Not the Guy with the Buttcrack

Heyyyy Mom & Dad,

So as I may have mentioned once or twice, the chicken bus is always an adventure.

I left the house without an umbrella because the one I bought when I got here broke and I keep forgetting to buy one when I go to the store...which is almost never. I was waiting for my bus, contemplating the ominous clouds that promise only one thing when I realized it would not be a bad idea to walk back across the street to my house so I can grab my rain jacket. It was almost as if this sudden moment of clarity was exactly what my bus needed before it would come pick me up, leaving me doomed to face the weather that was only but sure to come. I climbed aboard wishing the rain away until after I got to the school, absent-mindedly scanning the seats for the one that would also take me. If I've learned anything from taking the bus for the past six weeks, it's that sharing your seat with two other people is inevitable and the best way to do it is to find the kids wearing school uniforms. They're smaller and willing to squeeze so I can always fit my whole body onto the seat without having to brace myself with an arm on the seat across from me. Bingo, found it. I sat down next to them, attention turned back to the weather. We stopped a few more times and before long the aisle behind me was taken up with standing passengers. I knew that the next person to get on was going to be stuck between me and the girl across the aisle falling off her seat because she was unluckily sitting with two grown people.

The bus stopped. He was the first one to get on.

Oh no. No please no, I thought. His arms holding onto the rails above him, unable to grab onto his slipping pants, he was on his way to join the mass of standing passengers behind me.

Please stop please stop please please please! I was pleading inside my head. A small child, a lean mother. But pleaaase, not the guy with the buttcrack turned in my direction. 

Lord have mercy.

He stopped where my hands were holding onto the seat in front of me. Of all days, I couldn't help but think, why choose today not to wear a belt or underwear? I removed my hands. There was no other place to look than down into my lap now with my view tainted.

The bus stopped again. More people got on. Buttcrack man moved even closer and I was forced to sit on the edge of my seat to avoid contact with his Livvy crack- oops! I mean plumber's crack for the rest of the ride. By the time my stop came I quickly scrambled off and started towards the school. Then the rain came. Mercilessly, may I add. And today was the day I decided to wear white.

Only me, I thought. I laughed all the way into the office. 6'8" Tom was nice enough to give me his tentlike jacket to wear the rest of the day. Ohh Guatemala.

Love love love you,
Rachael