I’ve Never Seen You Before!
Shane came home from school and said, “It happened again.”
“What happened?” I asked, concerned.
“I got on the bus and the bus driver said, ‘You don’t ride this bus!'”
“NO.”
“YES.”
The exact same thing happened to Shane this past spring. “You have to be kidding! Was it the same bus driver?”
“No,” Shane said. “This time it was my regular bus driver, the one I’ve had for the past two years!”
“NO,” I repeated, dumbstruck.
“Yes!” he said. “And this time, Noah wasn’t there to tell her that he recognized me. So she said I had to sit down in the front seat and ride the whole way home next to her!”
“You’re kidding!”
“I am not kidding.”
“How could she not know you after two years?”
“I don’t know. But she said, ‘You don’t ride this bus. I know you don’t ride this bus. I’ve never seen you before!’ And then she asked me what stop was mine, and I told her, and she still didn’t believe me.”
“So did somebody finally tell her that you rode that bus every day?”
“No,” Shane said. “I had to sit next to her in the front seat the entire way home.”
Dylan was nearly hysterical, listening to this story. He’s had the same bus driver for five years – the same one Shane has, in fact – and she has never questioned Dylan. But now Shane was being questioned for the second time in two years.
“You know what you should do?” Dylan suggested. “You should get on the bus every day and say really loud: ‘I’m here! I exist!’ And then just walk away.”
“You should!” I agreed.
“You absolutely should!” Dylan said again. “You should do it every single day!”
“I should,” Shane said.
But of course, he didn’t, because Shane doesn’t like to cause any conflict, or stand out in any way.
This, of course, is the problem.