Talking to Strangers

Standing up in preperation for the exiting of the transit bus I over heard fragments of a statement spoken by a fellow passenger standing with his two friends. Putting these fragments in context and with a simple understanding and knowledge of the imediate surroundings (the bus) I figured out what he had said. Paraphrasing here he said "...there are two seats".
I (a stranger) verbaly butted in saying quote: "He saw the reach". They laughed and I exited the bus.

Let me explain.

As mentioned above the fellow passenger and two friends are standing. This means all the seats are being sat in and therefore they must stand. Due to the bus taking 90 degree turns and abruptly stoping and accelerating the standing position is not prefered as strugle for balance and composure can be chalanging. That and standing for a long time makes your feet hurt.
When in the standing situation it is in ones best intrest to keep an eye out for the departing of seated passengers as this results in an empty seat.
I was a seated passenger. My act of standing up made my intentions of departing/exiting clear to all the standing.
Here's where it gets interesting. . .

I was the only one that stood up.

I am only one person, I occupied only one seat.
Why and why again did this fellow passenger say "...there are TWO seats"? suggesting that two seats are now availabe for two of them to sit in.
His two friends only seeing me stand up just as everyone else did also questioned their friends bold statement. "two seats?" they asked.
The man seated infront of me also was to exit the bus but how did Mr. fellow passenger know when after all this man did not stand up?
. . .
I'm draging this out to long
why am I blogging about this?

anyway, it was because he, the man seated infront of me, was the one who pulled the cord that rings the bell and lights the lamp notifying the bus drive to stop as the next marked bus stop.
So that's how fellow passenger knew because I stood up and Man pulled the cord and you never pull the cord if your not getting off, so he knew Man was getting off, even though he didn't stand up right away. In the world of transit the act of the pulling of the cord (or in some buses the pushing of the button or pressing of the yellow strip) makes you a marked one.
If you're caught pulling the cord its game over. Everyone knows your getting off at the next stop. All eyes are on you from that point on. It's the life of the transit people.

One last thing. The only reason the fellow passenger laughed when I said "He saw the reach" was because I refered to it as "the reach". Which is down right hilarious.