then a bus
came and I got on the bus not thinking whether he,
too, had got on the bus. However, when I returned
from school around 1:00pm, I would see him once more
sitting on the bench.
I tried to put him out of my mind as I
somehow felt I was being silly to notice him.
The next day when I went to the bus stop, I would
see him again sitting on the bench. I didn’t give
him much thought, and when the bus came, I would
board it as usual. However, when I returned in the
early afternoon, I would see him still sitting there
on the bench. I walked past him and having walked
twenty or thirty paces towards my home, I looked
over my shoulder to see him looking at me. This was
my first eye contact with him. For five seconds, we
held each other’s gaze, and I eventually wondered to
myself why he was sitting here now, and why he had
been there in the morning as well. Still, I threw
his thoughts out of my mind.
After that, I didn’t see him for the next two
months. Thoughts of him lingered in my mind, but I
wouldn’t say I was obsessed with him. In the second
week of May, my school closed for summer vacation.
However, on 22 May 2002, I had to go to meet one of
my acquaintances where she lived near my school. My
mother walked me to the bus stop around 8:00 that
morning, and, lo and behold, there he was, walking
towards the bus stop from the road which would run
from west to east whereas the road through which I
would come from my home to the bus stop would run
from north to south. Thus, those roads running
almost at ninety degrees with respect to each other
would meet near that bus stop. The road running
towards the east would continue to run in that
direction past the bus stop and after some miles
ahead along that direction, there was my school.
I had put on a yellow suit. He had put on jeans and
a blue shirt. He came up to the bus stop and sat on
the long wooden bench facing west that is facing the
direction the bus would be coming from. I stood near
him facing north. After some seconds, I glanced
sideways while smiling. He was looking at me. For a
moment, I felt a mixture of embarrassment and
jubilation. I sat down at the other end of the
bench. After several minutes, a bus arrived. My
mother put me on it, instructing me to sit by the
conductor, and left for home. After about fifteen
minutes, the bus reached the stop near my school. I
made the conductor stop the bus, and I got off. As
soon as I started to walk back from the stop towards
the school, there was a surprise for me: I saw him
exiting the back door of the bus. Having got off, he
glanced at me and started to walk in the same
direction I was moving along, several paces in front
of me. Thinking he wanted to say or ask something, I
sped up so as to overhaul him. Perhaps he would
understand my motivation and he would also increase
his pace. He walked faster so that I could not
overtake him. Soon, I was forced to turn onto the
street where I had to meet my acquaintance. Still, I
couldn’t help wondering why he had boarded my bus
and why he had got off when I had. Obviously, he
couldn’t have known where I would get off. He must
have bought a ticket for some distant destination
but disembarked after travelling only three miles.
He had wasted money just to know where I was going.
What was in his mind? Either he indeed had something
to ask me, or else he was besotted with me and
simply curious as to where I was going. I thought
about the fact that I had started seeing him at my
bus stop in February. Why had he been there then in
the first place?
If he had some purpose, then that purpose had not
been accomplished until now. I had not seen him in
more than the last ten weeks when I waited for a bus
at the bus stop. However, when schools were closed
for summer vacation and I had randomly chosen 22 May
to go to see my acquaintance, I would stumble upon
him. So, it was indeed a coincidence. Having seen
him on 22 May 2002, it eventually became impossible
for me to pass any particular day without his
thoughts. Days and months passed on and I started to
think, he wouldn’t come here anymore. But my
intuition was fallacious.
It was 11 November 2002, when I came up to the bus
stop and he was there sitting at the far end of the
long wooden bench. After some minutes, a bus moving
eastwards reached the bus stop, and I walked some
paces southwards through the road in front of the
wooden bench which faced west and reached up to the
gate of the bus and hence he must have seen me while
I passed the road in front of that wooden bench
although I didn’t look sideways while walking along
the road in front of the bench. I got on the bus,
took a seat next to the window, and looked out. He
was still sitting on the bench looking straight.
This time he didn’t get on the bus. He was not there
even upon my return in the early afternoon.
The next day while leaving my home for my school, I
hoped he was there. I had got a bit or probably much
infatuated with him but I pooh-poohed this feeling.
I just wanted him to be there. It was a public place
and there was no vice in seeing a stranger casually.
No one would take offence if I saw him casually. So,
there was no need to feel apprehensive if he turned
up there even today. These ideas crossed my mind
while I was walking up to the bus stop and as soon
as the bus stop came into my sight, there was a
surprise. He was there.
