Time to Make the Donuts

On a recent morning, I saw the shape of someone sitting on the bench inside the bus shelter at my bus stop. "Damn, who's that?" I thought as I hurried--because I'm so often late--toward the stop.

My name isn't on the stop or anything like that, so there's no reason other people shouldn't catch buses there, too. I'm just wary of encountering the representatives of the religious group who pop up at bus stops to proselytize to riders.

I believe in the separation of bus and church--they don't. They are neither scary, nor particularly pushy. But their appearances at stops strike me as both odd and pretty smart (the audience can't really GO anywhere until the bus comes).

Sometimes a nondescript sedan or van will approach--usually at a transit terminal--letting out multiple operatives then picking them up as it slowly circles.

Other times one person seems to pop up from nowhere at a stop with pamphlets in hand, giving me a start--I should ask, "Did you spontaneously generate from that ixora over there?" I don't like sitting inside the shelters anymore since it blocks my vision.

So, here I am approaching coming upon a shelter with one person inside. Is this a new tactic? Waiting when no one is there?

Then, the thought occurs to me: All dressed for work, I look like I could be one of them.

Sure enough, when I pop from nowhere around the side of the bus shelter, the young lady waiting on the bench looks at me warily. But, after I just stand there looking for the bus for a few seconds, she starts talking, "I'm really tired." Then with minimal encouragement from me she tells me how she was up late getting her hair done then had to be at work at 4 a.m. She makes donuts down the street at D***** D*****. Yes, she makes donuts but this morning when she got there she also had to make bagels. Yes, bagels. She can't believe how many bagels people eat, way more bagels than donuts.

Intrigued(!) I ask for more details about the donut making. Turns out a centralized bakery actually makes the plain donuts but she ices, sprinkles, coats, frosts, and fills the plain ones for the store. Then she tells me that when she fills donuts--jelly or cream--she tries to fill them too full so that they are just about to burst. "I don't think anybody would complain about a donut that had more stuff in it....." It's at that point I realize that she must be an angel.