How many people actually pay attention to those around them on the bus? Very few. Most teenagers absorb themselves in conversations about nothing, or listen to music. Older generations read novels or the newspaper. The oldest generations sit with images passing behind their closed lids, or stare out the window, tired eyes and wistful smiles adorning their faces.
I was trying to finish reading a chapter of Sophie's World for English class, oblivious to everything and everyone around me until the bus gave a lurch -passing over an unplowed pile of snow, I supposed- and I was pulled from my world of words.
I looked at the faces around me. A young woman a few seats away nodded to her music; an elderly couple sat about halfway down the bus, hands clasped, her head on his shoulder; a teenager sat at the very back of the bus, wedged in the corner, angry at the world and at himself. Lastly, driver aside, a large woman near the old couple was bent over a novel.
I would have returned to my novel had I not noticed a bag sitting almost directly across from me. My eyes lingered and my thoughts turned to it.
Who had left it? Had it been forgotten?
I glanced at the other passengers, contemplating asking if anyone had lost a bag.
I examined it from my seat. A large puma adorned its side, that alone making it ridiculously over-priced. It was one of the over-sized bags recently deemed fashionable, carried by young women who seemed to be able to fit inside the sacks themselves.
My first guess would have been that it belonged to the woman a few seats away. Except, it was in her line of vision, and if she owned it, she would have picked it up herself.
It must have been forgotten by a passenger who had already left. My thoughts strayed and I asked myself, what if it hadn't been forgotten, but left? Not by accident, but on purpose?
Everyone had heard the stories centering around the so-called "lost luggage". Who hadn't heard about the recent attacks on London and her metro? An attack against the TTC was unprecedented, but was it impossible?
My eyes locked on the bag, transforming it from an object of curiosity and speculation to one of fear.
It was shortly before 9 a.m. What if the bag had been planted in anticipation of rush hour? Had the owner known that this bus would be empty, would he or she have chosen another?
I remembered the warnings played over the loud speakers in the London Underground, "Do not leave items unattended." Did I need to alert the driver? Was I overreacting? Had the people who saw the bags left in London been told not to overreact? Would it still be called overreacting if I didn't make it to school that day?
Just as my resolve hardened, the heavy woman near the couple asked, "Has anyone seen my bag?"
I pointed to the object in question. With a quick thanks, she lifted the bag and left the bus at the next stop. |
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