The Bus Ride

The dyslexic homeless threw his ticket away after assuming he was holding a loser. "So close," he mumbled. I did not mean to peek at his numbers on the bus but his broken socks caught my attention. I almost wanted to take mine off my feet and give them to him. But then he may have thought me to be the weird one. I watched him fold it up and tuck his 'garbage ticket' between the two seats where he was sitting. Eventually he got off the bus, I slipped the ticket into my bag and opened it up when I got out. As I was unfolding the ticket, an ocean of thoughts crossed my mind simultaneously: Maybe I was the one who read the numbers wrong. If I did have a winning ticket what debt would I pay first? Would I tell my family? Would I even go and try to find the homeless man it belonged to? I should at least buy him socks. I mean, does it really even belong to him if he read the numbers wrong and threw his ticket away? The Libra in me started to reveal itself in my thoughts. Endless indecisiveness. Upon opening it up- it was indeed... a winning ticket. The man had a $20,000 prize. Unfortunately for him, the ticket was now mine.

When I finally snapped back into reality I had realized I waited so long for him to get off the bus, I missed my stop, by much more than I thought. I was in a different part of town. One I did not recognize... I walked and walked until the back of my sneaker rubbed my ankle. I needed to stop and rest. I was ready to cry. This is what I get. Insta-Karma. Now I am lost and my battery is just about dead. This is just great. Finally, a few stores. They are all closed. Covid-19 really has this place looking like a ghost town.

Never mind. There is one store open. I can see it from here. Those last few dozen steps it took me to get there surely felt like walking through hell but it was certainly worth it. Good thing I haven't cashed that ticket yet, or I'd spend all of my money here. This store is amazing. Rare books, old books, one of a kind books. This is life.

"Hello miss, are you looking for anything specific?" asked a man that strangely looked just like the homeless man from the bus. "Just looking, thanks." Not possible. It's all in my head. Taking that ticket was the most 'not me' thing I have done in a long while. It is eating at me already. I have to find that man. I have to get out of here. As I am leaving, I try to ease the pain in my foot by loosening up the laces, I bend over to fix them. To my right I notice the man must have dropped one of his books under the entrance bookshelf- years ago by the amount of dust covering it- I almost don't want to even touch it. But of course- curiosity got the best of me- again. Soon as I pulled it out, I attempted to give it to the man in the store. He almost immediately shoved it back into my arms, demanded I keep it, and disappeared into the back of the store. Confused, I walked out of the store. Got to the bus stop, and started heading back towards home.

I took three buses before I found the homeless man. I explained the ticket situation. I gave him back his ticket and he took off rambling about a daughter of his. I know it might sound like I possess no common sense, however, only after he mentioned his daughter, is when I realized that even people without homes, still have a family somewhere. The dangers of selfishness can drive one to make highly irresponsible choices. I am glad a simple visit to the bookstore brought me to my senses. A few days pass and I remembered the little black book the man let me have. I rush to my bag and place it on my table. What good is a good read without some coffee first? I go to make the coffee and I notice there is the man, the homeless man looking at me through the window directly above my kitchen sink. He had a paper in his hand and seemed to have been matching something on it to the front of my house. I was about to call the cops, when he notices me noticing him and I don’t hide my face expressions very well. Neither does he. He looks cleaner but has a weird grin on his face. -Knock. Knock. Knock- The nerve of this man I give him his ticket back and he repays by stalking me?! I open up the door ready to yell at him to get off my property. He was looking for me the whole time. I was his daughter. I am the homeless man's daughter.

He explained to me he used some of the money to hire a PI and find his long lost daughter. He became homeless after he used all the money he had to move to the state I was in. He drove himself mad trying to find me, and I was near him all along. It wasn’t the first time I had seen him. I recognized he was dyslexic because my son also suffers from it. Everything made sense now. Everything. Except, I was so busy catching up with my dad that I had completely forgot about the little black book. Now that he is gone, time to sit down and have a read…my book? Where is my book?! Damnit!!!