My Body, His Decision
Friday evening, early September. It’s just after seven o’clock and I’m on my way home on the first of two short bus journeys. I’m tired and looking forward to an evening doing very little. The clocks are still on summer time and the sun has only just started to descend in the sky. At the stop after mine, three men board the bus. They are laughing and joking amongst themselves, loudly. One of them has no hair and is so red in the face the colour has spread over his entire head. He looks as if he had been lightly simmered. They’ve clearly been drinking. They stand directly in front of my seat and so, as the bus moves along the road, I watch them, wondering if they are at the beginning of a big night. The bus reaches my stop. I move to get up. There’s a man in front of me and a woman behind me but we can’t move, one of the three raucous men is blocking the way and only moves when his friend alerts him to those of us waiting. He steps to one side and stands by the exit. The man in fr