I’m at the M79 bus stop on Amsterdam Avenue, where the bus has to hang a left turn before heading crosstown. An elderly couple walks up to the stop, haltingly, looking around a lot, loitering in the street.
Her: “Is this the bus stop?”
Him: “Yes, it is.”
“Do you think this is the one that goes across town?”
“Yes, this is it.”
“It’s a funny stop.”
“I guess it is.”
They look around some more.
The wife turns to me. “Does this bus go across town?”
“Yes,” I say, “this is the crosstown bus.”
“Thank you,” she says.
She turns back to her husband, who looks at her, impassively.
Her: “I believed you…!”