The Bus Ride Home

part 2

1734 - your phone read, as you tapped your feet impatiently, staring blankly at the jaunty body of the lady standing a metre ahead of you. when the lights flashed green for the first of many times that day, you jogged across the road, took a sharp turn around the corner and entered the mall opposite the library. this time, you succumbed to the silent allurement of using the shady entrance to the mall you had always wanted to explore, taking another sharp turn and brisk-walking into that abyss. thankfully the other end of that door was just another corner of the mall you were so familiar with. feeling proud of your new-found 'shortcut', you continued the jog through the mall, carefully but briskly maneuvering through the evening crowd towards the bus stop at the other end of the mall. you strode past the MRT station, convinced that trying out the bus route that one time would get you home faster than the train, as if beginner's luck mattered when it came to taking public transport.

it didn't take you long to reach the bus stop. even though your parents had fetched you numerous times from the pick-up bay ten metres ahead, a passing thought reminded you that you had never actually boarded a bus there before. as you slowed down your steps, half catching your breath, you fished out your phone and launched the trusty MyTransportSG application to check the arrival times of the buses at the bus stop you were at. you always favoured keeping track of time and calculating the shortest route home. taking a glimpse of the time, you tapped "Near Me" the instant the app started-up. however, something was amidst. you were almost entirely sure that the new feeder bus you took a few weeks ago, from the other bus stop you frequented daily, brought you here. yet that particular bus apparently never drove past this street at all. puzzled, you continued walking towards the overhead bridge intending to cross it, convinced once again that this other bus you had in mind would bring you to the bus stop outside your primary school. you haven't visited that place in aeons but your memory served you well enough to revise the route home from there. the only problem was the uncertainty of which bus stop you had to take it from - the one you were at now or the one across the bridge.