Dwayne Scott (Sustina) 4/1/14
Maine’s Suspect
There stood the usual suspect,
a Latino man with his back
pressed against the glass window of the china shop
on the corner of Gerald & Main
being questioned by two police officers
as he eagerly waved for the bus to stop.
– It didn’t. Buses rarely stopped
for anyone. People suspected
that it was due to their skin color. Officers
had to flag down buses to get them to come back
and pick people up. Things were screwed up here in Maine.
-Another cop showed up. Three cops encompassed the china shop
inching closer to the young man. People shopping
gravitated to the city’s sidewalk to stop
and enjoy the show. Maine’s main
attraction on a Saturday afternoon: “Suspect
vs The Justified.” The Latino man looked back
through the glass and saw the reflection of an officer’s
hand just before it smashed his head through the window. The Officers
stepped back to assess their spectators, all white shoppers,
all quiet. The Latino man’s lacerated face looked back
to see a bus with its doors open, stopped,
and it’s driver signaling to come. He suspected
nothing and bolted for the bus that lit up, “Next stop: Main
Street.” Immediately, he began to regret moving to Maine.
he was constantly being treated differently than the other co-workers in the office
and had no clue as to why he raised all of this suspicion.
The Latino man stared out of the window as the bus accelerated past the shops.
The bus kept accelerating, not even stopping
for a red light. The passengers scrambled to the back
of the bus. They knew that he’d come back.
The “Transit Bus Slaughterer” had been the news’s main
story for three weeks non-stop
and the Latino man every officer
was after. The bus driver pulled into an old abandoned sweatshop
factory building and suspiciously
reached behind the back of his seat, pulling out the same gun that the officers
use, and picking off every shopper on the bus. The maniac
looked at the Latino and said, “Don’t stop anywhere. You’ll be the first one suspected.”