Providing a Ride (432 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: -0.58 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Zachary Eppert <zeppert.at.yahoo.com> (View user info) at 2009-04-28 21:06:18 EDT
Providing a Ride
On a busy street in a suburbanite filled area of a major city, there sits a bench. Although, it is ordinary in appearance, if not somewhat dingy and old, it is a Mecca for its neighborhood. The city mass transit authority refers to it as stop two and twelve for bus routes four and eight respectively. It is the only time anyone ever refers to it as anything.
This bench has long been forgotten. Every other stop in the city has shiny, cold aluminum benches. This one, in particular, is hardly more than weathered planks, rusted bolts, and a chip of paint here and there. The people, as numerous as they are various, who gather at this bus stop have sanded the seat smooth over time. The timber that constructs the back rest has thrown off its paint and stands almost bare and dry.
Stop two and twelve is where the local spry centenarian rests her feet for a moment on her way to visit her great grandchildren. It's where the mechanics, too poor to own a car, catch their ride to work to repair cars for those who can afford one. A few aspiring budget savvy businessmen in designer suits share this location and exchange advice on market strategy with one another and whoever will listen during their wait. Through the fall and spring, elementary school aged children congregate and giggle before school. Single parents who scrape change out of their couch and always seem on the edge of dysfunction begin and end their days here. This cyclic juxtaposed collection never fails to ignore the bench that has so responsibly and reliantly marked this stop for so long.
It has marked this position for longer than any one of these people can remember. That is, of course, if they even cared to remember. A long time ago, this bench was cut from pine and assembled by detail oriented and skilled craftsmen. Someone painted it a glossy green and someone else even cared enough to paint gold leaves on the seat and back. Time wins every time. Time brought the winter of 1977 that caused the residual sap in the pine to contract so hard that the paint cracked. The spring of 1982 shot the bench from above with hail and torrential rain that flicked off a majority of the glossy green. Once the wood became more bare than not, the sun had its way. These scars are apparent in the wood. This constant soaking, freezing, contracting, expanding, heating, bleaching world is winning. The bench remains and proudly marks this point.
No one wonders what they would do if they didn't have this bench. If they didn't have this bench to make the driver stop here, what would they do? This flock of life will never give it a second thought. Most will not give it a thought. And all will definitely not thank the bench. It will stand and it will stay. It will mark stops two and twelve for routes four and eight until someone finally notices it. The bench does not want to be noticed.
User Reviews
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2009-05-01 00:37:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
PENOS RIDER
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2009-04-29 14:06:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2009-04-29 08:25:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I didn't think this was bad, but yeah, one a day.
This however, was fucking horrible: "This cyclic juxtaposed collection never fails to ignore the bench that has so responsibly and reliantly marked this stop for so long." If you can make a sentence more awkward and hard to get through I'd like to see it.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2009-04-29 11:28:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
You're a pretty good writer. You gotta be thick-skinned to make it here.
You can only post here once per day. A second posting will bump the first one off the main page. It keeps people from transcribing War And Peace with one word per post.
For some reason, people here get all butt-hurt when somebody posts more than once a day. My guess as to why is that the multiple-posters are just usually spewing textual diarrhea.
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2009-04-29 10:36:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
worth reading seems about right
Submitted by sage104 (user info) at 2009-04-29 09:38:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Time wins every time.
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2009-04-29 08:25:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I didn't think this was bad, but yeah, one a day.
This however, was fucking horrible: "This cyclic juxtaposed collection never fails to ignore the bench that has so responsibly and reliantly marked this stop for so long." If you can make a sentence more awkward and hard to get through I'd like to see it.
Submitted by PlatinumScarecrow (user info) at 2009-04-29 08:14:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Great Writing, Shitty plot.
Submitted by SgtHartman (user info) at 2009-04-29 07:34:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
I dont understand the "post twice in one day" thing...
I mean really, you have THAT MUCH inside you that you cant wait to get it released to the uber masses so it can get -2 bombed??
get real.
Submitted by EmissionImpossible (user info) at 2009-04-29 06:38:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
a bench!
Submitted by RoadSong (user info) at 2009-04-28 22:43:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
"Stop two and twelve is where the local spry centenarian rests her feet for a moment on her way to visit her great grandchildren. It's where the mechanics, too poor to own a car, catch their ride to work to repair cars for those who can afford one. A few aspiring budget savvy businessmen in designer suits share this location and exchange advice on market strategy with one another and whoever will listen during their wait. Through the fall and spring, elementary school aged children congregate and giggle before school. Single parents who scrape change out of their couch and always seem on the edge of dysfunction begin and end their days here."
~~~~~~~~~
This part is the real deal.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2009-04-28 21:56:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
None a day, jagoff.
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2009-04-28 21:11:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
One a day, jagoff.