10/25/2025
In 1968, I was a target. In 2025, I'm just invisible. I’m still trying to figure out which one is worse.
My name is Frank. I’m seventy-nine. I was a grunt in Vietnam, which is just a history-book word for "scared kid with a rifle." Now, I live in a one-bedroom apartment in South Philadelphia that smells like Vicks VapoRub and old coffee.
Most days, I just sit. I go to the bus stop for the Route 47, even when I don't have anywhere to go. It’s better than the four walls of my apartment. Out here, the city is loud, angry, messy, and alive. It doesn't care about me, but at least it doesn't pretend to.
Nobody notices an old man on a bench. They see the cane and the gray hair and they look right through me. Tech kids with their white earbuds jammed in, staring at their phones. Young mothers wrestling with strollers. They assume I'm just part of the scenery. Or homeless.
Maybe I am, in a way. I feel homeless in the country I once fought for. A country that’s all about speed, efficiency, and arguing on the internet. A country that doesn't have time for a slow old man.
One bitter February morning, the kind of cold that finds the old metal in your hip, I tried to climb onto the 47. The step felt like a mountain. My knee locked up. My paper bus pass slipped from my stiff fingers and fluttered down into the gray slush on the pavement. I felt the line of people behind me huff. That impatient sigh.
I mumbled, “Sorry, sorry,” waiting for the driver to snap, to tell me to hurry up.
But she didn't. The driver, a Black woman with sharp, kind eyes and a proud streak of silver in her hair, leaned over. “You’re alright, Pop-pop. Take your time.”
She actually hopped down from her seat, scooped up my pass, and offered me a steady forearm. “Gotcha. You’re good.”
Her name tag read ‘MARTHA’.
That first day, I got turned around. The city blurred past the windows and I panicked. I’d missed my stop by six blocks. I shuffled forward, my face hot with embarrassment. “Ma’am? I… I think I’m lost.”
Martha just nodded. “This route doesn’t go there, honey, but I know the cross-street. It's cold out. You sit up front.”
She broke the rule. She went three blocks off-route and drove me right to my corner. No sigh. No lecture. Just quiet kindness.
The next time I rode, I braced myself. Kindness like that is usually a one-time thing. A mistake.
But when I stepped up, she smiled. A real smile. “Frank! Good to see you. Back seat’s warm for you. And hey—if we get there a little early, I’ll wait.”
Wait.
I stared at her. Nobody waits. Not anymore. The whole world is built on Go.
True to her word, when the bus reached my stop three minutes ahead of schedule, she put it in park. The bus just sat there, idling. Three whole minutes. Not for a red light. For me. So I wouldn't have to stand in the cold.
I felt a sharp sting in my eyes. Not sad tears. The other kind. The kind that says, You still take up space. You still matter.
Weeks passed. The 4:15 PM bus became something different. A young construction worker in steel-toed boots—his vest said ‘Miguel’—saw me with my single grocery bag. “Here, Frank. Let me get that.” He carried it off the bus for me.
A college kid from Temple, the one with the bright green hair and a nose ring, started calling me “Sir.” Every single morning. “Have a good one, sir.”
One afternoon, a woman in a hijab quietly slipped me a pair of new, hand-knitted gloves. “Martha said your hands get cold,” she whispered.
I hadn't felt like part of a platoon, part of anything, in fifty years. I wasn't invisible anymore. I was Frank.
But America doesn't let anything stay gentle for long. It's not in our nature.
One rainy Friday evening, the bus was packed. Standing room only. A man in a crisp, expensive suit was pacing the aisle, his Bluetooth earpiece blinking blue. He was barking into his phone. “Listen, Kyle, I don't care about the optics, I care about the quarter. Leverage the asset and close.”
We reached my stop. It was 4:12 PM. Martha put the bus in park.
One minute passed. The suit clicked off his phone.
“Driver!” he snapped. His voice was sharp. “Why are we stopped? This isn't a layover. I have a meeting.”
Martha said calmly, “We're waiting 90 seconds, sir. For Frank.”
His head, slick with hair gel, snapped toward me. “You are kidding me. You’re holding up a bus full of working people… for him?”
My face went hot. The whole bus went silent.
Martha didn't flinch. Her eyes met his in the mirror. “Yes. 90 seconds.”
The man scoffed, loud enough for everyone to hear. “This is public transit, not a charity service. My taxes pay your salary, lady. Not for… pity stops.”
Something cold and hollow cracked inside me. I wanted to vanish.
But before I could shrink, Miguel, the construction worker, stood up. His frame filled the aisle. “Hey, ‘jefe’ (boss). Show some respect. That man fought for this country. You can give him two damn minutes.”
The suited man sneered. “Oh, here we go. The veteran card. I didn't ask him to fight. That was his choice. Don't use the flag as a welfare card.”
Now the Temple kid with the green hair stood up. “It's not welfare, you fascist! It's called 'community.' It's called 'solidarity.' You wouldn't get it.”
“Fascist?” the suit laughed. “I’m the one paying for this! You think this bus runs on ‘community’? It runs on my tax dollars. This is inefficient. This is socialism, making the many wait for the one!”
A woman in the back yelled, “My taxes pay too, and I say let him wait!”
Another man shouted, “This is woke nonsense! Since when do buses just stop?”
The bus erupted. It was America in a tin can. Black, white, immigrant, young, old, rich, poor. All yelling. Yelling about taxes, respect, who deserves what, who is "woke," who is "selfish." The air crackled with it.
Finally, Martha slammed the brakes at a red light, harder than she needed to.
She looked at us all in that long mirror. Her eyes were tired, but they were on fire.
“You all done?” she asked.
Silence.
“You know what the problem is?” she said, her voice cutting through the bus. “We're all so damn busy trying to win. Win the argument. Win the election. Win the quarter. We’ve forgotten how to be neighbors.”
She looked right at the suit. “Two minutes isn't socialism. And it isn't inefficiency.”
She then looked back at me. “It's decency. It's just... decency. Now everybody sit down.”
Even the suit sat down.
When we pulled up to my corner, Martha glanced back. “You good, Frank?”
I had to clear my throat. “Yeah, Martha. I'm good.”
The suit didn't apologize. He bolted off the bus as soon as the doors opened, his shoulders tight.
Me? I walked slower than usual. Not because of my hip. Because I wanted those two minutes to last.
That night, someone posted a video of the argument. By morning, it was on Fox and CNN and everywhere else. The headlines were exactly what you'd expect.
“Woke Bus Driver Holds Taxpayers Hostage for Vet.”
“The Two Minutes of Decency America Forgot.”
Politicians tweeted. Pundits yelled. The comment sections were a warzone. They were arguing about me, but they weren't talking about me at all.
I still ride the 47. Martha still waits. Sometimes, the other drivers do, too.
Sometimes, passengers give me a little nod. Sometimes, they pointedly look at their watches and sigh. America hasn't changed overnight.
But here's what I know. I spent fifty years feeling like a ghost, a leftover from a war everyone wanted to forget.
And one woman, with the courage to waste two minutes, proved I wasn't.
So let them argue. Let the left and the right scream until they're blue in the face. This country won't be saved by who wins the argument on TV or on the internet.
It’ll be saved, or lost, by whether we're willing to stop, look another human being in the eye, and say:
“You matter. I see you. And I’ll wait.”