Journey to Lip Scape, Louisiana, Essay Example

I was on my way to visit a friend on a Louisiana bus line in Lip Scape. I had no idea what an adventurous trip this would be. As I sat next to the bus driver and a passenger named Guilt, I made myself comfortable.

We had a new driver’s assistant, Benjamin, a masculine macho-looking black man, covered in old rugged designer jeans with an air of confidence and a stern looking face.

Now in this part of Louisiana, racist talk is rarely heard and strongly condemned however Benjamin made no qualms about speaking his mind and talking about how lazy black people were. It was quite embarrassing, and honestly I did not understand this logic or judgment.  Benjamin’s lack of knowledge made us all uncomfortable and his wisdom and sensitivity went unnoticed.  Picture this: A big burley black man alerting the driver to pull over at the bus stop mumbling out the window to ‘get on boooard’ – Oh my goodness, I wondered how the passengers expected to find their way on the bus.

When the driver spoke to Benjamin it was by way of insults and demoralizing statements. Oh, I could hardly stand it. We all tried hard to shout some sense into Benjamin’s head, but he must have been hard of hearing too as his mistakes would best be defined as ‘stupid’.

Now Benjamin was deathly afraid of running into the militia-like gangs of youth that often hung out around bus stops. I was wondering how on earth he would handle this surely it would not be in a professional way.  As I asked Guilt why would Benjamin be so scared of the youths, this immediately sparked a heated debate among the rest of the passengers. I laughed to myself as Guilt yelled out, ‘it is too early to judge him!’ And I’m thinking, too early! Haven’t we seen enough!

As the journey continued, Benjamin became more vocal with his racial slurs and at one point Guild told him to shut up. Oh my goodness, I thought I would die.

The day was full of surprises as I found out the bus was not licensed to operate on this side of Louisiana and the driver and Benjamin had no idea how to get to Lip Scape. All at once the bus broke down. Could it get any worse? So now we were dealing with two incompetent employees and a faulty bus; would I ever get to Lip Scape? The driver got out of the bus and waved down people to help push the huge bus with hopes it would engage the clutch and set the bus back in motion. It worked! Unbelievable! Saints be praised, maybe we would get to our destination after all.

At this moment, Benjamin decides to go around the bus asking for fare money. I laughed to myself, and would not give up the fare money. Why would we pay a fare for a journey that may never end?

Meanwhile, they still did not know how to get to Lip Scape. Geesh, and they expected me to pay for this. Now being the smart man that I am, I shouted to the driver how to get to Lip Scape. As embarrassing moments continued, I realized I had giving them the wrong directions!

Finally, 30 minutes of uneventful travel. Then it all happened! We realized the militia-gang had been trailing us all along. There was one burley man riding a motorcycle with fancy decorations and he forced the drive to slow down and come to a halt. Fear set in and I wondered how on earth Benjamin would deal with this. It all happened so quickly, as the gang members roughed up Benjamin, clobbering him over the head demanding $1000 for driving on the wrong side of Louisiana. Benjamin unwillingly gave in, as the women passengers were all in shock and the rest of us were in a panic.

Thank goodness the journey ended here. The police arrived shortly after and I vowed never to take this bus again. No doubt that this would be Benjamin’s worst day as a conductor, if not his last day.