Bus Tales – Badger

Daily Word – Badger.  Thanks WOtW    👍

“I’m a badger,” said the old man softly as the bus went over the third speed bump in a row.

He nodded to himself as if to confirm the fact and leaned on the seat in front of him with one arm.  The recently blue rinsed woman, next to him, drew her bag to her heavy breast for protection and looked out the window distancing herself by an inch.

“Been one since I were small,” he related, this time a little louder and flashing a dentured smile.

The jacketed man, sat across the aisle, folded himself into his newspaper trying it on as cloak of invisibility. I could still see him and the newspaper crumbled noisily.

‘Badger’ turned to ‘blue rinse’, “started with a Blue Peter one, sent in a poem I did, Christopher Trace read it out. Sent me a badge, still got it, see.” He pointed to his rain mac and there it was, a Blue Peter badge.

“Now I got thousands of the buggers, not Blue Peter ones, mind, but all sorts. That’s where I’s at today, missus, getting this beauty,” he delved into his pocket, “it be a Chewbacca one, from that film Star Wars, you know.”

He held up the badge (I half expected a ray of sunlight to hit it and a chorus of angels to sing an uplifting note but it was raining) “It be an original one, from 1977.” He waved it to prove a point and then sighed, giving it a quick kiss before putting it back in his pocket.

Blue Rinse shifted and moved closer to the window as the bus hit traffic.

Copyright ©RMC June 2018