missed connection

On my way to Janessa and Eva's goodbye party, I took the bus. I had decided we were going to decidedly and intentionally bless them as they move on to new chapters of their lives, separate from this school.

How lovely! How wonderful.


It was sunny when I got on the bus. I arrived at the stop early so I sat down on the grass and waited. And I picked the grass a bit, too.

I had on my blue sunglasses and when I got on the bus and finally sat down, I took them off. I didn't need my sunglasses on the bus.

I observed the people around me. Students, of course. Girls with black tights and moccasins. Two men in the back wearing baseball caps and leather jackets.

The man across from me was sitting facing the front of the bus while I was facing the side. I noticed he had nice black hair and darker skin like mine. He had a delicacy about him; he had small wrists. I imagined he was a pretty small guy, maybe my height. He had on thick-rimmed black Ray Bans, grey corduroy pants and I noticed that his ruddy brown belt matched his ruddy brown shoes.

He looked pretty intense doing whatever he was doing. His right knee was up leaning against the seat in front of him. He had a black clipboard with papers that he was writing on and highlighting every so often with a neon yellow highlighter that had a pen on the other end. He appeared to be concentrating pretty hard. He didn't seem to notice me looking at him so I noticed him a little longer.

Then, when we were nearing the university he grabbed the cap of his highlighter from his shirt pocket. I saw him try to put the pen/highlighter back into his pocket and miss a few times, which was a bit amusing. He pulled the yellow cord that requested the bus to stop.

Then, he turned and looked right at me. I looked at him and looked away. It felt a bit weird. But I looked back and he was still looking at me, a bit expectantly, or like he wanted to say something, so I looked right back at him.

He spoke quietly.

"Are you half-asian?"

(what a question!)

Me: "Yes."

"What kind of Asian are you?"

(only fellow Asians can get away with asking questions like that.)

"Half-Chinese. Are you half-Asian?"

"Yeah. Japanese."

Me: "Yeah, I could tell you were mixed."

We rounded the corner to his stop and he started standing up.

"What do you study?"

"Medecine.

(my thoughts: ahh. that explains the concentration and serious vibe he was giving off.)

What do you study?"

"Music."

We'd arrived at his stop. He turned to go.

Me: "Nice to see you."

"You too."


And he left.