Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. We drove in silence to the address she had given me. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.Īs the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. “What route would you like me to take?” I asked.įor the next two hours, we drove through the city. I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. “The doctor says I don’t have very long.” “I don’t have any family left,” she continued. “It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?” “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.” She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. “Would you carry my bag out to the car?” she said. Was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. All the furniture was covered with sheets. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. Pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil A small woman in her 80’s stood before me. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. “Just a minute,” answered a frail, elderly voice. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of #The last taxi ride kcls.org drivers#Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away. One time I arrived in the middle of the night for a pick up at a building that was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Forty years ago, I drove a cab for a living.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |