Strange Days Indeed

Some people have noticed that I don't blog much about the taxi job any more. It's not that I don't care to, but more that the customer stories that stood out began not to stand out so much after six or eight or twelve months. Not to mention my heavy involvement in theatrical endeavors, which took their toll on my time to write.

But some interesting things happened over a couple of days last week that I want to share. Put your tissues away; it's nothing like that.

No, wait. I make no guarantee against boredom; you might want to keep them handy.

On Wednesday morning I met with my friends for our weekly get-together that we call "Midwest Media Now!", after which I ran to the taxi office to pick up my check, so my morning was cut short from the taxi. When I got back on the road, I was a little more eager and willing to chase fares that were a little out of my usual range. As soon as I had gotten into my car at the office, I saw on the dispatch computer screen a fare sitting open in Schaumburg. From the office that's just too far away for me to chase, even on this day, so I let it be. But as I got closer to Schaumburg, the fare remained open and unclaimed. When I was about 15 minutes away, I claimed it and was on my way.

As it turned out, it was an elderly woman I had picked up several times before, usually at a Wal-Mart store south of her home, but today she was at the Target store on the corner of Meacham Road and Higgins Road on the east side of Schaumburg.

When I arrived at the store, she politely griped about how long she had waited, but I think she recognized me, so she accepted my apologies and stated her awareness that it wasn't my fault. So I dropped her off at her home, helped her with her bags, and got back in the taxi to book back in on the computer.

As I punched the buttons to tell the dispatch system that I was done with my ride and ready for the next one, I noticed that there was now a fare open in the very zone I was in, so I knew that, unless someone else grabbed it before I could punch the buttons, I would get the fare.

I got it. The pickup? At the Target on the west side of Schaumburg, at the corner of Schaumburg Road and Barrington Road! HAH! Another Target store pickup!

I arrived about 15 minutes later and drove the woman to her home in Streamwood, which wraps around the west and south borders of Schaumburg. She took me west and a little bit north. When I dropped her off and booked back in, I was offered another fare, this time in Hoffman Estates, in a zone that I know is a little further west and north of where I was at that moment. I accepted the fare: Target store, corner of Higgins Road and Illinois route 59!

Three fares in a row, each pick-up at a different Target store, the last of which brought me to just 5 blocks from my home, where I paused for lunch!


Princess
Anyone who has ever read every single one of my blog posts ... [crickets] ... may remember one of my passengers, Ricky, who was the source of an interesting ride. Well, his sister, Susie, factored in another interesting coincidence Thursday evening.

On Thursday mornings I meet with my friend Sean as we try to develop several ideas for short films or web series, and last Thursday was no different. But I also had to take the taxi in for an oil change and to get the air conditioning system recharged, which took about an hour and a half longer than the hour they told me it would take! So, with my entire morning shot to hell, I knew I had to work into the late evening in order to have a chance to make up the time and money.

Around 6:00 in the evening I had a fare which brought me into downtown Arlington Heights, so after I dropped off, I parked at the nearby Metra train station because I knew there would be an outbound from the city coming in about 15 minutes. When I arrived at the train station I was the third taxicab in the line at the curb, and the second in the electronic line behind one of my 303 Taxi colleagues. My chances of getting a passenger here were slim.

After a few minutes I saw a fare open up in zone 279 — which almost always means Woodfield Mall — in Schaumburg. At 6:00pm, due to traffic, that's a 20-minute drive from Arlington Heights. Normally I wouldn't chase this, but almost desperate to at least break even, I seriously considered it. Then I saw her: Susie, the gypsy sister of Ricky, approached the taxi line from the rear. She's no longer petite, as she has gained a considerable amount of weight since the last time I saw her, but I was certain it was her. I feared she would come straight to my taxi, for two reasons: I didn't want to have to deal with passing her to the front taxi, as the next passenger rightly belongs to him; and I really didn't want to take her, because her home is only about a mile away from the train station, a chump change ride during which, as was her usual, she would immediately get on her phone and start arguing with her husband.

To my relief, she walked past me, but we made eye contact. I waved. She went to the front taxi, my 303 colleague, who turned her away. Whether he really had a pre-arranged passenger coming on the next train or not, I'm sure that's what he told her. So Susie moved to the taxi behind him, owned by a friendly, affable Nigerian young man. Assuming that the taxi at the front of the line indeed had a prearranged passenger, I figured there would be slim chance that a second passenger from the train would seek a taxi. I asked for — and received — the fare at Woodfield Mall.

About ¼ of the way to the mall I noticed the Nigerian's taxi behind me. He pulled up next to me at a stop light. I tried to look into his rear seat area, but his tinted windows prevented me from seeing anyone there. Did he take Susie? Did I unwittingly abandon her?

The light changed and I pulled away, ahead of the Nigerian. I started to wonder if maybe my passenger waiting for me at Woodfield Mall had, as some passengers do, called two taxi companies to increase her chances of a taxi actually showing up, and taking the first one to arrive and leaving the second guy sucking wind when he gets there. Did the Nigerian get that order? I turned onto Golf Road. The Nigerian, behind me, turned as well. I reasoned that, had he same fare or not, I had to assume he did. It was a race!

True to form, I chose the wrong lane of traffic and got stuck behind some slow movers, and the Nigerian pulled past me. Ahead of me, he ducked back into my lane and signaled a left turn into the mall parking lot! I found a break in the lane to my right, zipped out from behind the slow cars in front of me, and sped to catch the Nigerian, who turned just in front of a line of oncoming cars, leaving me waiting for them to clear.

On the mall property, I once again caught up to him in a line of cars, but I made another crucial mistake. In order to get to the pickup point, outside the "fountain" entrance to Macy's, I needed to make a right turn onto the mall's Perimeter Road. I was in the left lane. The Nigerian was in the right, at the head of a long line of cars. DAMN HIM! He pulled away in the proper direction. I was forced to turn left and then quickly right into the parking lanes, and then double back across to get to the access lane to the Macy's entrance. And there sat the Nigerian, blocking my access to the pick-up/drop-off lane. And then his driver's side rear door opened up, and out came Susie!

How odd that she was headed not home, but to the very spot that my order wanted to be picked up! I waved meekly at her when she again made eye contact with me as she rounded the Nigerian's taxi to the rear and headed to the Macy's entrance, where my fare was waiting faithfully for me to take her to her home.

Just after 9:00 I was still out. The evening had been stingy, and I was just a few dollars under the break-even point for my Thursday. I was in southwest Schaumburg and had just decided to throw in the towel. I had started to pack up my laptop when two fares opened up in zone 279. At that hour the distance to the mall was not an issue, and meant about a 15-minute drive (Schaumburg is quite a sprawling suburb!). On the way there, the other zone 279 fare disappeared from the computer screen, claimed by a driver, and within five minutes of that, another open fare in zone 279 popped up.

I arrived at The Cheesecake Factory as requested by the passenger, but after the five minutes required minimum wait, no passenger had shown up. I requested a "no show" with the dispatcher and waited, nervously eyeing the zone 279 fare that was still open. If no one grabbed it while I waited, I would still get a fare out of this trip to the mall!

The "no show" was granted, and I quickly booked back in to the system. I was instantly offered the fare in 279: Woodfield Mall, Entrance near Stir Crazy restaurant. Susie. HAH! What are the odds?

I went around to Stir Crazy and within a few minutes she was in my taxi and immediately on her phone, arguing with her husband.

Sometimes life is indeed truly strange.



°