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On the Night Bus

People are interesting when you travel at night. When the lines between middle-of-the-night and does-this-count-as-morning get blurry, most people are vaguely tired and some people aren't sure if they should start drinking, stop drinking, buy a questionable vending machine sandwich, or ask the gods if they can take a little nap without being robbed.

People become very honest, when they're traveling and tired. The guy behind me is trying to cry silently. The lady in the far back is extremely concerned about how CashApp works. The lady across from me wants to know the future of social security, and seems to think of me as a combination encyclopedia and oracle, because I have Resting Library Face. (It's genetic.)

This is when you meet the *really* interesting people.This is when you meet the guy who wants to know if you know Paul, if you know how to play chess, and if you know how to legally take a parakeet on a plane because, okay, like, he has this parakeet...

(I did not know Paul, my chess game is middling, and birds on planes is not something I feel qualified to rule on.)

You meet the guy who compliments you on your shirt, gets confused between Aerosmith and Guns'N'Roses (even though it's a Metallica shirt), starts talking about this cool girl he met at a Cinderella concert, spend four minutes trying to remember what year that was, forgets the story, compliments your shirt again, and wanders off to ask somebody else if they know who the lead singer of Whitesnake was.

Two people have offered me cocaine. I didn't especially want cocaine, so I said no thank you, but I dropped my glasses and one of the cocaine guys picked them up and now I know his name, his nephew's name, and that they are trying to decide whether Jupiter or Saturn has better moons. I think he's going to be a good uncle.

The bus driver is providing impromptu therapy for a guy who is dealing with some unresolved trauma about the death of his mother, while a baby sings her ABCs in the back (mostly correct) and her clearly exhausted mom just keeps saying Good job sweetie, do you want a nap now?

People are generally good. Paranoia is a for-profit industry, and airports keep you awake, nervous, and above all, *shopping.* I can't remember the last time I saw so many unattended bags, unattended drinks, unattended phones, and unattended sleeping people, as taking a bus. Except they *were* attended, because we're all looking out for each other. The fear of crime is overblown, because when you're scared, you buy.

People are generally good, generally just tired, and generally willing to help. People also generally have something on their minds, and you're not required to listen; put in your headphones, take your own nap, it's cool. You'll be safe.

But if you have the mental resources to do it, you might hear a baby sing her ABCs. Mostly correct. And a very busy bus driver console a man about his mother, at the end of her shift, while watching the road.

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Indira Varma is a wonderful narrator. She has a great skill for giving characters distinct voices. I have been listening to her narration of Hat Full of Sky, and she is just the right casting choice.

It is some kind of nonsense that Amazon wants me to pay $50 on a credit card to post a review, just so I could say that Indira Varma is great. Or to tell the world that her name on this is not so easy to find, and that's a problem.

Indira Varma. She's a wonderful narrator. Spread the word and enjoy her work.