When its a Good thing To miss The bus

In February of 1995 on a rainy, overcast morning, I missed my express bus to work. So the next bus I took was the regular local.  Unlike the express, this bus travelled a few blocks, then turned to go up a long, imposing hill, before entering the expressway to downtown Seattle. 

I sat by the window when I got on and at the next stop on the hill, several people entered.  One of the women passengers sat next to me and preceded to open a novel she was reading.  I noticed it was White Butterfly by Walter Mosley, his third book in the Easy Rawlins mystery series.  I was already a fan of the author from the first book in the series, Devil In A Blue Dress, as well as the movie with Denzel Washington as the lead character.  She told me she was enjoying this book as well as his previous ones. 

 We chatted for the rest of the bus trip and found out thatwe had some things in common, including her son and my daughter who were classmates at the high school. 

Doris also told me about the Bookclub she was in that concentrated on African-American writers, a growing segment of the book publishing industry at the time.  She invited me to their next meeting, to see if I would be interested in joining the Bookclub.  I thanked her, gave her my phone number, and said I would come to the next meeting. 

When I attended that initial meeting, who knew it would be the first meeting of many for years to come.  I was warmly welcomed by a group of women, who I would later learn I had lots in common with. I decided right then to join the group and have been a member since almost the beginning. When I think back at how things happen and are at times meant to be, what a blessing it was that I actually missed that express bus on that particular morning.

Pat Coleman, Member since 1995