Susie Baby

Victor is the older of the two very nice Puerto Rican gentlemen who drives the neighborhood shuttle I take from the train station to work every morning. Victor is probably in his seventies. He does not talk very much even though he speaks English quite well. He seems to be somewhat attached to one of the town’s school bus drivers, Susie.

The first time I heard of it was when one winter morning our shuttle passed by Susie’s bus. Both vehicles stopped, and the drivers exchanged very happy-giddy greetings. Once the shuttle got going again, Victor, usually a very quiet man, would not stop smiling and repeating, “That’s my Susie.” Sneaking a peak at all of us, passengers, through his large rearview mirror, he kept nodding his head and saying, “That’s my Susie.” Victor says “Susie” with a slight Spanish accent. So the name sounds more like “Soosie”.

Today we experienced another encounter with Susie. This time the school bus stopped at an intersection to pick up the children. Victor stopped the shuttle about fifty yards away to give Susie plenty of room to turn. As we waited for the children to get on the bus, Victor was again expressing his joy on seeing Susie. “Soosie, ha, ha… Soosie, ha, ha, ha,” he kept laughingly saying. He was very pleased. Unfortunately today Susie did not stop the bus to say hello to Victor, but only gave him a big smile and waved. That seemed to have been plenty for Victor--he kept smiling at us in the rearview mirror all the way to work. I am sure if at all possible, Susie will stop and say hello to Victor and us next time.