Nothing there

Reaching into your pocket as you board the bus is not the time when you want to notice that there's nothing there. That your bus pass and that five dollars you had with you, just in case, are gone.

You feel like an asshole, of course, because your first thought is that one of the people at the shelter you were volunteering at was responsible. Because they are all thieves, aren't they, you miserable bigot, you tell yourself.

Later, you'll wonder if it really was prejudice or not. After all, other than the five minute walk to and from the bus, your entire day was spent with them. Who else could it have been?

If this were some poorly written after school special, I'd tell you that the saddest part is the trust I had placed in them was broken. That I wouldn't be able to look at the shelter the same way again. But that isn't it. That isn't the saddest part. The saddest part is that someone stole thirty dollars from me, the five dollar bill and the cost to replace the bus pass, but they only got five. The bus pass is non-transferable.