Emergency Exit

I used to endure the bus alone. Leather seats towered over me as I huddled in the corner, as close to the window as possible. I stared at the scenes traveling past the glass, covered in the thinnest layer of grime. My mind was nearly detached from my body, and I must have seemed quite vacant. My lips moved for no one. The beastly voices kept me from floating out into the images flitting in front of my eyes like a reel. The voices of those who harmed, the voices of the rough and unwise. The voices of the uncontrolled. There were idiots, as far as I was concerned. Their eyes did not shine even scarlet with passion, but were dull with hunger. I despised them. Every mindless word that dropped from their mouths was deplorable, while their conduct was still more awful. The self-made vow of silence separated me from them. EMERGENCY EXIT: PULL UP AND PUSH OUT The words bold and deadpan printed upon the window to my soul. I so longed to push the bar up, show the window out of the way and spring myself into the space between motion and stillness. To kick the crude yellow world behind me and enter a tranquility. This desire was vivid in my mind as I found myself admiring the subtle curve of the crimson handle, the idea of landing on asphalt afterwards absent from my mind.