Hello, Discoverylover!
Skyring again, oddly enough.
Every night is a new day for me. I take over the cab at three in the afternoon, and I drive people around until midnight or so. Sometimes I go until four in the morning – in a few days I’ve got a very special passenger I have to deliver to the Canberra bus terminal to catch a four AM bus to Sydney.
I generally get a few tips. Sometimes a few cents, sometimes a few dollars. Ten dollars or more on a good night.
I don’t ask for a tip, you know. All I want at the end of a fare is a smile, and i feel I’ve done something useful: getting people to the airport to catch a flight, getting people to the hospital to visit a sick relative, getting drunk people home safely. A night cabbie may not be a big wheel in society, but at least I’m a small, and hopefully useful, cog in the grand machine of human civilisation.
Not every night, but often enough, I do something good. Something to give back in return for the tips.
I was waiting on the rank at a shopping centre. About ten at night, but the supermarket stays open to midnight. Just me on the cab rank and I was booked into the radio area as well. I got a call to pick up a passenger nearby and as I pulled out into traffic, I noticed two young women walking up. They looked at me, and I was in a quandary: I had accepted the radio booking, and if I didn’t do it, a passenger would be waiting for a cab that didn’t come, or I’d have to call up base and get them to reassign it.
I decided that two young women waiting on a cab rank would probably have a cab come along soon enough, so I went off to collect my passenger. As it happened, it was only a short trip, back to a nightclub near the shopping centre. I dropped them off and rushed back to the cab rank, where the two women had been joined by a male companion.
I pulled up, opened the boot for the groceries, and one young lady got in, while the couple said goodnight and walked away. She gave me an address – not too far – and said, “I know it’s close, but it’s dark, and I’ve got to get my groceries back.”
“I don’t mind,” I said. “Everyone has the same need to get somewhere, whether it’s around the block or the other side of town. After all, you decided you needed a taxi. Oh yeah, sorry to drive off like that before – I’d just gotten a call to pick someone up.”
The address wasn’t far away, but it was longer to drive there than to walk the shortcut through the government housing lanes, and what with the traffic lights, the fare was about ten dollars by the time I got to her house. I could see why she had wanted a cab – those back alleys are no place for a woman alone late at night.
She offered me a bank card, and I considered the 11% surcharge on card transactions. Eleven dollars for the cab ride would be a few loaves of bread, a couple bottles of milk…
“No charge!” I said, clearing the meter.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I felt bad about leaving you on the cab rank, and you couldn’t walk home alone. No worries!”
“Thank you! It’s my birthday!”
That made me happy. “I’ve given you a birthday present! Happy birthday!”
And we smiled, both of us.
I feel proud of these little things. They make me happy.
Yours aye,
Skyring
But thinking about you, I thought that rather than just post the same songs again, I’d tell you about 3 of my favourite playlists…so, I’ve got ‘Sister Hazel SunBlock’, ‘Sing-along Songs’, and ‘Loud’.
