英语智慧背囊11-公车上的鲜花

[00:01.37]Flowers on the Bus
[00:04.31]We were a very motley crowd of people who took the bus every day
[00:09.56]that summer 33 years ago.
[00:11.65]During the early morning ride from the suburb,
[00:14.26]we sat drowsily with our collars up to our ears,
[00:17.45]a cheerless and taciturn bunch.
[00:19.73]One of the passengers was a small man who took the bus to the centre for senior citizens every morning.
[00:25.31]He walked with a stoop and a sad look on his face when he, with some difficulty,
[00:29.90]boarded the bus and sat down alone behind the driver.
[00:33.42]Then one July morning he said good morning to the driver
[00:37.13]and smiled short-sightedly down through the bus before he sat down.
[00:41.40]The driver nodded guardedly. The rest of us were silent.
[00:44.99]The next day, the old man boarded the bus energetically,
[00:48.63]smiled and said in a loud voice: “And a very good morning to you all!”
[00:52.88]Some of us looked up, amazed, and murmured “Good morning,” in reply.
[00:57.92]He said good morning to us every day and we gradually began to nod and talk to each other.
[01:03.17]One morning he had a bunch of wild flowers in his hand.
[01:06.54]The driver turned around smilingly and asked: “Have you got yourself a girlfriend, Charlie?”
[01:12.24]He nodded shyly and said yes.
[01:14.88]Every morning after that Charlie always brought a flower.
[01:18.69]Some of the regular passengers began bringing him flowers for his bouquet,
[01:23.29]gently nudged him and said shyly: “Here.” Everyone smiled.
[01:27.88]The men started to jest about it, talk to each other, and share the newspaper.
[01:32.03]The summer went by, and autumn was closing in,
[01:35.10]when one morning Charlie wasn’t waiting at his usual stop.
[01:38.82]When he wasn’t there the next day and the day after that, we started worrying.
[01:43.41]When we came nearer to the centre for senior citizens,
[01:47.12]one of the passengers asked the driver to wait.
[01:49.54]Yes, the staff said, the elderly gentleman was fine,
[01:52.81]but he hadn’t been coming to the centre that week.
[01:55.67]One of his very close friends had died at the weekend.
[01:59.27]How silent we were the rest of the way to work.
[02:02.33]The next Monday Charlie was waiting at the stop.
[02:05.73]Inside the bus was a silence akin to that in a church.
[02:09.66]Even though no one had talked about it,
[02:12.05]all those of us, who he had made such an impression on that summer,
[02:16.35]sat with our eyes filled with tears and a bunch of wild flowers in our hands.