One day I got on the TRAX after school. I absolutely hate people who put their feet or stuff on the seats next to them when there are clearly not enough seats for everyone to sit down in the first place. On this particular day there were two girls who had their backpacks on the seats next to them. So, of course I walked right up to one and asked to sit next to her. She moved her stuff, and I sat down, feeling very satisfied. My own back pack was placed on my lap. About thirty seconds after the TRAX had started moving again, I looked down at my back pack and there was a little bitty lady bug climbing on the pink flower design. The girl next to me asked if I was aware of the lady bug on my back pack. So I put it on my finger, not sure what to do with it because I didn’t want to hold it for twenty minutes until I got to the next transfer station, but there weren’t any windows to roll down either. I asked the girl if she wanted it, and she furiously shook her head, “No!” I gathered by this time that the girl was… different? There was also another girl in front of us, the other one who also had the pack on her seat, and she was on the phone, loudly talking to her sister about cigarettes and drinking. She also seemed… different. Socially unaware, at best? Both of them had black pants on and a white collared shirt and name tags. I figured they belonged to some organization. Maybe a teen-help type thing. So I put the lady bug back on my bag and said that I just don’t know what to do with it. The girl in front all of a sudden paused on the phone and looked at the lady bug. She apparently thought she was helping me, but to my utter horror she reached down and flicked the lady bug! Poor lady bug! It landed on an old lady’s skirt across the aisle. It then flew up and away, amidst all the people standing and sitting and landed on the window of the girl on the phone. I was secretly hoping that she hadn’t noticed, and the lady bug would eventually find its way back out, but the girl next to me practically shrieked, “It’s on your window!” So she turns around and SMACKS the lady bug! I though surely it was dead, and I started my internal mourning over the poor bug who hadn’t hurt anyone. I looked around and, oddly enough, no one else had noticed the predicament of the little insect.
There was another girl I saw who was dressed similarly to the girls next to me who was turned completely around in her seat and staring at the lady behind her who was changing her high heels into tennis shoes. I partially forgave the loud phone-talking girl because she probably wasn’t completely normal. The girl next to me then asked if I had ever had a TB shot. She was getting one for work, you see, and she was afraid it was going to hurt. Then she starting coughing up a lung and she smelled sort of funny and I was really starting to regret sitting there in the first place even though they were taking up four spaces for the two of them. And because I made myself sit there the innocent life of a lady bug had been lost. The two girls next to me then proceeded to talk after the one got off the phone.
“That was a loud conversation, (ya think??) trouble at home?”
“Yeah, my sister is trying to get cigarettes, and she wants me to get them for her. She also wants alcohol. But I told her to stop being stupid and that I would get some for her.”
“My mom made me try alcohol before, and I was like, ‘Mom you’re terrible! I’m not old enough!'”
“I drank underage all the time. I’ve had all sorts of stuff.”
Could you be any louder?
Anyways, back to my lady bug mourning. A man got on the TRAX who was dressed like the three girls, and they acknowledged him. He held onto the bar in front of me because there was no room to sit (due to the crazy girl in front of me.)
So to my surprise the lady bug had somehow survived the crazy girl’s attacks and was climbing up the bar!! But it was headed right toward the man’s hand, and I didn’t want him to squish it, so I said, “There’s a lady bug crawling towards your hand.” And the psycho girl got up and flicked it again and it landed on the floor and people started walking off and I thought for sure it was dead this time. I silently mourned for the certain death of the lady bug the rest of the ride.
When I got to Salt Lake Central, there were only four people on my compartment, and I looked down at the floor of the TRAX, and saw the lady bug!!! I was so excited. When it tried to fly away, I saw that one of the wings was broken and hanging out. Poor thing. So I waited until everyone else had gotten off the TRAX, then I leaned down and picked it up. I put it on a bush outside with green leaves and flowers. Hopefully it is living a happy-ever-after life right now. It was a very traumatizing experience. For me, too.
