From the Backseat | ON INDEFINITE HOLD

i | Holland

H O L L A N D

Cheesehead, who sits three seats up and one over, pulls on the string of the bus. He stops at the same spot as every morning before. He's a balding man, carrying a beer belly and is always wearing a pair of old faded jeans and a Green Bay Packers jacket. Curly Q Sue is sitting across the aisle from him. She is dressed in a black pant suit. Her hair falls in tight curls down to her shoulders and her eyes that are sporting a bright blue eye shadow. Another regular to our early morning bus ride is Business Man Mick. He seems to be in his mid-twenties and is always wearing a black suit. His larger nose is crooked, seemingly been broken by a fight at some frat party during his sophomore year in college. Nancy is a nurse, always clad in her scrubs and suitable shoes. She gets on the bus one stop after mine and always takes the exit two blocks before the hospital where her daily coffee awaits. There aren't too many people on the bus at this time, when the sun is barely peeping around the horizon. It's too early for people who don't have some place to be, but to me it's just really late.

I'm sat at the back of the bus as it empties out and I have three more stops until I'm due to exit. I have my camera resting in my lap, my fingers messing with the lens cap. The bus driver casts me a glance in the mirror as I hug my knees to my chest and he brings the bus to a stop. The doors open and Jamming John casually strolls onto the bus at six thirty in the morning. He's wearing a zip-up blank jacket with the hood up. I can see his headphones that connect to his phone in his back pocket as he takes his seat two rows in front of me. He sits sideways in his seat with his back resting against the wall and his feet stretched out onto the seat next to him. He's tall enough to where his feet hang in the aisle.

Jamming John's hood falls back on his head just a bit when he leans back, revealing his buzzed brown hair and unshaven face. He's bobbing his head to an unknown beat that I can never here. He doesn't get on the bus every morning but when he does he doesn't say anything and tunes out the world. He gets off the stop before mine and every day before I debate whether to get off with him, to see where he goes every day.

The other members of our bus adventures are talkers. They talk on the phone and I gather information by their conversations but with him I've got nothing. He never says a word. So when the bus tires squeal and the bus comes to a stop, I get off one stop early. Bus Driver Bert shows little confusion at my early exit but doesn't say anything, he never does. The doors shut quickly once I'm on the sidewalk. Jamming John doesn't look up much from the sidewalk as he continues forward with his headphones still in his ears. His towering figure intimidates those around him who move out of his way, which he doesn't seem to notice.

I stop when he stops, pulling out his headphones from his ears and saying something to a boy, no older than himself, who steps up next to him. Jamming John and his friend step in sync down the street. I lose them for a minute as they step into a store and come out minutes later holding Gatorades and waters. I'm leaning against a wall and hide behind my hair when they pass by, neither of them seeming to notice me. My feet shuffle against the concrete, maintaining a few people in-between us.

Summer time is beginning, with school just letting out a few weeks ago, although the early morning sun was doing nothing to the cool chill in the air. The wind coming off the water always makes for a cool morning. I pull my jacket closer to my body and slip my hands into my pockets. Summer isn't my favorite time of the year. Most of my friends leave for their vacations in tropical places and I'm stuck spending my nights working at my family's restaurant. It's not a terrible job, just unwanted.  

We're a simple northern restaurant with Chicago styled pizza and Italian beef. We have many things on the menu but no one seems to get anything besides those two. They are what we're famous for, at least to those around our part of the city. Mom and Dad like keep the employment in the family but with some convincing a few months ago they had decided to hire my two best friends Elliott and Shannon.