DOCTOR STRANGE

55

The Collision

9 a.m., Queens

John

I am a public bus driver. Every day I drive the same bus on the same route with most of my passengers being the same, my uniform is same too. I drive hundreds of passengers every day to their destinations. Some of them are really nice too. They pass alluring smiles to me when they get aboard or sometimes when they reach their stop. They are polite and treat me like a human just. Some people on the contrary, are just intensely rude. They argue about the fare, about not getting seat and not being on time or just chat rudely with other passengers making rude faces. Sometimes I got ridiculed by them too.

I don’t necessarily feel good about it. Sometimes it hurts me for days. Whenever I get hurt, I think of my wife and my ten-year-old son who is in middle school and I still need to have a job so he continues to do so. I don’t my family to suffer and I can do anything to see their happy faces. I gave my son a baseball kit on Christmas last year, he said he wanted to be a basketball player.

Today is not any different day. I woke up at six and started my shift at seven in the morning. My shift usually goes for twelve hours, so I spend most of the time of the day in this bus. I pack my lunch and eat it on the way.

My current route is from Jamaica 165th street bus terminal to Queens village. It usually changes in a period. The bus is very crowded in mornings and in the evening. Today is just the same. Lots of passengers were aboard, I was driving while hearing the noises from behind. I tried not to concentrate on them but on the road. The steering was in full control of my hands.

It was two signals before Queens village when I noticed something wrong about the bus. I felt it swaying uncontrollably to the left. It was a very minor effect for the passengers to feel and soon after I started getting the feel of being in control again. So, I let go of the fear of anything getting wrong and relaxed my nerves.

Suddenly, I felt a loud jolt on the bus along with a deafening blast. The blast was so loud that a piercing sound echoed through my ear. For a few seconds I felt like someone planted a bomb in the bus. But I was proven wrong the next second. The blast was not from a bomb or any other explosive. It was the bus’s tyre’s blast. I can't feel it from where I was sitting, it was the left one. I could feel the part of the bus sinking in the road, the flatness of it.

There was a big intersection ahead, not too far.

“f**k”, I cursed out loud.

The passengers were panic-stricken on what was going on. I can hear their screams and loud voices, worried voices.

The pressure was building up in my head. I was scared of dying, but the feeling that so many other people could die too took the best of me. the darkness and tears blurred my visions. All I could see was so much traffic up ahead and all my mind can think was if it ever be able to see his kid and wife again.

Controlling my messed-up emotions, I thought it was more crucial for me to think of any way to save all those people.