Riding the bus.
- joneworlds@mailbox.org

The Reckoners  run their flea-markets a  few weeks
every May, so  I'm making that journey  out to the
country.  There's  a road-train out to  there, but
the  station's  across  town,  so  I'm  taking  an
auto-bus to there.

When I  get on  the bus,  I see  the auto-driver's
paint  is peeling  a lot.   And his  lower jaw  is
missing.   So  it's  pretty  creepy  to  hear  him
barking  at me  to pay  up.  "Please  deposit fare
immediately!"  But  his coin  slot's busted,  so I
guess it's my lucky day.  And I think his voice is
stuck  too, as  it keeps  repeating that  over and
over.  They're really barely  trying to keep these
auto-busses running anymore. Kind of sad, really.

"Please deposit fare immediately!"

I go to  sit, and I groan a bit  inside.  The only
one on  here except me  is a giant lumper,  one so
big it takes  up the entire back of  the bus.  And
they're  pretty chatty,  so  I know  I'll have  to
talk, though  I'm not  in the mood.   It's already
wriggled an eye tentacle up  to my face, and I can
hear   it   jabbering  already.    Ah-la-la-go-du,
ah-la-lo-ga-da?   Ah-la-la?  Ah-go-go.   I go  and
sit as near as its big purple body allows.

The  auto-bus  closes  its   door  and  sets  out.
"Please deposit fare immediately!"

The lumpers are surely the most friendly kind, for
better or  worse.  But I  think they like  to talk
more  than listen.   I don't  even know  what it's
saying, but it surely sounds invested in it.  It's
got  two   mouth  tentacles  and   five  eyestalks
wiggling around right in front of my face, talking
the whole trip.   All I got to do is  put in a few
words of  acknowledgment here and there,  and it's
good to keep going for  another few minutes in its
low  rumbley voice.   Ah-go-la, da-du-go-lo-ah-ah,
da-da.  Ah-go?

"Please deposit fare immediately!"

In about  thirty minutes  we're across  town.  The
auto-bus pulls into the bay crooked and bumps into
what's left  of the shelter.   And I get  out, and
somehow that  lumper squeezes its  gelatinous body
out the  door too.   I turn  to wave  goodbye. Its
main mouth on  its body stretches out  a wide open
grin.  And then about half its eye stalks wink all
at once to me.

"Please deposit fare immediately!"

Its larger outer tentacles grab  on the end of the
auto-bus, and to my surprise  it lifts it into the
air with the front pointed up.  The lumper's mouth
stretches out wider than  I thought it ever could,
and it  starts lowering the  back of the  bus into
it, feeding  on it.   The fumes from  its solvents
make my eyes water.  I shake my head and walk away
to the road-train station.

Well,  I guess  that bus  was pretty  old anyways.
But still, there's only so many left by now.

"Please deposit fa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa... zz .. zz"