The Woman

She entered the bus, slowly, carefully, cautiously.

Her hair, wasn't combed neatly or even cared for, but it had texture and it had shine. She was pretty in her own way. A diamond in the rough, if you may.

The people in the bus looked at at her, quite reprovingly at that, analyzing her every move. She picked out a seat by the window and sat there, quietly, without a word

People got back to doing their things. Talking. listening to music. Looking after their noisy children.
The bus started to move and the conductor went from seat to seat, collecting fares. He reached her seat.

She did not notice him.
"Ticket?", he asked, gruffly, indicating her to hand out the fare and announce her destination. She still did not notice him.
The conductor was getting impatient. He shouted, "Where do you want to go?".

No reply.
"You don't have any money, do you? Get out of the bus. NOW!"

She didn't budge. He yelled. And yelled some more. All the curses he could think of. The fact that she was a woman did not hold him back. She did not show any signs of caring or getting up from her seat.

He called for the cleaner. The cleaner tried to talk to her, in a voice which was so loud that it could be easily called screaming.
They came to the conclusion that she was deaf. And dumb. The cleaner went and got an umbrella. He started poking her with it, not stopping his screaming. Now, there was fear in her eyes. She did not know what to do. She had no clue what was going on. She was scared.

All the screaming and prodding confused her, frightened her. Her eyes begged them to stop.

I don't know what happened after that. Whether they finally managed to get her out of there. Or she herself decided to leave. She was still in the bus when I got off. They were still cursing.

It was after all....one ticket.