150 Words: We Heard Him

The bus was quiet in the early morning and we heard him.  We all heard him.  But we pretended, as people do, that we did not hear him at all.

He sat, by himself, all the way in the back, staring out the window at the cars and the sad eyed people shuffling along the avenues.  He sat, murmuring in a voice that cut through the masculine hum of the bus engine. 

He sat murmuring…we all heard him…murmuring that children’s prayer. ”…now I lay me down to sleep…” 

But we pretended, as people do, that we did not hear him at all.

He got off the bus, at the edge of downtown, still murmuring.  ”…if I die before I wake….”  He disappeared around a shadowed corner and was gone, that prayer still murmuring…sighing musically…in his wake.

But we pretended, as people do, that we did not hear him at all.