A woman with two little boys sat at seat in the second row of a rusty minibus. She carried the young boy in her selendang and let this young boy feel the comfort of her breast and her arm. Her stinking sweat made the young boy able to identify his mother and it seemed nice fragrance for him. At the selendang, the young boy enjoyed playing with a plastic bag that was used to carry ice tea. He shaken it and dropped tea on the floor of the rusty minibus.
Knowing this, the woman shouted on him and grabbed the plastic bag from the young boy. She gave him an empty wallet in an exchange.
While the one year old boy was playing with a wallet, the 4 years old boy stood next to the mother. He was dirty and his skin seemed dark because of the sun burned it. None of passengers offered their place to accommodate this boy for his appearance and his attitude showed a characteristic of children living on the street.
No eyes put attention to the mother and two children. It was the time while the passengers of the rusty minibus played an everyday opera. Each person played their character based on the script they had without communicating with each other. All characters were orchestrated on the stage of rusty minibus with creepy noisy engine, which chanted soundtrack of banality of every day. In this opera, the existence of three creatures was inexistent.
The silent scene ended as the fat young driver entered in the rusty minibus. He seemed familiar to the woman and her two kids for they lived in the same neighborhood. The driver shared driving seat with the boy and drove the bus. When the boy started to touch the steering, the mother yelled on him and through a small stripe to hit him. The driver gave no comment but he smiled. He put a dirty red pillow beside his driving chair and let the boy sat on it. "Do you feel better now?" asked the driver to the boy. Boy nodded for answering that question.
The woman said thanks to the driver and started a conversation about their neighborhood. She talked about a prostitute in the neighborhood who acted like a princess and about a 14 years old girl who got married recently. Interestingly at the end of conversation she mentioned her young sister's name and said that her sister would be a good wife because she was a good cook and as she used to clean home. She promoted her sister just like a product that was ready to use and has money back guarantee.
The engine was earsplitting as the driver drove it faster. He was proud of his rusty minibus for he got money through it. He said that all documents of the bus are expired but he was no afraid to operate this old machine on the road. He said "as long as I drive it slowly and follow the traffic regulation, police will not check my documents". He mentioned that the minibus was his partner for it has been with him for years. He felt lucky partnering with the rusty minibus for it never stopped making money by having a lot of passengers’ every day.
The woman was listening to his story and agreed with him. She knew many drivers and their buses and she saw that this rusty minibus was different. She said that in future, her kids should be a bus driver because she said that bus driver has a lot of money. The bus driver smiled at her and said nothing to her.
It was a bitter smile.
