Finding Inspiration-NaNoWriMo

The most dramatic occurrence I witnessed this week was an argument between a man from Nigeria and a African-American woman yelling at each other on the bus. I travel by bus for one hour once or twice a week. I make it a habit to pretend that this is totally unfamiliar and study people’s expressions.

I have the beginning of two plot scenarios based upon this experience. I will embellish a little, since the conversation centered on mainly “f-bombs.”

An 20-something African woman finds out that she lost her job after a recent promotion to office supervisor. She is sullen.

A man from Nigeria sits next to her and begins to talk to her. She tells him to “shut up!”
He says, “You shut up, girl. What is your problem?”

This escalates into “You Americans are all lazy! I never lost a job in my life!”

The heated discussion turns into a fist-fight between the Nigerian and an African-American male. The Nigerian gets bloodied.

The bus driver calls both the police and an ambulance.

At this time, the victor tries to pick up the woman. She snaps at the man. It turns out that that the only reason why the man defends her is because he wants to take her out.

After questioning the bus driver and passengers, the police officer takes the one who started the fight into custody.

The Nigerian is taken to the county hospital.

The woman soon gets a job at that county hospital. She is a nurse and is assigned to take care of, you guessed it, the Nigerian, who has several ribs cracked.

She is professional about the whole thing, but resents having to take care of him.

The woman and the man actually become good friends afterwards. They learn that they have actually gone through a lot of similar experiences.

This is all I have so far.

A second plot could center on the bus driver, who witnesses the whole thing. A family and financial crisis have the driver on edge and the series of events on his bus cause him to take a leave of absence and check into a psychiatric ward. He suffers a complete breakdown and has suffered from alcohol and drug abuse.

The woman gets a job as a psych tech and is assigned the bus driver, along with seven more patients. She encourages him through his treatment.

In the meantime, his wife files for divorce due to the financial strain that they have because of his drug problem.

The woman and bus driver meet for coffee after the man gets out. The woman is cautious because of his condition. However, she sees some potential there…..