One day a couple years ago, I was riding the
TriMet bus, line 14, home from
school. I was sitting towards the
front of the bus, next to a rather small
woman that I had seen on the bus before. All through the ride, she would half-say, half-
hum, "
Hmm!" in a very high
pitch. My
watchband had recently
broken, so I was lacking a
chronometer that day, and as we approached my
stop, I asked,
"Could you give me the time?"
She responded,
"No, I'm sorry, I can't do that."
I smiled at her joke, but my smile faded as I realized she was serious.
"No, I can't do that do that. I just can't do that. I can't go around giving out that kind of information."
Luckily, she didn't seem overly offended, and we arrived quickly at my stop. I deemed it best not to ask questions of people who mumble to themselves.