Y'all Gotta Read It to Believe It

One of things I enjoy most about blogging is that my fellow operators tend to share their stories with me. Today as we both rode a bus to our road reliefs, my buddy Robert told me a classic.

Robert has a wonderfully expressive, rugged and handsome  face. As I watched him tell this tale, his eyes retained the shock he must have felt; as if it was happening at that moment. In them I saw incredulous disbelief. I should have shot video, because his face as he was telling the story was priceless. It's been a long time since I laughed this long and hard, and it felt great. In fact, my entire day was a series of guffaws and chuckles as I imagined it. I will do my best to retell his tale, but his account was much better than I could ever describe.

One early morning as he drove Line 6, Robert picked up a succession of fare evaders in a hurry to arrive nowhere. Then he happened upon a lady who asked for an Honored Citizen fare. As is our responsibility, he asked if she had the proper identification card. She said she did not, but that she was indeed "disabled." He gently told her it wasn't necessary to see it, but just wanted her to know that if Fare Inspectors boarded they would ask her for it. He had already printed her the ticket. She must not have heard or believed him.

A few minutes of back and forth ensued, but then she told him "I'm disabled, and I can prove it." At this point, she reached up and removed her glass eye, holding it out to him. His jaw dropped and he stared at her, at a loss for words.

I burst out laughing, and the other bus passengers took notice.

"Deke," Robert said, "I didn't know what to say. I was stunned. Really? She took her damn eye out and showed it to me! What was I supposed to do?"

I doubled over laughing in my seat. His face was equally as hilarious as his tale.

"You shoulda offered her some lube to put it back," was all I could say. He laughed, but continued.

"A few minutes later, when I just couldn't continue the conversation any more, she went and sat down," he recalled. "After she left, a few of the passengers were chuckling about it, a few laughed. But I sat up there driving, still in disbelief. I was mumbling to myself a lot, and they must have heard me. I mean really, I would have been fine giving her a pass without her doing that! I kept thinking, she actually took her eye out. Really?"

We see humanity in all its splendid reality. Some people even offer us another eye to see it better.