Unaccompanied Passenger

I was riding a nearly empty bus at a time I normally don't ride. Something was off. Was someone singing that loudly to their iPod and that off-tune?? I looked over and in the closest seat to the driver was a man with one leg up on the seat, his lunch box and several bags of items sprawled across bench and no iPod...

It wasn't singing as much as loud noises coming from this guy as he was rocking back and forth. After awhile, these noises got louder and the rocking got more intense. Then he started banging his fist on his foot and yelling. As it escalated, he started throwing his head on the armrest over and over, this armrest was no soft couch armrest either. Straight solid plastic. 

I started looking around and realized this guy was alone.I began panicking a little bit. Is he supposed to be out in the world alone? It doesn't seem that he is in a position to make decisions for himself  since he is about to cause some damage. Where is his supervision?? At this moment, the bus driver yelled "calm down!" at him. He apologized and stopped the head and hand banging. The noises calmed down, sort of, as he obliged the driver.

The confusion was mounting as I was desperately trying to make sense of the situation. This man was obviously special needs and had nobody to help him... except the bus driver? Was the driver trained in this area? Does she know him? Was this a common occurrence and he gets transported somewhere? How was it okay that she yelled at him? It did calm him down... but... SO CONFUSED!!!!

The rest of the ride went in cycles. His "episodes" (is that anywhere near the right terminology!?!?) would increase and just as I started to freak out that he was going to hurt himself, the driver would yell at him to calm down. Then he would apologize and chill for a bit. Then repeat, over and over.

Trying not to take a last look back when I exited the bus, I walked home with a question mark over my head. It just didn't seem safe or right. Something was definitely off, but to this day, the mystery of the unaccompanied special needs passenger remains that...a mystery.