En Route

I waited across the street from the bus stop. That's the best place to wait, because I can see the bus turning the corner, plus I get the option of sitting in the bus shelter.

'Gosh, what a name', I thought to myself as the truck turned the corner to go down our street. 'Walmar, that's too close to WalMart - how do they get away with that? I remember a wool store called Woolmart and they were forced to change their name. What does Walmar make anyhow? Oh, fans - interesting. Boy, this bus is taking a long time; think I'll wait in the bus shelter.'

Sitting on the bench for an inordinate length of time, I began to watch a little ant scurrying around.

'Hi little ant', I said to myself. 'What are you doing? You are going around and around in circles. You don't stop. How can a little ant have so much energy? There you are travelling up and over the bumps and into the grooves of the pavement. There you go - now you are travelling in one straight line and you're going to find the exit of the shelter. You'll be free and you'll find nice grass to walk on. Oh, oh, what are you doing? You're turning around and coming back in. You didn't make it and you were almost there!'

I continued to watch the ant as a bus pulled up to the shelter. Much to my utter astonishment the ant stopped moving - it froze in its place until the heavy rumbling of the bus roared away.

'You are one smart ant', I thought to myself. 'It's so weird - in our great big world, we usually don't notice things like this. Little ant, you are moving again. Do you want me to help you get out of this bus shelter? Here, climb onto my bus tickets. Oh my gosh, you fly!'

At this point, I saw my bus turning the corner and I crossed the street to catch it.

'The community centre looks really good', I reflected. 'Amazing landscaping. What an improvement to the neighbourhood. ... Pretty soon I'll check out Fabricland for buttons. I wonder what kind of business Dairy Queen does? ... Gosh, when will they stop building houses right out to the street? ... What a terrible accident that was - someone falling to their death while cleaning the windows of their apartment. ... Here we are at Value Village. I can do this - I can bring my recycling here by bus. What a drag it would be to walk here in the hot sun - I'd feint. ... The Transitway is so smooth. Love this ride. Hope they have the wool I want at Zeller's and the Red Current Jelly at Loblaw's. ... Look at that fantastic tree with the crow sitting right at the top. It has no leaves. Wonder what it would be like if I were to take a photo of the tree and the bird by lying down on the ground looking up? What would the perspective be? My balance is so off, that would be so hard to do. I get dizzy just thinking about it . . . '

'Next stop - Billings Bridge', the bus driver blurted out.