ZORA
Directed, self-assured and confident to the point of being perceived as “brassy” by some. Expects more from life than a job and a place to live. Is, however, fully aware that between expectation and reality lies personal effort. Knows that she can't arrive at her destination without first getting on the train and, furthermore, that there is more than one way to get aboard; that having a ticket is the most common way simply because it is the most obvious.Zora is one of Fairvale's two bus-drivers. She has found much to appreciate and enjoy in her job. Most special to her was her discovery that her busroute comprised a community in and of itself. The core of this community is composed of the regular riders: those who travel to and from their jobs; those who drop off and pick up their children, maybe stopping off on the way back to do some shopping; older children riding to and from school on their own, maybe stopping off at an after-school job on the way home; and those who just keep getting on the bus day after day for one reason or another.
After spending some time with her new found community, and established pattern revealed itself to Zora as she went back and forth along her route: the faces of the passengers came to take up fixed positions on the face of the clock in her mind, marking off the passage of time with their arrivals and departures, eliminating the need for the numbers on the dial; transforming the mechanical-clock-time of her schedule into an organic-human-time of people and places.
In elliptical orbit about the core community of regulars she found the satellite community of every-once-in-a-whilers, a disparate cross-section of Fairvale composed of those who either rarely travelled far enough to require any sort of transportation, or those who normally relied on other means. In the context of her community-on-wheels, Zora saw this secondary group as out-of-town visitors, or people just passing through, and so often felt like asking them for news.
Far from shy, Zora takes advantage of every opportunity to initiate a conversation. She treats every conversation as an occasion for learning and pays attention to everything that is said. And should something that was said merit additional thought, she'll make sure to keep it in mind to mull over during those parts of the route when her bus was empty. This openness to others and their experience has enabled her to become wise beyond her years in the ways of the world.
Lately, she hasn't been able to help but notice that Bennie has been riding the bus an awful lot for someone who has two cars. Given her druthers, she likes to spend her her down time with Neal. But, apart from driving her bus, her favorite thing is checking out Farid and whoever's backing him at the I'll Get By.