The other day on the bus...

Last Saturday I took the bus to town from my hostel with lots of things on my mind to take care of. It was a pointless trip though; I think the jet lag has just caught up to me and I was exhausted – not in the mood to walk around looking for a Thomas Cook to exchange my traveler’s checks. Not in the mood for crowds, though I did stop and watch a skateboarding and rollerblading exhibition, something to tell Megs about later.
On the way into town, the bus halted all of a sudden at one stop. The cars around us kept going; we were the only ones stopped. The engine was still running so I had no idea what was going on. Others started getting off the bus to check out the problem and they were all drifting to the front end, a crowd gathering around some scene that was completely hidden from my viewpoint in one of the back seats. Suddenly, I heard a siren begin and end pretty quickly as it came up behind us. I was contemplating getting out and walking (just one or two more stops, not far) when two EMT’s walked briskly by my window rolling a gurney with an empty BODYBAG resting on top, on their way to the front of the bus. A memory of Karl (fellow American Assistant) telling me that the buses here were known to hit objects and not stop flashed through my mind.
HOLY COW! I thought, my bus just freaking KILLED somebody!! I didn’t even feel a jolt! My desire to get to the American Library was suddenly dwarfed by the idea that I did NOT want to step off this bus and see a dead body. So I sat there another 5 minutes, wondering how long the police investigation would take. Would they take the body away before that happened so I could make my escape? I didn’t have to wait long for my answer; about five minutes went by when the EMTs rolled back by my window, this time with an elderly man sitting propped up on top, clearly, indisputably alive. Whew! I was so relieved that I missed my bus stop and decided to forget the American Library and head straight to Thomas Cook, which I never found, and then conclude my pointless trip downtown with a petit jambon beurre: a few slices of ham and LOTS of butter on a small baguette.