A Letter to a Stranger

In which our Hero wonders just how stranger a stranger needs to be

Dear…

I can’t even remember how far back into my memory you go. But you and I have been bus-mates for a long span of years and so I have no idea who you are but you’re someone I know, regardless.

I don’t know what your issue actually is. I’m guessing it’s some kind of developmental defect because of the not-quite-typical shape of your face, and the lurch in your walk. Frankly, your hygiene is not great, you’re not built for conforming at all, with your loud conversations and disconnect from social cues. You make Hollywood profoundly uncomfortable when we cross paths in the lobby of my client’s building, and, I must confess, I’m on guard when you are close, only because you’re big enough to do damage whether its your intention or not.

But you’ve never been hostile. You kind of trample conversations when you start your own, but you’re not rude or beligerant. I’m sure there are people out there who love you.

It made me happy to see you, to be honest. After so many years as one of the regular faces on the bus, and then so many years when I did not take the bus at all, it’s strangely warming to see your face. You carry a piece of home, stranger, and interestingly you carry it not just as a place but as a time. It made me happy to see you were alive, because some of the issues the people deal with do not leave them a lot of time to deal with it. It made me happy to see you grown up. You were older than me back then, as I took public transit to school, but I get the feeling, not much. You were still a boy with me. And now you are a man with me, and it’s just kind of nice to see that.

It’s good to still be strangers with you, my old occasional unknown fellow passenger. In the bus on my street. In the bus of life. (I know it’s not subtle, but it felt right)

Fight the power, my brother by another’s motor.

A Letter A Day

1. Your oldest friend
2. Your crush / significant other
3. Your parents
4. Your sibling (or closest relative)
5. Your dreams
6. A stranger
7. Your Ex-boyfriend/ Ex-girlfriend
8. Your favorite internet friend
9. Someone you wish you could meet
10. Someone you don’t talk to as much as you’d like to
11. A deceased person you wish you could talk to
12. The person you hate most/caused you a lot of pain
13. Someone you wish could forgive you
14. Someone you’ve drifted away from
15. The person you miss the most
16. Someone that’s not in your state/country
17. Someone from your childhood
18. The person that you wish you could be
19. Someone that pesters your mind—good or bad
20. The one that broke your heart the hardest
21. Someone you judged by their first impression
22. Someone you want to give a second chance to
23. The last person you kissed
24. The person that gave you your favorite memory
25. The person you know that is going through the worst of times
26. The last person you made a pinky promise to
27. The friendliest person you knew for only one day
28. Someone that changed your life
29. The person that you want tell everything to, but too afraid to
30. Your reflection in the mirror
31. Your 15 year old self.