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‘Gah! Sorry, are you OK?’ Minnie asked, as she found herself sprawled against him.
‘Tyre’s blown,’ the cab driver shouted back to them. ‘Are you all right?’
They both made noises that they were. Minnie felt her skin getting warmer and warmer as she realised the man’s rings were attached to her, an insect caught in her weird webbing top. They climbed out of the cab in conjoined crab-like unison and Minnie tried to untangle herself with as much dignity as possible.
The cab driver stood on the kerb inspecting the blown tyre. He gave a weary groan. ‘Looks like you’d best find another way of getting where you’re going.’
‘What were you saying about bad luck?’ groaned the man.
‘Coincidence,’ said Minnie.
They both stood awkwardly together on the pavement, and a few minutes later the man managed to hail another taxi.
‘Maybe we could—’ Minnie edged toward him hopefully.
‘No,’ he said, ‘I don’t need your bad luck following me round tonight, lady.’
Minnie ran south. She could see the number eighteen bus pulling in ahead, if she could just get on that bus, if there could be no traffic on the roads, she might just make it. She had to try.
‘Wait, wait!’ she cried, willing the bus to pause a moment longer. Thankfully the driver waited and waved her on. He was a broad-shouldered man in his thirties, with a heavy beard and tattoos down both arms.
‘Oh thank you, thank you,’ she said, out of breath as she paid her fare.
‘Always room for one more,’ said the driver in a broad Scottish accent.
Minnie took a seat in the middle of the bus. She was definitely testing the limits of London’s transport network tonight.
The bus contained the usual smorgasbord of London nightlife: an elderly man in a battered duffel coat with a tinsel-collared Jack Russell on his lap, a group of teenage girls all in short skirts, long boots and fake eyelashes, laughing over their phones, and a middle-aged couple having a disagreement about the best route to Covent Garden.
‘Your lucky day,’ said the man with the dog, giving her a wink. He had kind, creased eyes and a pointy face that reminded Minnie of a leprechaun.
‘Sorry?’ Minnie said.
‘Making the bus,’ he said.
‘Oh yes, well I won’t count myself lucky yet, I’m trying to get to Westminster Pier by ten o’clock.’ Perhaps it was the man’s bright, curious eyes, or perhaps it was the adrenaline of making the bus, but she found herself saying more. ‘There’s a man I’m in love with who’s leaving on a boat in thirty minutes.’
What was it about tonight, and oversharing with complete strangers?
The man ruffled his dog’s head. ‘Well that’s a reason to run for a bus if ever I heard one,’ he said. ‘Boris here thinks so too.’
The bus pulled in at the next stop, and the engine went dead.
‘Sorry folks, just pausing for a change of driver,’ came a voice over the tannoy.
Everyone groaned. Minnie jumped up and ran to the front.
‘Sorry, sir, but can you tell me how long that will take, please? It’s just I’m in a real rush.’
‘Aren’t we all luv,’ said a blonde woman in a high-visibility jacket, white shirt and bus driver’s hat. She was holding a clipboard in her hand, and she looked Minnie up and down as she got onto the bus.
‘Oh great, are you the new driver?’ Minnie asked.
‘She needs to get to Westminster Pier to tell a guy she loves him,’ shouted the human leprechaun from further down the bus.
‘Well, we’ll get there when we get there. Move yourself, Hamish,’ said the woman, moving to one side so that the large, bearded Scot could get out of the driver’s seat. Then she called out to the whole bus, ‘The bus will be waiting here for ten minutes to regulate the service on this route. If you are in a hurry, you should get off and catch the bus behind, which will be arriving in seven and a half minutes.’
She gave Minnie a tight grin, flashing a gold tooth, and took her seat in the driver’s cabin. People on the bus groaned and started to disembark.
