Arwin’s Magical Bus Tour by: kizmit Kamachi

For years Arwin had been driving the same bus route conveying passengers to their destinations. To make her day a little more exciting, sometimes she would secretly speculate about their lives. Which of them were happy and in love, and which were down on their luck and desperate. She preferred to think that all of them would come through to brighter skies in the end. Sometimes it was easier to pinpoint which of her passengers seemed more in need than others, and this time of year was always the easiest; Christmas time. It’s no secret that the holidays brought about some depression, whether it’s due to loss or not being able to provide for their families. She would envision something wondrous for each of the ones who seemed the most down and hope that maybe someone somewhere would see the need in them and provide it.



Christmas was just a few weeks away, and this year was no different than any of the ones before during this time of year; there was always at least one. As she made her second stop of the morning, she picked up Angela as she normally would. Angela took the bus to work every day, always sat alone and rarely spoke to anyone, other than to say a quiet good morning as she climbed on board. She seemed like such a sweet, shy girl and Arwin hoped that she had someone in her life that appreciated her. In fact, Angela was such a nice girl that she decided she would be her first “thought project” of the day.

As she drove, she envisioned Angela meeting someone special and he being so enamored of her that he asked her out to lunch that very day. She knew that it didn’t seem like much of a beginning, but Angela’s stop would be coming soon, she didn’t have time to waste! At the next stop, Angela stood and made her way toward the front to exit. Arwin got a sudden shot of inspiration and reached out to lay her hand on Angela’s shoulder. When the young woman turned and met her eyes Arwin smiled, “Have a good day today Angela”. With a quiet ‘Thank You’ she descended and the bus continued on its way.

Angela thought how strange it was for the bus driver to take such an interest in her. I mean, she was friendly, but had never been so ‘touchy’ before. She was so lost in her thoughts that she wasn’t paying attention as she rounded the corner toward the building that housed the advertising firm where she worked and plowed into someone knocking them and herself over as she tried to gain her balance. As she gathered her wits and the contents of her purse, she apologized over and over for her obliviousness.

“Here, let me help you up” she heard from a voice that sounded vaguely familiar. She looked up and straight into the deep brown eyes of Benjamin Gold, one of the new designers in the office where they worked. He smiled and helped her stand. “Hello” he said, “I’m Ben, You’re Angela aren’t you? We work in the same building”, she nodded. “Would you mind if I walked the rest of the way with you?”

After a few speechless seconds, Angela nodded again and slowly walked beside him down the street, they hardly looked at anything other than each other, each one silently thanking their luck for bumping into the other that day. As they reached their building she stopped when she heard him say “Angela, you really should let me take you to lunch today, to make up for nearly running you over on the sidewalk”. Even though she realized and he knew it was her fault, she couldn’t help but smile back at him. “yes, I’d love to Ben”.