The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives (2017)

In “Tumbling,” Slater quotes from Sasha’s Tumblr page, a social media site which encourages long-form entries and attracts quirky or off-beat writing. In the post, Sasha alternates between silly statements, such as “Of course I like hats/anyone who doesn’t is wrong” (11) and more serious comments, such as, “If the whole world was listening, I might just/rant about a bunch of things like gender/wealth inequality/why school is important” (12). Slater presents this section without comment.

“Pronouns” describes Sasha’s early fascination with language, the way they began reading at a young age, and how, at the age of 6, Sasha made her own language: “It was called Astrolinguish and it was the language of Sasha’s home planet, Astrolingua” (14). Slater explains how some languages have the notion of gender, while others do not; Sasha’s invented languages “distinguished between animate and inanimate objects” (14). Slater explains that Sasha prefers the gender-neutral pronoun “they,” and addresses the reader directly: “you’ll get used to it” (15).

“1001 Blank White Cards” starts with Sasha’s wish list for their 16th birthday: “an accordion, a manual typewriter, a Soviet flag, and a new Rubik’s Cube” (16), then segues into a portrait of Sasha, starting with a physical description and then stopping to note that Sasha had been diagnosed with “Asperger’s, a form of autism, which can make them awkward socially” (17). Slater describes Sasha’s friend group and how that group fit into the culture at their private high school, Maybeck, which conducted non-traditional classes and encouraged students to intellectual debate and exploration. Slater positions Sasha as “the brilliant one” (18) and describes a game the friends liked to play called “1001 Blank White Cards” (19). The game is made of index cards on which players have devised their own rules or directions, and there is “no way to win the game, and no real goal” (20). The game is silly and nerdy and full of private references and jokes; Slater ends the section by revealing that, when the game first started, “most of those 1001 white cards were blank. Back then, Sasha was called Luke and they were referred to as he” (20).

“Luke and Samantha” introduces an early friendship Sasha had with Samantha. Slater offers more descriptions of Sasha that try to capture how unusual they were, how unlike other children: “They thought about numbers a lot, and shapes, and the size of the universe. […] They were interested in space and Legos and trains and the ancient Greeks and they noticed things most people didn’t” (21). Slater describes Samantha in detail and how uncomfortable she became during puberty. Slater recounts how Samantha learned about the notion of transgender and tried to talk to her therapist about it, only to have her therapist say she didn’t understand the meaning of the word. She wouldn’t discuss the topic again for another year.

“Gran Turismo 2” describes the moment Samantha told Sasha that she was transgender. They are playing a video game, and Sasha barely takes their eyes off the screen, treating the news as unremarkable. Sasha’s reaction is a huge relief to Samantha, who will henceforth be “Andrew.”

“How Do You Know What Gender You Are?” recounts the conversations Sasha has with various people about how they answer that question. Sasha discovers that most people “just knew” (29), while Sasha just doesn’t. Slater mentions that Andrew’s emotional and social experiences with transitioning had caused him to consider suicide; it is a relief to Andrew when he learns Sasha is also questioning their gender. Sasha decides to identify as “genderqueer,” saying in a Google+ post, “[b]asically, I don’t identify as masculine or feminine” (30).

“Genderqueer” describes how Sasha’s parents, Debbie and Karl, reacted to hearing about Sasha’s chosen identity. Slater paints them as ordinary people in a “snug green bungalow” (31): Debbie is a bookkeeper at a school, and Karl is a kindergarten teacher. Slater uses this section to introduce terminology Debbie and Karl learned, including sex, gender, sexuality, and romantic:

[S]ex referred purely to biology—the chromosomes, organs, and anatomy that define male and female from the outside. Gender was the word for what people felt about themselves, how they felt inside. Sexuality was the category for who you were physically attracted to. Romantic was the category for who you felt romantic attraction to (32).

“Gender, Sex, Sexuality, Romance: Some Terms” is a glossary of terms. Slater is clear about how to use these: “always adopt the language individuals use about themselves, even if it differs from what’s here” (33).

“Sasha’s Terms” covers the terms Sasha choose: “Agender. Gray-cupiosexual. Quoiromantic. Also: Vegan” (36).

“Becoming Sasha” documents how Sasha chooses their name—it was unisex, a nickname for Alexander (Sasha’s middle name), and Sasha is interested in “all things” Russian. This section also documents how Sasha introduced their new identity to people at Maybeck, with a story in the “school zine” (38). Slater explains that Maybeck was a progressive community, and Sasha’s agender was generally accepted.

“Bathrooms” is a snapshot from Debbie’s perspective about a time Sasha refused to use a public restroom because the options were only “Men and Women.” Debbie “fumed,” telling Sasha, “[y]ou have to be more flexible” (40). But Karl reminds her that “making this discovery has really helped Sasha become themself” (41).

“Skirts” explains how Sasha came to wear skirts—a friend offered to share her clothes, Sasha found skirts comfortable and stopped wearing pants. Sasha’s mother is not so sanguine: Slater describes Debbie as “nervous” and “worried,” specifically about Sasha’s bus ride. Slater quotes statistics that show transgender people are often victims of violence, but Sasha’s days pass without incident.

“Running” describes a time when Karl, in his early twenties, goes running and is accosted by some men in a pick-up truck who chase him and proposition him: “Let me suck your prick” (46), one of them says, before they jump him and beat him unconscious. Slater describes Karl’s diary entry for that day as downplaying what happened and notes that Karl didn’t consider why the men thought he was gay.

“The Petition” describes the spring of their junior year of high school, when Sasha started a petition on Whitehouse.gov, and within 30 days, had over 27,000 signatures. The petition asked the government “to legally recognize genders outside of the male-female binary and provide an option for those genders on all legal documents and records” (49).

In “Clipboards,” Slater describes a time when Sasha visited Karl’s kindergarten classroom and saw that the clipboards used to sign children out of the glass were labelled Girls and Boys. Sasha suggested using the alphabet to organize students, instead. Karl was skeptical at first but made the change.

“Best Day Ever” captures the moment in time when Sasha is visiting the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they will eventually go to college, and meets a kindred spirit on the subway platform. “Dress Code” contrasts Sasha’s best day ever with Sasha’s mother’s experience with dress codes during her high school years in the 1960s.

“Sasha and Nemo” is the final installment in Part 1: Sasha, and describes Sasha’s relationship with another Maybeck student, Nemo. They see each other as their “moirail” (56), a term from Sasha’s favorite comic which means “[a] most important person” (56).