Under normal circumstances, we would not have talked to Antony and Marilyn. A middle aged couple sitting near us on a bus, kissing and whispering sweet nothings to each other. They would have been none of our business. However, this project made the business of everyone at Barton Springs our business. So we decided to start a conversation. Billy asked to take their photo, and they happily obliged. They were very enamored with the idea of a stranger taking their picture, and they considered it a magical and serendipitous event which confirmed their view of the universe as a magical and serendipitous place. They were “soul mates,” as they said, both 45 years old. Sharing their lives with three young men from the University was just the thing they wanted to do on a Thursday night. Their cooperation may have been related to the plastic two liter bottle beneath the bus seat, sans label. Antony told us the story of why they were on the bus that night. They had just moved to Austin two weeks ago, and Antony had recently gotten out of jail. He previously had a job designing computer dust, “All kinds of algorithms and shit” as he put it, but he did not talk about his current employment situation. He did, however, let us know that he was a celebrity and that we should check out his blog sometime. They had to ride the bus around everywhere because their $49,000 Lexus had been impounded due to debt. According to them, commuting in this way took up four hours of their day. The life story that they presented us had the common theme of a fall from grace, he from his cushy computer graphics job and she from her excellent pedigree. “You might think my wife’s a dim bulb”, Antony said in response to his wife’s slurred speech (she talked very little during the ride), “but look at this.” He produced a genuine MENSA membership card from his wallet and showed it to us like it was a Nobel Prize in physics. In addition, his wife “was the daughter of the inventor of unleaded gasoline.”
As they walked off onto Sixth street, holding hands and tottering down the street, the bus driver remarked “These two are INSANE, gentlemen”, with a tone of voice which suggested that he had dealt with them before. It was a warning none of us needed. It would be foolish to take the booze-addled story of a celebrity graphics designer and his gasoline heiress soul mate riding the bus at 10:00 pm on a Thursday night at face value. However, stranger things have happened. Given the current economy, who are we to judge their reported circumstance? In addition, it doesn’t matter much if the story is true or not. Whether it is self perception, delusion, or objective reality, the fact that they chose to share this story with us says a lot about them. People do what they have to do the preserve their self-respect. If it is fabricating a life story for three seventeen-year-olds on a bus, so be it.
-Jonathan McJunkin
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