Last Thursday Afternoon on the Northbound 150

I think a lot of folks don’t know what community is, and it’s hard to describe. Last Thursday I was on the way from a doctor’s appointment and got onto the Northbound 150. I sat down behind a group of laughing people near the front, in the row behind the first set of horizontal rows. They were laughing, but it wasn’t actually funny. I had sit down in the middle of a tense situation.

A man was sitting in front of me. Across from us was a woman. He reached out to touch her arm, asking for her number, and she shrugged it off.

“Here,” she said, handing him a lollipop. And he threw it away like a child.

It flew through the gap in the chair, bounced against the wall, and hit my feet.

She then replied that that was way he wasn’t getting her number.

I picked up the lollipop and asked her if I could have it. She said “well if he doesn’t, you benefitted!”

He tries to talk to the lady sitting in priority seating, asking why she won’t.

Then. He started going “well my number is 206–”

He repeated it at least 4 times with her ignoring it. He reached out again. She implies she has a knife in her bag so stop touching her. She asks if he has been drinking. He goes yes.

He starts repeating his number again. I start repeating it behind him at the same time as him. He looks back, turning as he does. This is the first time he notices me. I repeat his number back.

“Well who are you?” He asks, his breath smelling like banana rum. His left eye is bloody, like someone had already suckerpunched him.

I introduce myself. He asks if I knew his number and I repeat it. He is amazed. He asks where I’m from. I say. He says he’s from Alabama. His LA snapback makes even less sense now.

The lady asks me how I like Seattle. We are all still kind of nervously laughing and joking in between. She asks if I got friends I can send his number too. I say “yeah I got some…” knowing full well I’m just gonna gripe online and not doxx the man. She said she was going to zips. So she needed to be on the bus a lot longer than him or me.

I continue with the distraction until I see people get off and the lady moves to the back. He asks where she’s going.

Another older gentleman replies “away from you” a real “and then they clapped” moment. The bus actually does burst out laughing.

I am still distracting this guy. He asks for MY number. I say I’ll text him but my service is weird because of my NY phone/number. He insists on seeing me text him.

“But you won’t get it, I say, you said 3 times your phone died, sir.” He seems both happy that I remember, but sad that it is true. We’re passing by, I think the fedway mall, and I say: “you could probably get a charger if you hurry up”

The suggestion does make him leave the bus.

Why am I telling this story?

Because I really as much as he was a nuisance to everybody on that bus, I didn’t want to see an old man get stabbed for harassing Somebody. I didn’t want to see this lady harassed. So will I proverbially deflect it just like you’re supposed to do? Like most of my hr manuals have told me: distract.

I feel like that’s part of being in community with others. Diffusing the situation instead of escalating.

Yesterday I encountered the lady from the very front that he also was trying to hit on. She walked up and started to say “my number is 206–” and I recognized her immediately. We cackled for a bit, had a short chat and she went on to do her errands.

I think I did the right thing. He also did in fact text me back… but I won’t be answering lol. I still have not eaten the lollipop.