Is this your wheel? (London)

 

Got on the bus on Saturday to deliver some glass jars to someone further north in London.

As I sat down behind the pram area (the middle part of the bus, facing the exit door), an old man had just collected his shopping trolley parked there and was getting off the bus.  I saw a white wheel sitting on the floor (one of those for shopping trolleys, usually used by old people, about 5” in diameter — the wheels, not the old people), so I tried to call out to him that his wheel had come off.  A young mother with a pram, who’d got on after me and sat down next to me, said, “No, I’d already asked.  It’s not his wheel.”  I took a closer look at the old man walking away from the bus — yes, his trolley wasn’t limping; it had all its four wheels on.  Then, whose wheel was it?  How did the owner manage to walk off the bus without noticing it?

After a few more stops, another old person with a shopping trolley got off the bus, and a passenger in the pram-parking area called out, “Is this your wheel?”  No.  

Then, the young mother got off the bus with her pram.  I looked down at the floor where her pram had been. There was now another wheel sitting next to the shopping trolley wheel: a pram wheel, black, about 3” in diameter. Someone rushed to the door and called out to the young mother, “Is this your wheel?” No.  

Where did that come from?!?  It wasn’t there before!  How did wheels come to get left behind, yet no wheels were missing from the departing trolleys and prams??

The bus continued its long journey to Finchley, with the two unclaimed wheels sitting companionably side by side.  A surreal ride.

(London, 2023)

PS:  It’s just occurred to me that those two wheels must have sneaked on board for a free ride…