Plague Woman
I used to get the bus to and from my old job, and at certain times you’d begin to recognise certain people. My shifts would alternate between 10-6 and 12-8, and on the 10-6 shifts there were a number of people who I’d regularly see in the morning, but one of the early evening commuters stands out as particularly memorable.
I don’t know her name but I used to refer to her as “Plague Woman” and is probably the most hateful person I’ve ever encountered. She was the type of person where, if I was waiting near her at the bus stop, I felt the need to keep my headphones in but turn my music off just in case things got too heated. Given her age and stature (she was a tiny elderly person) she was harmless as far as any form of physical threat can be entertained. Her mouth, however, was an almost endless surge of racial hatred, aimed exclusively at black people. Usually she’d just murmur to herself, you’d only hear her if you were sat near her (after the first time you’d learn not to make the mistake again), but I live in a very racially diverse area. If a black person should get onto the bus, she would raise her voice and refer to all black people as a plague on Britain.
The time that springs to mind was when I’d had a half-day at work. I went to the bus stop and she was there, pacing back and forth as she often did, murmuring to herself. I got on after her and about two or three stops down the road a mother and two children got onto the bus. I don’t know what was different about this day, but on this occasion Plague Woman erupted into an onslaught of racist bile that was mainly toward the children (the oldest of whom looked no older than ten years old).
Horrific as it is, the bus drivers would usually do nothing. The same with the passengers. I’d seen someone say something to Plague Woman before and on another journey they’d been the victim or her abuse. On this occasion the driver did stop the bus and order Plague Woman to either be quiet or get off and wait for the next bus to come along, causing her to begin blaming the child.
“If you’d never come here I’d be home by now.”
Shortly after that she shuffled off the bus and spat at it as it drove past. You’d think she might have learned her lesson but every time I saw her after that she was just as bad as usual. It’s terrifying to think people like that still exist, especially in such multicultural areas.