A Pause In The World

For the past six months, I’ve been following a monotonous routine. Every day, I’d head to the bus station to catch a bus at 10:00 a.m. and return at 6:00 p.m. The bus was a medium-sized one, capable of seating around ten people, but it was almost always empty. There weren’t many people around, so the bus would often stop for just me. Over time, the routine began to wear on me. It was boring, repetitive, and it started to take a toll on my mental health.

Since I began this routine, I’ve been arguing with my mother more frequently, and I've become increasingly angry and isolated. My emotional state has worsened, and though my health has remained unaffected so far, I can feel its impact on my mind.

Despite this, there was something strangely calming about the bus station itself. Sometimes, I’d just sit there, not waiting for anything, as if I were pressing pause on the world around me. It became a brief escape from the constant motion of life.

One day, I noticed a man sitting at the station, seemingly without purpose. He was just… there. Curious and feeling bored, I approached him and sat nearby. After a while, I asked him where he was going, but he didn’t respond. I tried again a few minutes later, but he remained silent, almost as if he were in a deep pause, more detached than I could comprehend.

That intrigued me. The next day, I returned to the station and tried to mimic his stillness, just sitting there, doing nothing. It felt freeing—like a release from the constant noise of life.

Then one day, I saw the man board a bus. But I couldn’t shake the question: Where was he going? So, I decided to take the bus instead, buying the same ticket he had. As the bus left, something strange happened: it didn’t stop at any stations. It was as if the driver didn’t want to stop, or maybe just couldn’t. One by one, the passengers began to disappear. First, I felt uneasy, then fearful. The conductor vanished, and then even the driver was gone.

All that remained was the man and me, along with the empty seats. The bus seemed to be driving itself now, gliding through the world with no particular destination. Hours passed in this eerie silence, until finally, the man turned toward me. He looked at me with an almost knowing expression and said, “I was going nowhere.”

And then… I woke up.