City Bus Rider

The weather was -35 degree celcious. I got a new job, yesterday. Since I got the offer letter, I had only partial sleep last night. I googled the map of my workplace 7245, Callingwood. It was my first job which I signed up after one and half month’s venture. I bundled up with winter clothes, carried a backpack and walked off my apartment. After reaching to the station at 107 ave, I waited for the bus#3 for about fifteen minutes. There were three people already waiting for the bus. One was a black woman about two hundred fifty lbs, completely dark complexion, medium size balloon boobs, and full size buttocks. Another was a red colored old man with  with a knapsack and a old bike. The third was a white girl wearing headphone over her ponytail and playing with a digital device.
I casually looked at them, but nobody was giving me a heck. I felt numbness in my fingers so that  I quickly shoved my hands into pockets and stood close to the building walls. A lady with a white tiny dog walked through giving me a full smile. It made me feel good. At the same moment a public bus ETS-3 stopped at bus stop. Everyone were standing on a queue. I joined in a single file line and rode on the bus.
I had one loonie, one loonie and a quarter in my hand. I put them in a box on the right hand side of the driver. The driver looked at me as if I had just put a couple of dimes in the box. I did not smile at all. I walked down the patio to find the seat, but there was not a single left. I was swinging left and right while holding the hand bar tight. I saw everyone bowing their heads on phone as if they were all mourning. A white boy in a gray jacket at the far end was laughing. I did not see anyone talking to him. It looked wired to me. A pair of wires running through his jackets.
At the next stop, a big fat lady rode on the bus with her wheel chair. She had a vacant seat reserved at the front. People standing near her seat moved backwards pushing me down to the exit door. I accidentally pressed the stop button which made the bus stop at the next stop. I did not get off. There were no one to get off. I saw the driver in the rear view mirror looking at me as if I had a gun hidden in my pocket. I felt guilty. When the bus reached to the Jasper station, there were people standing all in the patio. I moved to the back seat providing space for them. After a minute, I found only myself left in the bus.
"Where are you going, sir?" The driver asked me.
'" I looked in notebook where I had written the address and said, ' Collingwood'.
"This bus does not go to Collingwood. You should take another bus to the West Edmonton Mall transit centre where you can get other buses go to Collingwood."
I quietly got off the bus and stood on the edge of the road under the ETS bus stop sign. I did not know which bus go to the address I was intended to. It was windy and chilly weather. I had no data in my cell phone to check the bus which go to West Edmonton Mall. A man with a red skin spotted with dirt came close to me. I could smell pungent odor of alcohol. " Can I have a smoke please?' he extended his right hand towards me.
"Sorry, I don't smoke," I said.
" Do you have loonie?", he asked again. I said no. He walked away from me saying" thank you!"
I gave him neither a smoke nor a loonie, but he extended gratitude towards me. I was quite surprized. Then another man came in a walker and asked for a smoke after a few minutes. I said no and moved away from there. I went to the station and asked a guy how could I get a bus to West Edmonton Mall. He showed me the stop where I could get a bus # 2 which would take me to the WEM. I thanked him and headed to the stop. Unfortunately, I missed the bus with a slim gap. I had to wait another bus fifteen minutes more. In fact, three buses had already left during my stay at the station. But whole time I was standing at the wrong stop.
After a fifteen minutes wait the bus arrived. I got on the bus. The bus was full of passengers. I went to the last seat. I sat next to a girl who had Chinese complexion. She smiled at me nodding her head and in a second, by the time I smiled back, she turned as a statue. I learned how to stretch my lips without even opening them and bear a fake smile.
Whole time I felt mourning silent in the bus. There were passengers on and off the bus in every five minutes, but nobody was really communication with the words. There was a speaker announcing the location. A string of wire was stretched on the ceiling of the bus with a little loupe  of the wire at the top of every seat. Passenger were pulling it if they wanted to stop the bus at the next stop. I learned this when I pulled it  earlier, accidentally.
The bus stopped at WEM station. Everyone got off the bus. I was the last one getting off the bus because i stopped by the driver to ask which no bus goes to Collingwood. As I got the direction from him,  I went to the shade to wait the bus to my destination. There was a bench to the waiting passenger. I sat on it. Next to me, there was a couple of the teenager who were attached like a magnet attached with the metal. They did give any space to me while joining their lips multiple time. There were other people too in that shelter, but everyone was turning a blind eye on them. It was hard for me to avoid the sight. Soon I left the shelter and waited the bus standing in the cold outside. There came a black guy who looked new to the city like me from his appearance. He came closer to me and asked,”Are you from India?”
“No!” I hate people who asked me if I were Indian. “Am I really look like Indian?”, I asked myself. I did not talked to him anymore. A white man looking normal came closer and asked for loonie. OMG how many beggars are there in the city. I never imagined before in the the county like Canada which the top ranked in the best lifestyle in the world. The black guy was mumbling that these people are lazy so that they ended up in jails due to drugs and crimes or become homeless.
After ten minutes wait, the bus came and I rode on it. I was empty. I got the seat of my choice. I gave the address to the driver requesting him to let me know when the address arrived. The driver was east Indian immigrant who replied, “ no problem, aap baitho.”
The bus stopped multiple community stops before reaching to my location. Every time I looked at the eyes of the driver, he gave me the signal with the hollow eyes “no”!
Around 12:30 the bus stopped at Collingwood community centre. I got off the bus and walked along the street looking for the DOMO gas station. I saw the sign of DOMO at the opposite side of the road. By this time, I was almost two hour late. I looked the Pump standing at the distance where two black women running in and out pretty quickly. I decided not to go there. Went back  to the stop and  started the city bus journey back to home hoping to arrive before twilight.