When the bus finally empties and the last passenger steps into the dusk, the fluorescent lights click off in sequence. The seats cradle the ghosts of countless brief encounters. On the sidewalk, footsteps scatter. The person who was touched folds the event into a pocket of memory, a talisman or a wound, and continues—walking a little straighter, scanning a little more—carrying with them a quiet determination that the next time proximity is offered, it will be met on their terms.