filled morning. As I open the Taxi door to let her in she pauses, her hand on my chest stopping my heart. Well it would've if I had one. And with a smiles whispers, "Thanks again, Cabbage." I close the door behind her and smile off into the distance before walking around and climbing in to start the car.
"Straight to work, Val?" I ask without looking at her as the car starts to move down along the hill towards the road. The sun is trying to rise off in the distance, even now though, it's like seeing it through a dusty lens.
"Naturally, put something nice on please, Taxi-man" She leans her head against the window and takes a deep breath. I turn on the radio and a slow tune comes through, a strong piano matched with a violin. "What's it like? Being a taxi driver, I mean." She asks this question almost every day, I think she expects a different answer.
"Well, you know... it's a job." I always started it this way, just to bide some time to come up with a real answer. "I drive people around, listen to their stories, What's going on in their lives, how much of a jerk their boss is, about who did what in the back of whose car with whom, and about how my taxi is nicer than the other taxis they've ridden in. That last bit is especially strange when I know some of them only ever ride in my taxi. I'll take it though. But it gives me lots of time to think thoughts about things and let my mind wander. Not too involved, but enough to where I don't fall asleep doing my job."
"That sounds nice, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a taxi driver... to have so much time to think..." She lets this sentence trail off, knowing that she never could be.
"It's interesting, but I don't know if it's worth being a zombie. For one, we stink and two we're more dead than everybody and heartless than everybody else. I'm sure it's much nicer being a vampire with your speed and strength and such. You always seem to have fun at the Coffee Kilter too." I say this trying to lift the shadow on her face. I don't think it worked.
"Yeah, but it's not all fun either. Being a vampire isn't all it's cracked up to be." She lets out a long sigh as we're entering the city and she knows that the time to drop her off is nearing. Her left hand wanders down to the edge of her kilt, finding the same frayed edge she always plays with absentmindedly. I wonder if she notices how much I notice about her. I turn into the parking lot of the Coffee Kilter and up to the same parking spot that's always open. Right by some faded, red propaganda from the war. After the taxi sputters to an end, I get out and come around to open her door. She stands up and walks past me. "G'day, Taxi Driver. I'll see you at closing time." Her kilt billows in the bitter city wind as she walks into the store and begins to work. I just watch her go, a faint smile on my face as I sit back down to turn on the car.
"As you wish." I whisper to myself, pulling out her black handkerchief, running my fingers along the blue "v" in the center, before I put it back in my pocket and drive away. "And so begins, another day."
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