Spotted on a government bus was the adventure of a young man and his lonely TravelTen pass.
It seems that his pass, long bent out of shape, had become stuck in one of the green ticket machines that adorn the front of most buses.
After what seemed like an eternity caught in a second it became apparent that his tired, misshapen pass was not going to emerge, leaving the machine to a fate of impotent dry-heaves, a sickly whirring sound and the promise of inevitable repairs.
The culprit? Well, the TravelTen pass, to be sure. Though, in its defense, inanimate objects don't usually bend themselves so horribly out of shape.
No, clumsy hands and the refusal to carry a wallet are a more probable cause, one that hopefully, for the sake of all involved, will be rectified in the near future.
Meanwhile: that sickly whirring sound, increasingly a distraction to the passengers, finally got the best of the bus driver, who decided that drastic action was now clearly warranted; a change of bus followed by a change of bus driver severed all links to the "incident" and brought much relief to passive, seizured brains already wearied by transit.
pack your romantic minds
Written on Monday, 12 July 2004