Just Off the Bus

“Hey, mister... Are you ok?”

The man standing on the ledge on the fourteenth floor of the Four Seasons Hotel looked to his left. A young kid had his head out the next window over. “Peachy, kid. Go away!”

“I think, maybe—"

“Take a hint. Go away!”

“I think you should come back inside, Sir.”

“You ain’t listening so good.”

“I’m sure you’re right, Mister, but—”

“Take a hike!”

“Please! You--”

“You’re not hearing me. I don’t wanna come back inside! The Cantonese have a saying for people that don’t listen so good. ‘It’s like a chicken talking to a duck.’ Have you heard that one?”

“No, sir. But, I know life can be scary, and then all of a sudden— bam! Your problems are over. It happened to me not two hours ago!”

“I’m thrilled for you, pal. My life went down the shitter two hours ago.”

“I need you to come back in off the ledge. That’s what I need you to do! I’m sure you have people that—”

“You don’t need me to, you want me to! Why can’t anybody ever say what they mean? Huh? Say what they fucking mean and mean what they fucking say! You’d get along with my boss. Oh boy, would you! ‘I need you to make a drop for me, will you, Hats?’ I ain’t a bagman. I never made a drop my life! I’m in accounting, for god’s sake! I should’a told him flat, ‘I ain’t no bagman, Mr. Gustavo’. That’s what I should’a fuckin’ said!”

There was a silence then.

The man noticed the silence. He looked over to the kid with his head out the window and who was now obviously crying. Tears ran down the right side of his face. Tears probably ran down the left side of his face too, but the man couldn’t see that side and had, just today, learned not to make assumptions.

The kid was crying so hard his shoulders were shaking. He tried to wipe the tears away with the heel of his hand, but the tears were still coming and dripping off his face and falling on the ledge and down onto the street.

Down there, where the kid’s tears were falling, people were going about their business. There were cabs and busses and cars stopped in the street and pedestrians walking quickly along the sidewalk. There was a bike messenger talking to a young woman walking ten, maybe twelve dogs. She didn’t seem interested in what the man on the bike had to say, she kept walking. The guy on the bike watched her walking away, then peddled past her. There was a hotdog cart and people lined up for hotdogs. There was a man digging through a city trashcan.

The man on the ledge thought about his choices and the fact that he had none. He was going to count to three.
“One,” he whispered. “Two…”

“I know you’re hurting,” the boy said.

The man on the ledge had been leaning forward, and now he leaned back against the building. He felt a bit irritated, but also relieved. He looked to his left at the kid with his head out the window. “Yeah? Whatever gave you that idea?”

“All I know is, your life can change in a second. You don’t think good things happen, but they do!”

“Oh, give me a break, please! I know how quick things can change. Believe me, I know how quick things can change!”

“I know you’re hurting and you’re scared and you don’t think that you want to live any longer, but—”

“Kid! Kid! kid! Shut up for a second, will you? What is your name? I have to know!”

“Ted.”

“Ted? That’s great, Ted. You got a stupid name, but that’s not even a little surprising. They call me Vinny the Hat, by the way, but tell me something, Ted. Do your friends call you, Teddy?”

“I don’t really have any friends. I just got here.”

“Surprise after surprise, kid. Tell me something else, will ya? The truth now, Ted… How old are you?”

“I’m fourteen.”

“Fourteen?” The man took a deep breath and shrieked, “Fourteen!” into the wind and the wind almost took him off the ledge. He leaned back against the building again, put his back flat against the rough surface, his palms too. He took several deep breaths. When he recovered, he said, gently, “You’re fucking fourteen and giving me life advice! That is rich, Ted. Don’t you think that’s rich?”

“I suppose so, yeah, maybe it is. But, Vinny, Mr. Hat, come back inside.”

“I made a mistake, Ted. A whopper. And my boss don’t like mistakes. You might have heard of him, my boss. Carmine Gustavo?”

“No, but I just got into town. You see, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. How fast your luck can change. I had three dollars in my pocket when I got off the bus and look at me now! I got a suite at the Four Seasons!”

Vinny the Hat looked at the building across the street as he repeated in his head what the kid had just said. You could see into offices across the way and you could see people walking about inside the offices. You could see the desks and the walls and even the paintings on the walls, but Vinny saw none of these things even though he was looking at them.

“You here at the Four Seasons, Ted?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Just off the bus?”

Ted nodded, smiling, he said, “Three bucks in my pocket.”

“Now, now, let me guess… you came out the bus station, and you looked around, and there on the bench outside the station you saw a big paper bag?”

The smile slid off of Ted’s face.

“You thought maybe someone left a ham sandwich, or something, but it wasn’t no ham sandwich, was it? Was it, Ted? Ted? Come back here you little asshole! Ted!”

—999 Words—