tHE BUS

When Jack opened the door to his home he knew there was a problem. He could hear water running and the place smelled like a bad toilet from a mexican restaurant. He turned on the hallway light and saw the brown ooze rushing out of the bathroom. The toilet was overflowing like fountain and the smelly river of brown was flowing into all the rooms and in the corner by the closet where the water had no where to flow it was just collecting like a big pond of turds.

"Fuck me, what is this shit!" Jack said. He had been having the worst luck in his life all month. This was the icing on the cake. First his car gets stolen then a day after its found and returned to him someone hits him from behind and totals it. He walked out unscathed but now he had to ride the bus and public transportation as he put it SUCKED ASS.

He hated the people he had to ride with to get to work and he sensed that they hated him. He looked like a man who had been used to driving to work in his own car and that is exactly what he was while everyone else on the bus looked like they belonged on the bus. They had a compromising way about them. They new the propper bus edicate and protocals that Jack didn't. Like where to sit, when to ring the bell, and how you could only claim one seat. Jack always wanted two seats. One for himself and one for his small suitcase which could easily fit on his lap. But really Jack just didn't want the regular bus people sitting next to him. Some of them smelled funny while some others smelled like they'd shit thier pants. Then there were the crazy people who always seemed to be on the bus. No matter when Jack got on the bus it was the same people. One was an olderman with a hat who spent most of his time sleeping. The other was a skinny black guy in his twenties that sat in the middle of the bus and had this large eyes that were always staring at people. It was a very predatroy stare and Jack always wondered what his intentions were. Jack was a little bit bigger than him andhe knew he could take him if he needed to but still there was something about his stare that told him that guy wasn't right in the head.

But the worst offenders where the talkers and the sleepers. The talkers would sit next to Jack and just start talking about whatever their kids, thierjob, the government, the state of the world. Shit that Jack really didn't give a damn about. And the sleepers would lean up against Jack and go to sleep. He's missed his stop a few times because he couldn't get one of the sleepers to wake up and let him out of the seat.

Jack couldn't wait to get his new car and say goodbye to bus living. But now his home was destroyed. The place smelled evil. Sure he could understand that shit happens but really the way his house looked it had a sense of something other than bad plumbing had caused this. A bad omen, someone maybe. Because everything was destroyed. His rugs his floors would have to be replaced it would take months to get his place back to the way used to be and who knows if that horrible smell would ever go away. It wansn't the usual smell of shit this was worse. It was like a dense sulphuric smell that suffocated a person. Jack had to cover up his face as he walked through thehouse inspecting allt he damage. The kitchen was destroyed as the plumbing has some how burst through the sink and there was shit all over the place. The living room ws a big pond of sewage with traces of toilet paper and turds floating all over. Somehow his tv, stereo, and components had all been touched by the wave of shit. Nothing had been spared. Somehow the shit had gotten in his drawers, his closet and on his bed.

All his clothes, his expensive suits, his work clothes, his whole wardrobe was covered in brown. They were still dripping.

This was Evil. Not a bad plumbing accident. His life was destroyed. He could not believe his luck. As he walked out of the apartment in disgust feeling his life falling apart what was he going to do now.

An hour later the landloard arrived and could not believe what he saw. He called 911 because he felt he needed to call someone. He had never seen anything like this in all the years he had been the landloard at Sky High Apartment Comlplex. The firemen arrived first then a police squad car. The firemen walked into the room and then looked at each other not believing the grossness.

The police officer walked in and coughed and gagged from the smell he could not believe what the situation. He's seen murder victimes gutted, some decapitated but nothing compared to the grossness of Jack's apartment.

"What the hell happened, here?"

"It definately came from teh toilet," one of the fireman told the police officer.

"Damn it to hell, if this ain't the grossest thing I have ever seen."

"Saw a woman and baby burnt to the bone one time, this beats it."

Jack stood by the door listening to the men. He wondered what all this was about. His perfect life was not slowly crumbling down it was falling down like an avalanche.

"This is place is ruined. We can't let anyone live here. Who knows what disease you could pick up here considering it seems that there had been a big build up of sewage in the septic tanks below. There was a huge build up of methane gas and when the gas build up enough pressure it blew the blockage back. It all seemed to have come out in this apartment. None of the other apartments have been affected."

Great Jack thought. Of all the fucking rotten luck.

"Are you the owner of the apartment," the officer said cringing and using the word apartment very loosely.

"Yeah, I'm jack."

"Well jack this place is off limits. You can live here."

"But all my stuff"

"Your stuff is dead, man. Look at it its all shit." The Police officer looked around the room again shaking his head. "I ain't never seen anything like this...ever. Life sure ain't kind to somepoeple. Karma's a bitch."

"What do you mean."

"Nothing, Jack. Just you know at church they were talking about reaping what you sow. They talked about how a virtuous man can have a good life by following the righteous path and well bad things happend to bad people. Are you a bad person, Jack."

"No, I don't think so."

"You don't think so? You don't sound like you're too sure. I mean if someone were to ask me if I was a good person I would say yes, as good as I can be."

"Well I've never really thought aobut it. I mean I don't try to hurt anyone, I go to work, pay my bills, pay my taxes, don't do anyone any harm."

"I see, okay then well maybe this ain't karma its just some fluke like winning the lottery only you won the shit lottery. It has to fall on somebody I guess....I guess this time it was you. I'm going to leave you with my card, Jack, if you need to talk to someone or have any questions you let me know. As the lord says we must alays have an open ear for those who have things to say."

"Thanks, Officer" Jack looked at the officer's name tag, "Officer, Brown. Thanks for your help." Officer brown took out his cell phone and took a quick picutre.

"Ain't no one going to believe this." Officer Brown said walking out of the apartment.

Jack stood there as the Firemen waddled through his apartment. He took a last look and walked away.

Karma's a bitch. Jack wondered if this karma knocking on his door. But he was not a bad person. He was not evil. He didn't deserve this. This was not for him. He hadn't done anything bad enough to deserve this.

Jack wondered where he should go. He could hail a cab but he wanted to walk. He wanted to think about everything. He wondered what he was going to do now.