Page 100 - Musings 2022

Dylan looked at him with a surprised face. Jerry replied with a straight face.

It was as if for that one moment, he was showing what he truly means. Everything else seemed
like fillers, and that sentence felt like the plot. Dylan was asking himself the same question

again and again “Does he know?”.
Both of them stopped talking and didn’t speak a word for the next fifteen minutes. The bus

kept stopping on the way and passengers kept hopping off. It was down to the last few

passengers.
“Mr. Sanderson, you’re up next. You can join me in the front.” said the conductor in a loud

voice.
“I’ll go on till 5th Street if that would be okay. A lady’s got her kitchen pipe leaking.”

“Alright. Mrs. Hebber, it's you then.” shouted the conductor.

Dylan clenched the paper bag in his hand. He picked it up and kept it away from the old man.
“You remind me of my son,” said Jerry.

He looked at Dylan. He did not speak a word.
“He looked a lot like you too, except, of course, he was a bit shorter. Probably the genes.”

“I did not know you have a son”
“Yeah, I had a son, lost him in a rafting accident ten years ago”

Dylan’s face flushed.

“I’m really sorry, I had no idea.” he said apologetically.
“He had gone on a camping trip. They were rafting in The White River, when out of nowhere

it started to rain. The other two were saved. My son however got his foot stuck in the raft. He
was seventeen.”

“May his soul rest in peace.” said Dylan, “What about your wife?”

“Died in childbirth” he said with teary eyes. “I was everything that boy had, and he was
everything for me.”

“I’m really sorry”
“It’s alright son. I have learnt to live my life that way. If there is one thing that I’ve learnt from

all this is that life goes on. Just like this bus we’re both on. There are speed bumps, potholes,

traffic, brake failures and what not. However, the bus keeps going. It’s in its nature to keep
moving. Just like life. It doesn’t stop until it has reached the final stop.” he said.

“Don’t do it kid” he continued in a calm voice.
Dylan went into deep thought. His fingers let loose of the paper bag they had been clenched on

to the entire trip. He placed both of his hands on his head and slowly moved his fingers through

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