Oh, Ok, I reply, as she sits down on the brown bench, where we had been. She has two small boys with her.
Then I notice two Asterix books also left on the bench. Must be Lizzie and Liam’s. I quickly pick them up and exit the bus. We need to the catch the next bus.
I turn the books over. The fronts are purple and have the Star Trek logo.
Oh, no. They must belong to the boys on the bus. But the bus is already gone.
I go up to the station forewoman, I know her well, a resolute black woman in her 30s, in a yellow dress.
Can I get these back to the black family that just got on the bus, the woman and the two boys?
Sure give me a minute, she says. She disappears. And I wait.
I am still waiting for her return when I notice a library label ‘UCL’ on the spine of each book. I could return them to UCL.
Another manager walks by me, a younger black woman, but I cannot get her attention. I go into a side room. As I look around I see that it is a satellite library with a few books, for display rather than anything else, with only a couple of books showing the ‘UCL’ label.
I step back out to the bus station. The station forewoman is back. Can I leave these with you to give back? Or I can leave the books in “lost and found”?
I pick up a blue sticky note to write an apology. I am trying to think of the words, but can they fit on the note?
Photo of Causeway Bay bus station via Creative Commons
