Ugly Transmission

When I got on the bus this morning, I was pretty out of breath. Usually I can see the 40 coming while I'm sitting on the stairs of a church, waiting. Over the last four months, I've discovered the pattern. The 7 passes, then the 12, then the 40.

This morning, I was walking down my front steps when the 7 passed me. So naturally I thought, ok, 12, then 40, I have time. I have about 6 blocks to walk to the bus stop. When I was at block 5, waiting to cross the street, I saw the 40 turn up the street, having just stopped at my stop. But the next light up the block turned red, so I ran. And I made it, to the driver's amusement. He's always amused when anyone has to run.

So I hauled my backpack onto the bus with me, threw in my handful of change, and walked halfway to the back. About halfway to school, I noticed this guy sitting across the aisle and one row ahead of me. He was rubbing his index finger around his mouth, mostly his lower teeth in front. Something about it kept getting my attention. The way he was doing it so furtively, almost... ashamedly. And then we turned a left, and he looked towards my direction and I saw he had almost no lips, and his teeth were mostly gone, and his gums were bleeding. Not red, but kind of rusty reddish brown.

I really almost gagged--like the time in Hellboy when that wind-up ninja dude had his mask off and he had no eyelids or lips? That seriously makes me queasy. The man on the bus kept rubbing his slobbery reddish fingers on his shirt. Appearing to stop, until he stopped concentrating on keeping his fingers out of his mouth. And soon enough he'd be rubbing his gums again.

I tried really hard not to stare after that. His stop was before mine, and he got up to go to the front door. But the bus lurched, or the driver punched the brake, and he lost his balance. His hand landed on a woman's shoulder. His fingers left a brownish mark. He apologized, I think, but the woman just looked at her shoulder and sighed irritatedly. He got off the bus and she examined the stain. She wet a napkin she had wrapped around a coffeecup with her tongue and scrubbed her shoulder. Then she wet it with her tongue again and scrubbed again. I really did gag then.

Had she look up at him, she might not have done that. I mean I never saw his face full-on. (How did I not see him when I sat down? Oh right, I was late. Thank god. I might have hurt his feelings with my reflexive horrified look if I'd seen him.) But I did watch that, and I did notice how he got off the bus, swinging his grip from bar to bar all the way to the front door. And I didn't touch anything on my way off at my stop.

I also found myself holding my breath for some reason. I mean it's stupid to think that some kind of lip-eating disease is transmissible by air, so really I was being unrealistic. But the whole thing got me thinking about how much public domain I come across in my daily life that I never think about--and I never think about how many gum-rubbing, bloody-slobbery strange men have gone before me. (shiver)