to the sight of the bus by running towards the stop. The doors slid open and two of them had an argument in the doorway as they both tried to board first. The driver remonstrated with them and received a torrent of abuse in return. He said no more as they dropped their money into the tray and continued to push and shove each other.
There were five in all. They lifted the hat off an old man as they moved inside the bus and let it fall again so that it dropped over his eyes. His protests were met with loud derision.
'What's wrong, granddad? Gone blind?'
They turned their attention to a teenage girl who flushed in embarrassment as they started to discuss her appearance.
'Nice tits shame about the face!' hooted one of the yobs to the loud amusement of the others.
'Nice little bum as well. Bet she could give you a fair bang.'
'Think we should give it a try?' asked another and there was a moment's pause in the noise.
'Yeah… let's.' growled one of the yobs ogling the girl's legs.
The young girl sprang to her feet and rushed towards the front of the bus demanding to be let off and the police be called. The driver was reluctant to do anything but at the protests of another passenger, an old woman sitting near the front, he lifted his radio handset.
'Touch that and you're for the fucking hospital!' warned the leader of the yobs moving down the aisle towards the driver.
The driver smiled apologetically at the girl and replaced the handset. He opened the doors of the bus and said, 'Run along home love. It's for the best.'
The girl left the bus and the yob returned to his friends to shout filth at the girl from the window. Their comments were reinforced with hand gestures indicating what they wanted to do to her.
They now turned their attention to the woman in the tight skirt. 'What have we here then?' asked one as he moved into the seat across the aisle from the woman. The others moved up to join him.
'Just look at this…'
The woman maintained a dignified silence and ignored the youths to look out of the window.
'The older ones are always the best,' confided the leader of the yobs. 'They know what it's all about. He turned to the woman and said, 'Don't you Darlin’?'
The woman continued to ignore them.
The leader moved into the seat beside the woman and sidled up close to her. 'You know what it's for, don't you darlin'! You've had a few in your time, haven't you? Of course you have. I bet you're a real goer when you get started…'
One of the yobs leapt into the aisle and started moving his hips back and forwards rapidly to the delight of the others.
The woman's composure was broken. She turned from the window and hissed angrily, 'Animals!'
The comment provoked nothing but loud laughter from the yobs who fell about. One passenger, a middle aged man wearing an anorak could stand it no longer. 'Why don't you shut your filthy mouths!' he demanded, red in the face with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. The yobs turned to him and exchanged amused glances before moving towards him.
'Well, what have we here then?' hissed the leader.
'Looks like a real dick-head to me,' said one of the others.
'Bet he works in a bank, 'looks like the kind of wanker who works in a bank.' said the leader.
'Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir,' mimicked one of the others.
'Well do you then?' demanded the leader putting his face down close to the man.
'Just shut up and go away,' said the man.
'Are you going to make us like?' said the leader with quiet menace and a grin that held no humour in it.
'Don't you have any decency in you?' spluttered the man. 'Don't you have parents or are they like you. Trash!'
The yob leader let the grin slowly fade from his face before he turned to the others and said, 'He's talkin' about my mum. Did you hear what he said about my mum?'
'Old bastard!'
'Give him one!'
'For God's sake stop it! Leave him alone!' pleaded the woman whose plight had prompted the outburst.
'Shut up! We're comin' to you darlin'!' said the yob leader without taking his eyes off the man who was his current target. 'Nobody talks like that about my mum, nobody… understand?'
The man was given no chance to say anything before the yob smashed his forehead down on the bridge of the man's nose and split it wide open. The man's spectacles shattered and blood showered down on to the seat in front of him as he collapsed with a gasp.
'For God's sake stop it!' screamed a woman at the front and others joined in demands to the driver.
The feeling that the passengers, who had up until now been an assortment of ineffectual individuals, were beginning to gel into a cohesive opposition began to tell on the yob leader. 'You heard what he said about my mum!' he appealed, obviously feeling that now he had been given a valid reason for behaving in the way he always did anyway. 'You heard him! Old bastard. Deserved all he got, he did.' The other yobs agreed but their support was subdued as they too felt the pressure of public opinion mount against them and looked at the sorry figure of the man holding his face while blood ran down his wrists to disappear into his cuffs.
The woman in the tight skirt slipped out of her seat and pressed the emergency door release button. The doors hissed back and she stepped out into the night and was quickly on her way.
The yobs were still uncertain of their position as they looked about them. The driver too was beginning to gain confidence; his fingers were considering a move towards the handset.
'Oh fuck them!' snarled the leader. 'Bunch of wankers! Let's get the fuck out of here!' The yobs poured out of the open door and ran off into the night. 'Let's get the tart!' was the last comment the bus passengers were to hear.
'For God's sake drive on!' demanded one of the passengers. 'Before they change their mind and come back!'
What a piece of luck, thought the man at the back. He had been restored to anonymity by the behaviour of a bunch of human trash, the sweepings of the municipal streets, the lager swilling bottom of the social heap. He got up from his seat and pressed the bell. The driver avoided meeting his eyes in the mirror and the man was pleased at being proved right. The driver would no longer remember anything about him. The incident with the rattling instruments would be forgotten. The driver would only have room in his head for one memory of this night, his run in with the yobs and how they had terrorised his passengers while he had sat there too scared to do anything.
As the man alighted, people were flocking round the injured passenger and discussing whether it was best to drive straight to the hospital or whether they should stop and wait for the police to arrive. The man heard the hospital option win as he stepped down on to the kerb to wait until the bus had moved off into the night before starting to walk backwards along the road to where the woman and the yobs had alighted.
It was only three hundred metres to the spot but when the man got there, all was quiet. He stood still for a moment and looked about him like an animal sniffing the night. It was a quiet area. The road was broad. Trees lined both sides and a wide grass verge on one side separated a housing estate from the road. On the other side, the side where he stood, there were railings between him and what he thought might be a park, although he didn't know the area at all. It was difficult to tell because of the dense shrubbery on the other side of the railings. It could be a bowling green, tennis courts or even a boating pond.
He imagined he heard a distant laugh and trained his ears in the direction he thought it had come from. There it was again. He was sure this time. It had come from the shrubbery another hundred metres or so down the road. The man looked about him and saw that he was still alone in the road. He walked on with deliberate slowness, taking great care not to make a sound. He moved towards the spot where the noise was coming from.
It was them! And they had the woman! They were enjoying the woman and he could hear them arguing in stage whispers over whose turn it was next.
'Keep your hand over her mouth!' hissed one.
'For Christ's sake hold her legs apart!' demanded another.
'Scared she'll snap it off?' giggled another in the darkness.
