Off the bus on the bus

A meditation on the buses, people and ghosts of Winnipeg Transit.

Off the street to the backseat! Bus stop pickups for a fuck! Looking for a ride? Hop into the backseat!

An old bus drives through the streets of Rome. It's a long day. The bus fills up with people and stories. Then empties out. People get on. And get off. Faces, eyes. Expectations. A few encounters. Incidents. Slips. Ambiguities. Thefts. Rows. Confiding exchanges. Confessions. Projects. Plans. Lies. Slaps. Even one hijacking. A well-defined route can become a journey. Each encounter can become a future opportunity or can lay a former wound to rest. Every stop may produce the person who will change your life trajectory. Or not, and the bus carries on. At the next turn, someone else will get on and a fragment of his life will for a moment touch yours.

A bus picks up some passengers on Friday morning to travel the route that brings them closer to the weekend, with their plans, their reflections, and their fears. The same bus will pick them up on Sunday afternoon to return them to where they came from.