HOUSE OF CRAWFORD: CONRAD'S LEGACY.

Don't Dare Call Me Back

“What!” He screamed out in shock and the people right in the bus with him jeered up from the seat. 

“Is there a problem, sir?” The bus driver pulled over to the next junction of the road to stop the car just to be sure everyone was fine. 

Immediately Conrad realized that the driver was pulling over to park the bus he quickly apologized without any hesitation, “I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to scream out just like that.” 

“If at all you wanted to be loud with your praises you'd at least get down off the bus.” Another of the passengers blurted out without giving him more room to apologize. 

“I'm sorry, sir. Like I said I didn't mean to cut you off track like that. It was never my intention and..”

“Can you just save yourself the explanation?” Another female passenger jerked him off guard with her words. 

“There is absolutely nothing that will make us accept your apologies. Driver, please keep the car moving.” An aged man sitting right at the edge of the driver seat instructed the driver not willing to hear my apologies. 

As I sat inside the car it all felt as if I was a stranger in there and I had to come to an agreement that I was nothing but a stranger because I don't think anyone on the bus got to know me personally.

It felt as if my poverty was glaring right in front of their faces like leprosy with the way they kept looking at me. They all couldn't hide the fact that they hated my guts and how I made them scared and uncomfortable by the loud voice I made in the car. 

“Mum, when will he be highlighting down from the bus? I hate his guts and how he keeps staring at me.” He heard one of the little kids who was sitting on his mother's lap whisper under his breath. 

“That should be at the next bus stop.” The young lady patted her son softly at his back trying her best to calm him down a little. 

He looked at the baby boy who was getting irritated by the long stare he kept receiving from Conrad. The young baby burst out in a loud outcry, ‘Mum! Mum! I hate the way he stares at me.” He ruffled his face on his mother's chest trying so hard not to have a glance at Conrad.

The mother raised her head giving me a dead stare “Get your filthy self out of here. I don’t want you to ever look at my son in such a manner.” 

“I’m sor...sorry..I..” Conrad was startled by his speech as he felt less of himself.

“Driver, can you please drop this man off as soon as possible.” The remaining passengers who were slowly getting irritated by his presence raised their voices in one accord to speak to the driver.

Even though Conrad has experienced different shades of embarrassment he has never for once come in contact with one that’s as brutal as what he was experiencing. Most times he sits down and ponders aloud if his poverty was so evident that it had to create a mark on his forehead as a center of attraction to those he meets on the road or in the bus.

The loud screeching sound from the bus was accompanied by the brutality of the bus driver with his condescending tone of voice, “Get yourself out of here!”

“But, I haven’t gotten to my final bus stop.” He denounced the words of the bus driver attacking him at every single opportunity he had.

“You don’t have to get to your final bus stop young man. Ever since you entered this bus you have been disrupting the peace of everyone.” Another of the passengers charged up his words against me.

Conrad stood up from his seat and yelled back at the passenger who was trying to rip him off his right, “I thought I had to apologize to everyone about my misconduct.”

The driver who was losing his patience with the constant back-and-forth clash they were having warmed up the bus and shouted at Conrad, “We aren’t fully convinced by your apologies, young man. Save yourself the unnecessary stress and use the door.” 

Conrad shook his head in dismay, “There is no way you expect me to pay full price and you want to give me a half-paid treatment.” 

“Well, since you are proving stubborn there is no better way than to treat you like a piece of trash.” One of the young passengers stood up from his seat and grabbed Conrad placing him on his shoulder.

“What the hell do you think you are doing to me? Put me down!” He smacked the back of the body-built young man who was looking nothing less than a twenty-eight-year-old fellow who had spent all his years in the gym. 

“Get out! Get out! We don't need you here.” The passengers on the bus raised their hands in symphony as they chorused their words. 

It felt as if I was a plague and they didn't want to associate with me or anything that had to do with me. Suddenly, my head started feeling heavy and it felt as if I was slowly leaving the face of the earth. 

The only thing I could hear was the dead voice of the masculine guy who dropped me off in the middle of the road and kicked my belly with his feet, “I don't want to ever get to see you at all.” He spat out his words and hissed at him heavily. 

The vastness of the bus made me roll over to the other side of the road so I won't end up getting crushed by the bus because left alone I knew he has the mind to crush me to the ground level. 

The loud sound of my phone rang out loud as I dusted myself off the embarrassment that unfolded a minute ago. The wind of the breeze brought sands to his face that he didn't realise when his hands slid to pick up the call. 

“Young Master, we are yet to see your presence in the mansion. You have…”

“Don't you ever call me again! Liar!” he yelled at the top of his voice as he hung up the call before getting to hear his last words.