She was a bus driver who answered questions from a curious 5th grader. A decade later, they reconnected

Washington —

For years, Joy Kenley would open the doors of the Washington, DC, Metro bus she drove to the rush of federal workers and business professionals. Her passengers, she said, would often shuffle on board silently to begin their days in the nation’s capital.

And though she saw many of the same faces every day, Kenley said eventually one commuter began to stand out. He wasn’t a Capitol Hill politician or a high-powered lobbyist – he was a fifth grader, named Sam Mencimer.

And a very curious one, at that.

“I started standing at the front of the bus,” Mencimer recalled to CNN, “and asking lots of questions.”

Kenley agreed – Sam asked a lot of questions. What does that red button do? Where do the buses park at night? How do you get assigned a bus route?

Over time, they develo