Identified

We three were waiting for the bus. Them a middle-aged nice looking couple, seemingly content – she was chatting away to him, her back to me and I couldn’t hear them because I was listening to a script with earphones. A few minutes passed and she turned to me. I could read her lips: Do you live here? Silence from me. Do you live here? she asked again. Do you? I asked. No, she said, we used to live on the UWS, but years ago. Things have so changed about getting around, and we’ve changed, we’re older, she continued. Before I would have walked to the highline then walked the highline, then after lunch walked all afternoon. I now have to think about the afternoon in advance and think about how much I can walk. As I listen to this detailed expose on walking I am waiting to hear what all this has to do with her question: do you live here? She continued on, So I was wondering, she said, about this bus we’re waiting for. Does it run on schedule? Well, I replied, if you want certainty you can walk up the street a few blocks to the subway, but this bus runs more or less on schedule within 10 minutes of it’s given time. Have faith, it comes. Yes, she said, that is what I wanted to know. She turns again to her husband, who has been sitting on the bus stop bench and he says, why did you ask her if she lives here? Because, she answered, she would know if the bus runs on schedule. At that moment we all look up to see the bus approaching. We are boarding and I say, In answer to your question, yes. Oh, she said, I knew, you look like it. As I walked down the aisle of the bus she rose from where she was just seated and said, Do we have to exit out the rear door? They ask you to, I said, but only myself and a few others do. Everyone else goes out the front, which you are a welcome to do. A few blocks later, they did.