Twentyfour

This bus trip takes 22 minutes. For 3 of them, every day, roughly, I do the sudoku in the newspaper. Some days it takes me only 1 if the solution is obvious. Then, I will close my eyes and pretend to sleep so that no one will talk to me. When that happens, it usually ruins my day. I know people don't mean to do it, but they do it anyway. Some of the worst things that happen are unintentional, I think.

Today, he gets on my bus. Today, I can't concentrate on pretending to nap. Today, everyone looks at him like they look at someone they recognized from high school, but haven't seen in a while, and didn't really like when they saw them every day. He hasn't been on the newspaper cover in months, I almost didn't recognize him.

Why was he riding the bus? Couldn't he afford a private limo or helicopter or jet plane to take him wherever he needed to be?

I would bet that at least three people on this bus are taking inventory of their possessions to determine what could be used to deliver a fatal blow.