The Adventures of Bruno Chan: Chance Meeting and Public Transportation

Epiphany!

In the last few years, I have been extremely protected from the onslaught of stress and harassment that public transportation inflicts. For once upon a time, I drove.

My husband never worried about my safety when I drove. He trusts me. He trusts German engineering. And when one day an ugly crime was committed, I was thankfully, not in my car.

Crime Scene

After the initial shock, it began to rain. I found my humor, intact.

I wasn't prepared to be stressed by public transportation in London, nor in Singapore. I like to think I'm too practical to be afflicted. But more than a long-distance relationship, I've learnt that public transportation can wear a girl down. In London I have been shouted at on the tube, propositioned to on the bus, and stood like a sardine squished in a smelly can, all the way back from the countryside on national rail. This week in Singapore, each taxi ride has been like a poker game gone awry. Speak grammatically accurate English, say hello, thank you, would you please, do you mind, and every taxi driver hurls gleefully into TRAFFIC. Direct the driver along specific roads and I am met with surly silence and the most dour of faces. Yesterday, during the least painful ride thus far, the driver suddenly breaks my peace, races across a line, panting- are you Japanese?

I attempt the MRT (local subway).

Bewildering.

BEWILDERED!!!

Took me a moment to figure out how to purchase a ticket and took me another moment to realize the fare quoted was not a mistake. Cruel Joke/ Sadistic Irony! Public transportation in Singapore is expensive!

On Tuesday, I lunched with Trace, and as we were walking towards her car, we chanced upon the First Forever Love! In an attempt to get a grip of myself, I tasked him with helping us take a picture.

The Picture

It was after all, the First Forever Love who taught me to drive so very long ago. Patiently, kindly, on a forsaken Texas road, he said, clutch, gas, brake. Left hand on the stick. First gear, second, third. Don't forget the mirrors.

The interstate 10 leading from Texas to California, crossing New Mexico and Arizona, and the return journey back. The flat grassy plains, and then the verdant green. The sweeping stretch of desert, of red rock, mountains that loomed ahead, tricking the tired eye; at times appearing like ancient beasts asleep, at times ebbing away, an ocean, a sea.