Marcus didn’t mind the bus ride back and forth to “the job” every day. The 30-minute transition from his doorstep to desk gave him time to think or meditate. And he had a lot to think about.
He would have to make the decision today. He would have to either decide to try the complicated plan, the one that might offer a bigger reward but that involved certain ethical loop-de-loops, or he would keep it simple, and let the situation unspool slowly while he held on to his morals.
What to do? That’s what he was asking himself, when just about the last type of creature he would want to sit next to on a crowded public bus was deposited on the seat beside him: a tiny little human with a large ice cream cone.
Marcus looked down at what appeared to be a chubby 3- or 4-year-old boy. His mother sat across the aisle with what looked to be the boy’s slightly younger sister. The girl was also licking an ice cream cone. The mother gave Marcus a tight little smile and a shrug, as if to say, “You pay your fare and you take your chances.”
Marcus offered to change seats with her, but she refused. “These two fight if I put them together,” she said, “and I want to sit next to my daughter.”
There were no other seats to move to, so Marcus resigned himself to sharing his perch with this very sticky little homunculus, who had ice cream all over his hands and a frosty white mustache.
“Please don’t touch me,” Marcus said, thinking about his latest dry cleaning bill.
He disliked children and could hardly believe he’d ever been one himself. The little guy looked up at him and grinned.
His mind wandered back to the problem. What to do? The ultra-complicated course with the bigger potential payoff, but the guilt-inducing dirty work or the simple plan?
Devil or angel – Marcus couldn’t decide which to be. And he only had half an hour, the length of this bus ride, to decide.
He didn’t believe in prayer, but he did believe in intuition and a higher self, or whatever it was.
“Tell me what to do,” he thought, addressing the cosmos. “Tell me if I should structure the deal, or shoot it straight, the fancy or the plain…”
Just then, he felt something cold in his lap. He looked down and saw a lump of something glistening and white, a blank glob of undifferentiated creaminess slowly oozing between his legs.
The kid was looking up at him with a solemn expression. “Vanilla,” he said.
Michael Gates is a Hudson County writer. Comments on this story can be sent to: current@hudsonreporter.com.