People I've seen on the bus.

This is a very silly series I began a while ago and never really finished. Here's my favourite person I've seen on the bus.

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I used to take the bus every morning to go to class, and I distinctly remember a woman, not very young, but not old either, who would get on three stops after my own and get off on the same stop I did. There wasn’t anything particularly striking about this woman. She was plain. She wore plain clothes and did her make up and hair in a plain fashion. What made me notice her, amongst all the other plain-looking people I saw daily in the bus, was the enormous diamond on her ring finger. She always wore it. It was on the wrong hand, too. Right means engagement and left means married. But there are different bands and rings for each occasion, at least the way I see it.

So she must’ve either kept it from a failed engagement or simply bought it herself. Either way, I found it strange that one should wear such an extravagant piece of jewellery every day.

From what she wore, I could deduce a number of things. She neither carried nor wore hospital clothing, so she was not a nurse or a doctor at the state hospital nearby. She never wore high heels or overly fancy items of clothing, so she did not work at an office. She probably worked at one of the small shops around the area. If my deductions were correct, there was no need for the diamond ring? I puzzled over it for many days. She wore it on the wrong hand! It was, however, too exuberant to just be a diamond ring. Furthermore, there’s no such thing as just a diamond ring, right? There’s always something.

One day, she got on the bus, sat next to me and folded her hands on her lap. I glanced at the diamond ring. I thought it over once more.

Throughout the day, I thought more and more about it. There must be a reason. There must be a story.

On the ride back home, I sat at the back and watched as we passed by the state hospital. I thought once more about the diamond ring.

The next day, she didn’t get on the bus. Or the day after that. Or ever again, in fact.

I puzzled over that too.

I then realized it wasn’t really important at all, and never thought about it again.