Every morning I ride a bus to work. There is this woman, a not so good-looking lady; some people may even say that she is “UGLY”. She is not thin, to be exactly right, she is over-weight, and some folks may want to correct me and insist that she is actually OBESE. She is not a type of woman whom a man would be interested. Most likely, a man would never want to look at her AGAIN, EVER!
She usually sits in the front, right by the entrance of a bus, on the seats for the Disables. No matter how hard you try, you cannot miss her. She likes to wear tight pants, tennis shoes and loose tops. Her oversized glasses magnify her cross-eyes twice as big. Oh, did I mention she loves her music. With her headset on, she keeps swinging her head back and forth, humming “hallelujah, hallelujah, HALLELUJAH”, a Christmas song. Some passengers get very annoyed with her loud singing, but the bus driver never tried to stop her, so she has the right to Hallelujah as long and as loud as she wishes. By now, you probably would sense that she is not “normal”. It did not take me long to realize that she has Down Syndrome, or the meant people would use the not-so-nice word “Retarded”.
I never disliked her even she kept staring at me all the time for no reason. Occasionally, I would be startled by her sudden movement. Sometimes, unexpectedly, she would raise her voice, talk to her friends at the back of the bus or asked her friends a question about nothing. After a while, I paid no attention to her. Most of the time, she was simply an object. Other bus riders ignored her as well. In our “normal” people’s point of view, she is no one but a flat face, short neck object with a pair of slant cross-eyes.
This morning, I ride on the same bus with her again. She has a haircut, I notice. Right across from her is a teenager occupying the “Disable Seat”. Normally, I would go back to my routine reading and not paying any more attention to her. But today, for some reason, my eyes rest steadily on her. I watch her swinging back and forth with her music. She appears to be quite comfortable, actually very happy and extremely content. She is enjoying herself in her own little world; nothing around her matters. I begin to envy her. Then something happens.
The bus stops, a blind man boards the bus. She sees him and makes a quick but firm demand to the teenager. She gestures the teenager to move out of the “Disable Seat” immediately. You can sense her eagerness to have that seat ready for the blind man. No one except me notices her act and no one except her makes that demand. I am touched, deeply moved by her sensitivity towards that blind man. Is she really abnormal? I begin to wonder.
1 comment:
Well written. I had a high-functioning disabled brother who would also be characterized as "abnormal." He would also go to bat for others like himself who he felt were being treated unfairly. Sadly, he once told me that he wanted his own friends, not just those social workers who were hired to be his friends. I hope you know the woman on the bus is already a kind of friend to you. Peggy AZ8
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