GOOD NEWS

The 49 was on time.
‘Heard the good news?’ said the driver.
'Jesus loves me?’
We looked at each other. His index finger poised before the buttons, the front of the ticket machine. It occurred to me, despite all the other stuff going on in that moment, he might tell me to get off the bus.
I smiled, ‘You mean the football?’
He relaxed, I saw, and he pressed one of the buttons, I took the ticket came ouot the side.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The Germans lost.’
‘Is that good, then?’
‘Isn’t it?’
‘I could be German.’
‘But you’re not.’
‘Supposing I was and you’d just said that?’
‘Go away,’ he said and checked his mirrors.