The other day, when I got to the bus stop, I looked up and saw a man I knew. I said hello and we chatted for a bit. Then we got on the bus. I walked all the way down the bus, hoping that he would go and sit somewhere else. I was starting to run out of things to say.
Unfortunately, this man took an empty seat in the same row as me. So, the verbal exchange had to go on a little longer. He started complaining about his knees. He needed new ones, preferably steel. That conjured up an image of him standing with fridge magnets stuck to his steel knees. But where was he going to get a pair of those in town? Pushing that thought aside, I rather convincingly expressed my sympathy. At the same time, I realised the conversation needed something more than new knees.
While rummaging around in my mental attic for something to say, I remembered his mother. She was a seamstress that I had trusted to alter a couple of my skirts last year.
So, I asked him, “How’s your mum?”
He fidgeted in his seat and gave me a funny look for a few seconds, then said, “She died about eight months ago.”
Uh-oh! I was somewhat shocked since she seemed to be no more than middle aged and in fact she looked as fit as a fiddle the last time I saw her.
“Oh, I … I’m very sorry to hear that.” I said, vividly remembering this sweet little plump lady smiling proudly when I inspected her handiwork and gushed, “Thank you very much … you know, I really can’t tell where you cut off the extra piece.”
And as I recalled those words scrolling across my brain, a penny dropped somewhere and made me look at this man again. I realized, to my horror, I had been talking to a total stranger! He wasn’t who I thought he was. And the clever seamstress had nothing to do with him!
But, who was this man?? I peeped at him out of the corner of my eye. You know, I was sure I’d seen him somewhere before. 
To my relief, he got off at the next stop. I waved “bye” as normal, barely keeping my face straight as I was rolling about laughing inside.
When I was nearly home, it dawned on me that he was a customer that I’d seen a couple of times at work. And I never ever knew his mother!
Well, at least there was no harm done. And who knows? He probably spent the rest of the day wondering how on earth somebody like me would have known his mother.
Hi Angeline 🙂 this is the first post I have read so far and already I have had a hearty chortle so thank you 😀
I started reading and thought ‘oh yes this has happened to me’ until the bit where you realise that you didn’t know the man from Adam LOL I thought it was just about the awkwardness of when someone you meet at a bus stop or someone you vaguely know from the area takes the seat behind you and you don’t know whether to turn around and talk because they sat there on purpose or to not turn around and risk them thinking you are a bit ignorant! I haven’t caught the bus for many years until a recent car breakdown forced me to get one back from town and the guy that I had asked about the bus times had struck up a tentative convo with me, then come and sat behind me so I really felt awkward because I had also ‘run out of things to say’, he told me he was new to the area and he was, tbh, a bit of alright LOL, oh well, got my car fixed so no more bus rides and chats with strangers, for now…