A Perfect Gentleman (January ‘06)

January 16, 2006 — My very first blog post from Jerusalem.

Bus 36

Bus 36 to Jerusalem, our bus. We’re beginning to recognize the drivers, and they us. Two tickets, 7 shekels – about a buck-fifty. I smile and nod. Today he nods back – smiles are hard to come by around here.

It’s a Monday, a workday. It’s early. And it’s rush hour. There is one seat open halfway back, two seats vacant all the way back. We move all the way back. Bus 36 is full this morning. A full bus is a bus with every seat taken. It is a bus that is not too full. A too full bus is a bus with people standing in the aisle. If people are standing in the aisle, then the Israeli police have cause to stop the bus and check IDs. So, therefore, Bus 36 to the Damascus Gate cannot be too full. The bus leaves with one empty seat, halfway back and on the right. One seat—full—but not too full.

There’s a Problem

We’re halfway to Nablus Road and the end of the line, and two young Muslim girls wave the bus to a stop. Bus 36 stops and the Muslim girls climb on a full bus, but not too full. There is one seat halfway back. There are two young Muslim girls. And there’s a problem. One girl sits while the other stands, and now we have a too full bus. The bus driver looks back, hesitates, and makes up his mind. We head for Nablus Road and the end of the line with a bus that is too full.

Two boys sit in the very first seats in the front of the bus – brothers, we think. They are young—8 or 9—headed for school. They are handsome young men, carrying beat-up backpacks. The oldest sizes up the situation, quickly gets up, motions his little brother to the window seat, and offers his seat to the young lady standing in the middle of the aisle. What a guy! He is so cool about it that he doesn’t even look at the girl. He just climbs down into the door pit of the bus and stands there hidden from outside view. I was so impressed I wanted to clap and cheer, but I didn’t. I just nudge Sally and say, “What a guy! What a guy!” Sal says, “Ah, a gentleman.”

And Still . . .

He could have been my son, or grandson – or yours, maybe. You’d have been proud. What a guy! A perfect gentleman, and smart too.

It didn’t help though. Bus 36 got stopped anyway!