There were 91 people on the bus. (Somehow mostly sitting). Amoung us were a young spoiled but earnest boy we ran into in the arcade tent, the boy's absentminded and busy father writing emails, a girl from my workplace, and a couple of guys whose eyes were practically glued to their phones who came on the bus at a later stop.
The young boy was the one who counted all the people on the bus.
My friend is very a gregarious and genuine person who speaks her mind. As the guys stuck to their phones felt around for a seat and started sitting down, my friend broke their trace telling one of them "Nice rings!" He had two silver minimalist rings on.
As he tried to recall the name of the store he got it from, remembering that "it sounded friendly."
He recalled the name and apalrently I have been there before because the image of a logo came to mind on a storefront with both English and Chinese writing on it. The bubbly, line art style reminded me of neon lights, and it had a yellow cloud, and a pink strawberry and a cat's smiling face.
Someone else overheard and chimed in, "yeah I've been there before, it's a good store." Soon enough people on the bus were chuckling and making quiet conversation and the air lightened.
My friend has got up to continue her comversation, and I made eye contact wit a guy who was sitting on he either side. He was quiet, and had brushed back his Afro hair into a ponytail. He had a backpack, and a grass green sweater on with yellow on the inside and a black-string necklace I couldn't see the pendant for.
Him and I noted the conversation immediately and smiles at the conversation that ensued between my friend and the phone guys.
When the guy said the name of the cloud-strawberry-cat store I naturally looked back at the guy in green and asked if he had been there before, as if we had been talking to eachother this entire time. He didn't miss a beat, and was the kind of kid who was reserved but with a very real friendly way about him once he started talking. The kind of kid who gets what people are saying.
He opened up and we made small talk, and the subject of difficult names came up somewhere on the bus, and he said maintaining his wide smile up to his eyes,
"I get tired of having to tell people
my name over and over again."
"What is your name?" I asked.
"Rinene Ireson. People are usually like 'Irent what?'"
(Pronounced "Rye-kneen Ire-sun")
"Rinene sounds so cool! Do you know its meaning?"
"Rinene means a bag of garbage you don't want to take out."
Now this was something I thought I might have needed him to repeat.
Then he continued, "I was making up words one day," and his face changed to some much more closed and quiet, "and just came up with it."
I felt confused. "Oh. So you made it yourself?"
He nodded and looked down and away and once it hit me that he intentionally named himself garbage my mind raced for what to say or do to address what he just said. I figured out something that seemed good to say in a second, but then I woke up.
It took me a moment to remember, but it was something like "well, I don't think the meaning suits you but the name does have a nice sound," and to say it with a bit of a laugh then ask about what other words he has made up because that sounds really cool or interesting.
I also decided I would mention jw.org to him. It has definitely helped me when I feel like garbage (though I would definitely omit the "when I feel like garbage" part).
Later I decided to look up the meaning of Rinene, and only one page has come up so far:
That sounds more like him.
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