Omnibus

Brought to you by Luna

Enjoy

Omnibus - A motor vehicle that carries passengers by road, esp. serving the public, with on a fixed route and with a fare. Abbr. bus. -New Oxford American Dictionary

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It is raining.

Soft drops of liquidized coldness plopped down on the ground, making tiny dark grey circles that contrasted defiantly against the lighter shade of dry asphalt. Another droplet, then another followed.

Two feet to my right, the metal pole of the bus stop stuck up defiantly as it was peppered by rain. I looked up at the plastic flags stuck out from the pole like urbanized leaves, their colors of orange and yellow lurid against the gray and blue colors of the city and sky.

But right now, what mattered to me was the stiff black lettering stamped on the plastic flags. I looked up at the foreign lettering, of which I somehow knew enough to make sense. I was waiting for a bus.

Time passed, and over time the faint drizzle had morphed into the relentless outpour. The water came down in large streams, drenching the asphalt and the bus stop pole.

Eventually, the bus I wanted had arrived. It screeched to a stop, sending up large waves of muddy water, and I entered the dimly lit interior, dropping several silver tokens into the receptacle, taking my place in the back of the bus.

When one rode a bus as a daily activity, things would start to become redundant: the people in the bus are always the same, the driver had the same bored expression, and the voice over the speaker announcing the stops become monotonous and irritatingly shrill.

Today, I am next to a young lady with a leather handbag and a faux fur coat and a man with dark bags under his eyes and a crumpled newspaper under his arm. The two exude a sense of conformity, of mechanical serenity and I join them in their familiar, meaningless silence, watching rainwater pound against the windows.

Again, time passes, and most people get off before my stop. The lady in faux fur gets off two stops after the one I get on, and the man with the crumpled newspaper stays a little longer, but eventually leaves as well, five stops from my destination.

Now it is just the driver and me, with the rain pounding on the glass surface separating us from it and the windshield wipers batting uselessly at the clear surface of water coating the driver's window.

Finally it is my stop. The voice on the speaker announces it, but I ignore the words, so they end up as a garbled mess, nothing without human coherence.

The driver gives me an incredulous look, as if disbelieving that I will go out in this weather. It breaks the monotony of the bus ride, but I ignore him; after all, it is not raining outside. At my stop it had not rained, but it is damp anyway, for the mist, which is pressed forbiddingly against the windows, is thick and suffocating and wet.

I leaving the double folding doors and raise my hand in a gesture of thanks for taking me here, a stop he very rarely visits, for no one likes to come here.

The motor roars and the bus is gone, at first contrasting defiantly, like the plastic flags of the bus stop against the city, but eventually fading into nonexistence.

For a moment I stand there, frozen, my hand still raised in grateful thanks, but the moment is broken, and I turn around and dissipate into the swirling mist of the Boston cemetery.

Fin



A/N: It started out as a random idea I had while riding the school bus during a traffic jam because there had been a car crash on one of the more commonly used roads...for the skeptics, twist it into whatever you like. The elements in this story are intended to be nonreligious, nonsuperstitious, and whatever else anyone personally despises. Thank you for the time taken to read this story. I do not intend to be redundant, but I hope you enjoyed it.

A very random story, if I can call it that, indeed. But, do not take my remark harshly, this piece of writing you have here, Luna, is beautifully written. Every word, every sentence, is written in such a way that the reader just doesn't want to stop reading. The amount of detail and the vibrant vocabulary is like mouth candy

Aside from the brilliant usage of words, the story itself is quite intriguing. Though simple, it may have a much bigger meaning which the reader can shape on his/her own. You've given us a setting in which the world around the protagonist seems very dull, but that's what makes it lively! You've improved so much from your past writings that I really want you to write a RuneScape story in RS Stories.

Short but great. If I were to rate it, I'd give it an 8.5/10

Everything about this story is excellent. It's very well written, I couldn't spot any errors. The amount of description you used was great, although in some places I think you over did it a bit.
The thing I like the most was the way you made something so boring seem so interesting.
I think this was a great effort, I give it 8/10.