I live in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and one thing I see all the time, which I think is a very Northern Suburbs thing, which is the 903 bus.
I go to Northland, I see it there, I go to the Airport I see it there, I go to Greensborough I see it there. Hell, I’ve even seen it at the supermarket in Hawthorn. This bus just seems to follow me everywhere I go.
I get out of work in the afternoon, there’s always this bus parked down the road that says OUT OF SERVICE, but it’s one of those big grey smart busses, so I know
At night, I’ll wake up to the sound of air brakes out my front window. I get up and look out to catch the back of a bus driving off down my street.
I can’t see the number, and it’s too dark to tell what colour it is, but busses don’t travel down my street- ever, so I know.
I get these calls from a private number- they can come at the middle of the night, during the day whilst I’m at work- whenever
And I have to answer otherwise they just keep calling. And when I do, there’s no voice, just the sound of a diesel engine.
I scream into the phone, ‘Who are you? What do you want with me?’ And all I get is a ‘DING’ and they hang up.
My family lives in New South Wales, and when I go back to see them, I sort of consider NSW as the extreme Northern Suburbs of Melbourne.
I’ll go back, and I’ll go to my brother’s place. And parked out the front is this grey smart bus, PTV stickers and everything, and his kids are just running around through it, playing on it.
And so I tell his kids, Nathaniel, Chrysanthemum, get off that bus and go inside. The door closes, and then it’s just me and the bus.
I scream at it, ‘What do you want from me? I’ll top up my myki, I’ll make sure I touch on. But you do not threaten my family. They’re kids for fuck’s sake.’
The engine roars to life. Airbags hiss as the bus lifts up. And then, empty, the bus drives off.
I’ve been trying to figure out what this bus’s deal is. Why is it following me around? What does it want?
And whilst I haven’t been able to come up with answers, I came to a realisation that made my blood run cold:
I was in Heidelberg, and the traffic was backed, it was a busy time of day. I drive past a bus stop, and I see two 903 busses, one just pulling in, and one leaving.
That’s when I finally realised, more than one bus services a route at any given time.
There’s not one 903 bus, but a whole network of them. Who knows how many are driving the route, and how many are stalking me at any given moment?
So I’ve realised I could have any number of busses watching me at any time, and I have no idea what the fuck they want.