D.O.P.-T. (Wednesday)

[weofodthignen]

Last Saturday the bus was very late. And so crowded, the driver told me to get on at the back and not to bother tapping my card. It turned out part of the lateness and the crowding was caused by a short, sinewy guy who was making vitriolic remarks. The driver held the bus twice while she told him off, before we even got to the first major stop. Then she stopped even more lengthily there, and suddenly several people were getting off. I thought she'd made an announcement that I couldn't hear that the bus was terminating; when suddenly three sheriff's deputies appeared in the doorway. One reached in with a very long arm and yanked the guy off the bus like someone getting "the hook" in a variety show. Everybody trooped back on and we would have proceeded ... except now the back doors refused to close. Twice, she appeared outside the bus, trying to force them closed. She restarted the engine and thus the electronics a few times, which usually fixes this problem, but nothing worked. Finally something did, and we bumbled off with what was still a very full load of people, everybody near the doors trying to avoid touching them, and everybody now having to worm their way to the front to get off.