Author: eugenia

Photo by torbakhopper

Muni rider Jesse James wore his Little Mermaid backpack on the 38-Geary. What followed his backpack was a story that we wish didn’t happen, but it did.

Lately I’ve been called a “faggot” with much more regularity than I appreciate. Having the f-bomb lobbed at you in San Francisco is the definition of unexpected. Like a sunny afternoon in August, it’s just not something you plan for as part of modern city living. And yet, it happens. To me it seems to happen with a frequency that is beginning to trouble me. In fact, it just happened the other day. On the bus. On a Wednesday.

The morning was chilly and damp and the 38-Geary was completely packed, as per its usual wants. To combat the elements, the driver had taken it upon herself to crank the heat up to its upper limits. When matched with the panting exhalations of the four to five thousand passengers crammed into the coach, a Floridian, sub tropic humidity enveloped us all and created an environ that left my brow sweaty at 9 a.m. I’d been on the 38-Geary for less than five minutes when I felt a gentle tug on the strap of my Little Mermaid backpack. Wondering why someone was touching me on the 38 this time, I turned slightly to see who was molesting my belongs only to find an adorable, child-sized little girl grasping to the dangly bits of my pack. Read more