Alphonse and Gearheart lived on the opposite side of the street in the Upper part of the Lower East Side (on the western fringe).
Alphonse studied botany but yearned to be a sailor. Gearheart worked as the bouncer in a discotheque and breezed thru life without thinking at all. Although they shared the same bus stop their hours were so different that they never would have met except for a strange canconcevation of factors that seemed like destiny.
A fire in the restaurant next to the disco closed it for a week, so Gearheart didn't have to work nights. Alphonse's botany teacher took paternity leave - so he didn't have to go to school all day. With time hanging heavy on their hands, and spring in the air, both young men arrived at the bus stop at 10 A.M., having coincidentally formed the same plan to ride down to South Seaport Pier 54.
They covertly eyed one another, Alphonse, the pallid young scholar, and Gearheart, the muscular tough guy, each wondering if the other was a drug dealer or a mugger. When the bus arrived, it crashed into the telephone pole, because the driver was having a heart attack.
Gearheart sprang into action, rescuing the passengers before the bus burst into flame. Alphonse, correctly identifying the common weed growing up thru the cracks in the sidewalk as foxglove, distilled digitalis, administered it to the bus driver, and so saved his life.
While waiting in the studios of a New Jersey TV station, the two heroes struck up a conversation. Alphonse admired Gearheart's bravery: "That was pretty amazing - you were able to carry 36 passengers to safety."
"Aw, it was nothing. Any ordinary strong guy woulda done the same," replied Gearheart, "But you, taking that weed and stuffing it in that guy's mouth and stopping his heart attack - now that's something!"
Alphonse murmured a modest disclaimer. But the encounter changed both their lives. Gearheart enrolled in a botany course, became fascinated by the subject, and lead the survey party down the Amazon which discovered the cure for cancer in a rare tropical flower. Alphonse joined a health club and began lifting weights. He eventually became Mr. America and went on to a successful movie career. They never saw each other again, because their hours still conflicted.