The View From Nathan's Bus

  As we pull up to Third and James, southbound, a couple of folks get on whom I recognize. "Heeyy," I say to them, beaming....

  "Birthday on the 25th," Isaac is saying, referring to himself. Isaac is in a work-release program at Burger King, and sometimes he pays me...

  A collection of interesting moments I've had recently, which all strike me with the unexpected nature of how events sequence themselves.... * * * * What...

  Conversations from the middle of the night: A man, asking the woman with her arm in a sling: "Is that a mouse?" She manages to be old,...

  Two girls are getting on at southbound Dearborn, early college maybe, coming aboard in handfuls, pulling their luggage behind and beside them. Together they...

I help a young black American family with the wheelchair seat at Fifth and Jackson. He's carrying laundry in tattered oversized Target plastic shopping...

  I pull up to the Third and Pine island stop, outside McDonalds. We're in the vortex, the nerve center. Every major city has an...

  I see her brighten the bus stop as I pull up. Third and Union southbound, some time before midnight. Hers is a smile which...