The Strange(r) on the Bus

Volunteering at a zoo was my biggest mistake, mainly because waking up while it’s still dark felt terrible. Especially when your sibling was sleeping like a log when you weren’t not allowed to. Mornings in India always felt too early. People slept in like it was normal, and yet, here I stood waiting for the five o’ clock shuttle. When it finally arrived, ten minutes late, I climbed aboard almost asleep. The driver acknowledged me with a nod and I offered him a small smile as a part of my routine. 

As I blinked rapidly to stay awake and sat down to prevent myself from falling as the bus started, I suddenly heard what sounded like a growl.

I sat up straight in my seat, glancing at my surroundings. It was a small bus and appropriately so because the only other person other than the driver and I was a short middle-aged man who was absorbed in the screen of his phone. Must be a trick my head was playing on me, early in the morning. I looked ahead. Memory of all the growls I’d heard these past few days in the zoo told me, the growl was slightly familiar. I tried to pretend as if I heard neither the growl nor the voice in my head. All that time near cages had corrupted me to feel as if I was in a zoo, even when actually in an ordinary bus in an ordinary town.

My calm demeanor exploded into panicked stares as I stood up at the occurrence of another growl. This time it didn’t stop and I was sure I wasn’t hearing things. I slowly turned around and walked to the back seats for the sound seemed to coming from there. My heart picked up its rate as my head started projecting unnerving images of wild tigers in cities that killed endless people. I inhaled deeply to steady myself and leaned over the seat just in front of the last one. The growling had diminished to low whimpers. 

I prepared myself for my filthy, grotesque death and instead found myself looking at a half-eaten carrot beside which was, crouched like a gargoyle in a deserted ghetto, a feisty animal. 

I broke into a smile at the innocent, lost creature’s bitter expression, 

‘With all due respect fellow bus-rider, may I suggest you try having a banana in a carrot’s stead?’