Unexpected Friendship

I sat in the back of the dingy bus, its once clean windows a gritty brown and the floor littered with various paper products and food. The floor of the bus vibrated and made the litter jump about the floor. I sighed and stuck in my headphones, filling my ears with heavy drumbeats and dirty guitar riffs. It was an appropriate choice as I was going to do my first singing gig in a cafe downtown.
The bus halted to a jerky stop to let on a young mother with a screaming baby. From the front of the bus, I could see the bus driver’s look of disapproval at the squealing infant
“You know you got t’ keep the kid quiet if you want t’ stay on the bus right?” growled the obese bus driver, spitting tobacco into a half full cup and grimacing as some brown coloured spit dribbled down his stubbly beard. The woman looked sheepishly at her baby and continued soothing her.
“Listen I try but you can’t kick me off because baby is tired and sick,” she said, her Russian accent making her words sound rough but soft at the same. The bus driver grimaced again but waved her on all the same. The woman came and sat by me and smiled tentatively shaking the baby to the beat of the whirring wheels.
“Are you singer?” she asked, nodding her head to my guitar cases, I could just hear her through the drum and bass that pounded through my Beats headphones.
“Yeah, just starting a job today,” I replied slipping my headphones back onto my neck where you could hear the trippy beats swirling around my neck like a chain necklace.
“Ah, I used to sing, back in Russia, but had to move here, no sing no more,” she sighed wistfully before continuing “I now have Ivana to love and sing to but not same as hearing crowd scream name,” she peered up at me through her long eyelashes at me. Suddenly, an idea struck me, a small brain ripple that was instantly kicked at by my logical mind you don’t know her, you should at least get to know her first before offering to help her, my creative and helpful part of my mind shouted back
Yes but she needs this, just like you do, I can help and I will.
I looked back up at her, sweeping my long hair from my eyes and tying it up to stop it from clouding my brain
“What’s your name?” I asked her, turning around to face her properly. She looked at me for a moment before answering
“Natalya Romanov, and you?” She said sticking out her baby-free arm to shake my hand. I accepted and found them surprisingly soft and delicate.
“Evie Reynolds,” I said smiling “ I have a proposal for you, if you want to, I could help you get a singing job with me, someone could look after Ivana for the hour or two,” I had the satisfaction of seeing Natalya’s face light up and glow,
“Da, Yes I will, spa-see-ba, Thank you, Evie!” she squealed and wrapped her baby- free arm around me.
Inside I felt the strum of a new friendship, the tentative beat of a comradeship.

THE END