It happened almost by accident, on the #16 bus. After months of uneventful riding, suddenly out of nowhere there he was. A man of routine, innocently commuting to work just like the rest of us…except, he was beautiful. PERFECT, in fact. Take the head of Ben Folds (during the Ben Folds Five years) and stick it on David Tennant’s body, keeping the most staple elements of the Dr. Who wardrobe intact of course—suit, skinny tie, sneakers—shove a book in one hand and a travel mug of coffee in the other and that’s him.
Marcus.
I don’t know his real name because we’ve never spoken—you see, Marcus is a demi-god of sorts, hovering above the rest of us on an edgy cloud of uber cool. He’s completely unapproachable.
Even if I wanted to talk to him—even if just one of the possible conversation starters I’ve pondered in my head WEREN’T completely lame—I couldn’t talk to him. You must understand, the bus ride to work in the morning is a silent one; those folks who aren’t reading or plugged in to their headphones are still half asleep, and angry sideways stares await anyone who dares to break the cardinal rule of Seattle bus commuting: no talking to strangers (unless you’re a complete wackadoo). In fact, as a general rule, a person reading or listening to something in their headphones on a bus does NOT wish to be disturbed. For ANY reason.
So I’m left with nothing to do other than sit and stare, wondering about Marcus’ life off the #16 bus. But you’d be surprised what a person can deduce just from the powers of observation. In fact, I think I’ve discovered quite a bit:
For example, did you know that Marcus has an extensive vinyl collection? It’s true. He’s transferred most of it to his iPod, but still prefers the white noise in the background of vinyl playback to anything digitally re-mastered, restored, and packaged neatly in a pristine mp3 format. He’s pure like that.
Marcus is VERY tidy. He lives in a small one bedroom apartment with his cat. You take off your shoes at the door, and never see more than one bowl and one spoon on the dish drying rack at any given time. He’s a minimalist—but makes it look so COOL.
I mean, if that isn’t enough to make a girl fall immediately, I’m not sure what would… Wait, did I mention he wears sneakers with his suits? Super-fly.
Posted by Allison on January 3, 2010 at 2:55 am
Maybe you should carry a cat toy and make crackly white noises to catch his attention. Next thing you know, he’ll be blogging about the super-fly chick on the bus.