The Last Bus Home — Easy English Story

Transcript

Introduction

A: Hello, and welcome to Recursio Easy English Stories.

A: This is a short story in simple English, at B1 level. Listen, follow the story, and pick up some useful phrases on the way.

A: Today’s story is called “The Last Bus Home.”

A: Listen for these phrases: to catch a bus, a one-way ticket, to change lines, Which stop is it?, to miss the last bus, and to walk it.

A: We’ll go through all of them together after the story.

A: You can practice today’s phrases in Recursio — link in the description.

Across the city

A: It’s Saturday evening, and Vera is standing in front of a ticket machine.

A: She has been at work all day, and it’s twenty past seven.

A: Her sister’s birthday dinner starts at eight, on the other side of the city.

B: One ticket. Just one.

A: Vera doesn’t have a travel card. She buys a paper ticket every time, like her mother did.

A: So she presses the button for a one-way ticket. One trip, one direction.

A: She could buy a round-trip ticket, but she isn’t coming back by bus tonight.

A: Her sister’s husband, Pavel, is going to drive her home. That was the plan. That was always the plan.

A: So a one-way ticket is enough. Two euros forty.

A: The machine gives her a small paper ticket and a lot of coins.

A: Vera puts the ticket in her coat pocket and looks up the street.

A: The number twenty-one is already coming.

B: No. No, no, no.

A: She runs. Her bag hits her side, and one shoe nearly comes off.

A: She catches the bus. The doors are still open, and she gets on just before they close.

A: Vera sits down near the back and breathes. The bus is warm and half empty.

A: Her trip has two parts. First the twenty-one, across the river. Then the number nine, out to the east side.

A: So at Market Square, she has to change lines.

A: At Market Square, she gets off the twenty-one and walks to the other side of the square, and she waits four minutes for the nine. On this city’s system, the same ticket works for both — one trip, two buses.

A: The number nine comes. Vera gets on, and now she has a problem.

A: She doesn’t know this part of the city. Her sister moved to Rose Street in the spring, and Vera has only been there once.

A: So she goes to the front of the bus and asks the driver.

B: Excuse me — which stop is it for Rose Street?

A: The driver holds up four fingers. The fourth stop.

A: Vera counts the stops. One. Two. Three. Four.

A: And at the fourth stop, she gets off, and Rose Street is right there, with the number seventeen on the corner house.

A: It’s two minutes past eight. Two minutes late, and nobody in this family will ever notice.

Rose Street

A: Her sister opens the door before Vera can knock.

A: The apartment smells of chicken and hot bread. There are eleven people inside and eight chairs, which is exactly right for this family.

A: Vera puts a small box on the table, and her sister opens it, and it’s a gray scarf, and her sister says it’s the wrong color and she loves it.

A: Somebody hands Vera a plate. Somebody else takes her coat.

A: For three hours, nobody looks at the time.

A: Vera talks to her nephew about a video game she doesn’t understand. She listens to her uncle explain, again, why he doesn’t like the new bridge.

A: She eats too much cake. She laughs at a story about a dog and a wedding.

A: It’s the kind of evening you don’t remember in detail. You only remember that it was good.

A: At about a quarter past eleven, Pavel comes over with two cups of tea and sits down next to her.

A: And then he says the sentence.

A: He says his car has been in the shop since Thursday. Something with the brakes. He gets it back on Monday.

A: He is very sorry. He completely forgot to tell her.

B: It’s fine. Really.

A: It isn’t fine, but that’s what you say.

A: Her sister offers her the couch, but Vera has a cat, and the cat has been alone since seven in the morning.

B: I’ll catch the last bus. It’s not a problem.

A: She takes out her phone and looks at the schedule for the number nine.

A: The last number nine leaves Rose Street at twenty to twelve. It’s twenty-five past eleven now.

A: The stop is six minutes away. That’s fine. That’s plenty.

A: So she says goodbye, and this is where the evening goes wrong.

A: Because you cannot say goodbye to eleven people in nine minutes.

A: Her nephew wants to show her one more thing on his phone. Her sister walks her to the door, and then stands in the door, talking.

A: And then Vera has to go back inside, because she left her umbrella by the chair.

A: When she finally reaches the sidewalk, it’s eleven thirty-six. She doesn’t check her phone again. She just walks fast.

The empty stop

A: She gets to the bus stop out of breath.

A: The screen above the bench is dark. There is no bus, and no light, and no sound from the street.

A: Vera looks at the schedule on the pole. The last number nine: eleven forty.

A: She looks at her phone. Eleven forty-two.

B: No. Two minutes. Two minutes!

A: She has missed the last bus.

A: Vera sits down on the bench and counts money in her head. A taxi across the city, this late, would cost more than she wants to think about.

A: And then somebody speaks behind her, and she jumps.

C: The nine goes at twenty to. Every night, twenty to, and it’s never late.

A: A man is standing at the corner of the shelter with a plastic bag and a thermos. He cuts through this street every night on his way to work.

A: He is about sixty, in a heavy jacket, and he is not in a hurry about anything.

B: I know. I missed it by two minutes.

C: Two minutes is the worst one. Ten minutes, you accept it. Two minutes, you want to shout at somebody.

A: Vera laughs, which surprises her.

B: Do you know if there’s anything else tonight?

C: There is. But not from here.

A: He tells her his name is Oskar, and that he works nights as a cleaner at the swimming pool down by the river.

C: I’ve been on the night shift for twenty-two years. I know every night bus in this city.

A: He points down the street, past the closed bakery.

C: Chapel Street, two streets that way. The night bus. The N3.

B: And when does it come?

C: The next one is in ten minutes.

A: Vera stands up.

B: Ten minutes. Okay. And where does the N3 go?

C: Along the river, to the bridge. Then it turns and goes back.

B: The bridge? But I live fifteen minutes past the bridge.

C: Twelve, if you walk fast.

A: Vera opens the official transit app. It shows the N3 arriving at Chapel Street in ten minutes and ending at the bridge.

A: Then she checks the walking route home. About fifteen minutes, along the wide, well-lit street by the river.

A: It’s almost midnight, but it isn’t raining, and the route is familiar.

B: Then I’ll walk it. Fifteen minutes from the bridge — I can walk it.

C: That should work. Come on — the next one is in ten minutes and I’m not running for it.

A: And so they go to Chapel Street on foot, an office worker and a night cleaner, past six closed shops and one open kebab place.

A: Oskar walks slowly, and Vera slows down to match him, and it turns out she isn’t in a hurry after all.

C: For twenty-two years I’ve gone home from that pool on foot. Four in the morning. Nobody on the street. It’s the best part of the job.

B: You don’t take a bus?

C: At four? There’s nothing at four. You learn to like walking.

A: They get to Chapel Street with three minutes to spare, and the N3 is a small bus, cream and green, with one passenger already asleep inside.

A: Vera gets on, and here she gets lucky.

C: On this night route, you can buy a ticket from the driver. The day buses work differently.

A: Vera buys another one-way ticket, from the driver, for three euros ten, and she catches the last bus of her evening after all.

A: The N3 runs along the river. The water is black and the lights are orange.

A: Oskar gets off at the third stop, at the swimming pool, and lifts his thermos at her through the window.

A: Then Vera goes to the front and asks the driver.

B: Excuse me — which stop is it for the bridge?

A: The last one, the driver says. The bridge is where the N3 turns around.

A: So she sits and waits, and at twelve minutes past midnight, she gets off at the bridge.

A: And then she walks it.

A: Along the river, past the boats and the one late runner and the man walking a very small dog. The air is cool. Her shoes are terrible and she doesn’t care.

A: Thirteen minutes, in the end. Oskar was almost right.

A: She gets home at twenty-five past midnight. The cat is angry for about forty seconds.

A: Vera sends her sister one message: “Home. Missed the nine by two minutes. Met a man who knows every night bus in the city.”

A: Then she hangs her coat on the hook, and she finds the two tickets in the pocket.

A: The first one-way ticket, from twenty past seven, from the beginning of the evening, when everything was still simple. And the second one, from the night bus.

A: She throws the first one away. The second one she puts on the shelf by the door, next to her keys.

A: She isn’t sure why. But it stays there for months, and every time she sees it she thinks about the man with the thermos, who was not in a hurry, and who knew exactly which bus she needed.

Phrase review

A: Now let’s go through the useful phrases from the story, one by one.

A: The first one: to catch a bus. It means you get to the bus in time, before it leaves.

A: “I catch the seven fifteen every morning.” “Run — we can still catch it.”

A: Next: a one-way ticket. That’s a ticket for one trip, in one direction. If you want to come back, you ask for a round-trip ticket.

A: “Can I have a one-way ticket to the airport, please?”

A: Next: to change lines. It means you get off one bus or train and get on another one, to finish your trip.

A: “You change lines at Market Square.” “It’s easier if you don’t have to change lines.”

A: Next: Which stop is it? You use this when you don’t know where to get off the bus or train. You can add the place: “Which stop is it for Rose Street?”

A: “Excuse me — which stop is it for the museum?”

A: Next: to get off. You get on a bus, a train or a plane, and you get off it. For a car or a taxi, we say get in and get out.

A: “I got off at the fourth stop.” “Could you tell me when to get off?”

A: Next: to miss the last bus. It means you came too late, and the last bus of the night has already gone.

A: “We missed the last bus and had to walk.” “Don’t miss the last bus — call me if you do.”

A: Next: the next one is in ten minutes. Somebody says this to tell you how long you have to wait.

A: “You just missed it, but the next one is in ten minutes.” “Don’t run — the next one is in five minutes.”

A: Next: to walk it. It means to go there on foot instead of taking a bus or a taxi. It’s conversational, everyday English.

A: “It’s twenty minutes. I’ll walk it.” “We walked it, and it wasn’t that bad.”

A: And the last one: on foot. This also means walking, but it’s the more neutral expression. You can use it in speech or writing.

A: “We went there on foot.” “It’s about ten minutes on foot.”

A: Those are the nine phrases from tonight’s story.

Mini recall

A: Now a quick check. I’ll describe something, and you say the phrase. I’ll give you the answer after a short pause.

A: You run, and you reach the bus before it leaves. What did you do?

A: You caught the bus.

A: You want a ticket for one trip only, not there and back. What do you ask for?

A: A one-way ticket.

A: Your trip has two parts, and in the middle you get on a different bus. What do you do?

A: You change lines.

A: You don’t know where to get off the bus. What do you ask the driver?

A: Which stop is it?

A: It’s midnight, and the final bus has already gone. What happened?

A: You missed the last bus.

A: It’s twelve minutes away, and you decide to go on foot. What do you say?

A: I’ll walk it.

A: Well done. Those are the ones you’ll reach for most often.

Outro

A: So that was “The Last Bus Home.”

A: Tonight’s phrases: to catch a bus. A one-way ticket. To change lines. Which stop is it? To get off.

A: To miss the last bus. The next one is in ten minutes. To walk it. And on foot.

A: If you want to review these phrases, open the link below and practice them in Recursio.

A: Thank you for listening, and see you in the next story.