The Water Bus

The Water Bus is a short story with a religious motif, written by Agatha Christie.

Summary
Mrs Hargreaves, a middle-aged widow, lives alone in London. Her two grown-up children are married and live far away. She is comfortable on her own but dislikes people, their cares and complaints. She is a generous giver to charity but does not want to be involved herself and feels isolated from everyone around her to the point where even a shopping expedition becomes an ordeal. Craving isolation she takes a water bus to Greenwich and on the journey touches the woven cloak-like coat of an Arabic-looking man sat in the bow of the boat. She undergoes something of a religious conversion, suddenly seeing other people’s problems that irritated her in a new light. She feels she knows who the man was. On the water bus, the man has disappeared. The Captain tells the mate who collected the tickets that he must have just missed him disembarking as he couldn’t walk on water...

Characters

 * Mrs Hargreaves

Publication
It was published in the book Star Over Bethlehem and other stories.