“I see,” Brown said. He got up quickly and swung to the front. The bus slowed, halted at the traffic light controlling the entrance to the Expressway, hanging on concrete over the river. “Let me out,” Brown said.
The driver looked up. “No stop here.”
“I want out here.”
“Stop’s on the other side.” The light changed. The driver pressed the accelerator. Brown grabbed him by the throat.
“I want out here,” Brown said.
The driver jammed on the brakes. “Sure, buddy, sure, anything you say.” He hit the release lever. Air hissed. The doors popped open. Brown stepped down onto the pavement. The door closed quickly behind him.
“Shees,” said the driver, rubbing his neck.
“They should never have let them use the public busses,” said the lady in black. “It’s just not safe.”
“Shees,” said the driver. “Sunday afternoon. Same goddamn story. Drunks an’ nuts.”
“The light’s green,” Earl said.
The driver turned and glared at him. “That friend a yours is sick. Sick, you know what I mean? Sick.”
“Never saw him before,” Earl said.
“All belong to the Black Muslims or somethin’, an’ you’re all sick. Goin’ around chokin’ folks. Sick.”
“You don’t move this piece a shit off this bridge, I’m liable to choke you myself,” Earl snapped.
The driver turned hurriedly. The light had gone red, but he pulled the bus away from the curb anyway. One hundred and sixty-two yards beyond the western bank of the Schuylkill the bus crossed Thirty-third Street, and South Street quietly, almost gratefully, became Spruce.
About the Author
David Bradley is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Oregon and the author of South Street and The Chaneysville Incident, the latter of which won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1982 and was a finalist for the National Book Award. The novel also earned Bradley an Academy Award for literature. Bradley has published essays, book reviews, and interviews in periodicals and newspapers including Esquire, Redbook, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the New Yorker.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1975 by David H. Bradley, Jr.
Cover design by Mauricio Diaz
978-1-4804-3853-8
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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South Street Page 45