Catch a Lucky Bus

I was just inserting my ATM card for the second time in five minutes when I heard the brief screech of tires. It came from around the corner. I couldn't see what happened, but I didn't hear the sound of metals meeting, so I finished taking another $20 bill out.

I hadn't carried the first twenty more than 100 feet before the most beautiful homeless woman I've ever seen asked if I could spare a dollar. All I had was the twenty, but I'm telling you, I hardly considered not giving it to her. She looked desperate for a hot meal, and of course a good, good drunk. It didn't hurt her cause that she was beautiful either. Her face had young energy, despite the wrinkles. I will even go so far as to say I was attracted to her, and I think she knew it. At least her sexy smile suggested as much, despite the gross teeth of course.

So anyway, I tucked the new $20 bill in my pocket before anyone else might come by to seduce, guilt, or otherwise act in such a way as to part me from it. After all, I too was in need of dinner and a good drunk. All I wanted to do was grab my take-out and a bottle of vodka so I could head back home. But as I rounded the corner, bound for the taco joint two blocks over, I saw a city bus clogging the nearest intersection. People had collected in front of it. On the edge of the cluster, one man told another to call for an ambulance. The second man paced away from the crowd, doing so. I casually took his place at the edge of the crowd, to satisfy my curiosity.

"Some woman stepped in front of a bus," I was told.

Was it on purpose, I wanted to know.

"I don't know. Hey, does anyone know if she did it on purpose?"

"Nah. Don't think so," a hot girl with braids said, taking a sip of her iced beverage.

How did she know, I asked.

"She was smiling and looking the other way."

Right away, I knew it was her. Of course it was her, the homeless beauty. You probably knew it the whole time. The timing was right, and why else would I have mentioned her in this story.

I pushed my way to where she lay in the street. A dark-dressed man, presumably a doctor, was helping her sit up. She seemed with-it, and I'm almost positive she remained fine after denying the ambulance. How can I be so certain, you may wonder.

Well, as she stood up from where her impact with the bus had pushed her, I could see that twenty still stuffed tight in her hand. No one dies on their lucky day.

the birth of a new blog

In possible worlds theory, pnaws = possible non-actualizable worlds. This new blog is where I'll keep track of my fictional memories, the parallel moments I visualize from time to time. I'm also starting a few other blogs that will help me further keep track of ideas, but this one will be home to the fiction fragments of my free-writing.