“Sorry for the wait, I had to take care of the cat.”
August 27th, 2008
“Son of a bitch, you’re running up the meter!”27 comments
August 20th, 2008
"Hey bro, remember me? You wrote that story about me in the paper."3 comments
August 13th, 2008
“It’s the Californians, man, the Californians are the worst.”15 comments
August 6th, 2008
The middle-aged man I picked up at Vendetta is in a hyperactively verbose lather ...0 comments
July 23rd, 2008
When I step into the obese old woman's apartment5 comments
July 16th, 2008
The obese old woman at Fred Meyer has a bad hip and a wheelchair...8 comments
July 9th, 2008
“...I need to take a shower first and wash all of this blood off.”6 comments
July 2nd, 2008
“So I’ve got these two women in the back of my cab who just refuse to get out...”8 comments
June 25th, 2008
“My friend’s getting divorced, and he’s really drunk,” says the bartender...8 comments
June 18th, 2008
There’s nothing like a good Friday night, and I’m referring to the money.3 comments
[October 10th, 2007]
“Sorry for the wait, I had to take care of the cat.”
I let the innocuous words slide until I realize that this guy’s headed to the airport from a dive motel on Interstate and that we don’t have a cat with us in the car. As I pull out of the parking lot, I hear a cat screaming in the background.
Ordinarily I’d say something in this situation, but the guy’s got about five inches and a hundred pounds on me. He’s also angrily explaining to me how everyone in Oregon, including the cab company, the doctors and the cat, is an evil betrayer.
I nod my head and give him the “uh-huh” treatment. He calms down a bit and says that Oregon is the 16th state he’s been to in search of someone to perform “the necessary surgery” on him, but doctors everywhere can’t be trusted. He then tells me how he’s had three wives and six soul-mates murdered by Christian terrorists.
“Really,” I say, “that’s horrible.”
It turns out that he’s persecuted by the Christians because he’s a prominent Luciferian (“A purer form of Satanism,” he explains). They’ve hunted down everyone he loves, and will soon get him. He’s sought shelter with Satanists and Luciferians all over the country, but they’ve all refused him. They think he’s crazy.
I wouldn’t disagree with them. It’s a relief to get him unloaded, and as soon as I’m back in the cab I have the dispatcher call animal control.
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RECENT COMMENTS ON ““Sorry for the wait, I had to take care of the cat.””
See now, it doesn't matter if it happened or not. The old slice-of-life pieces you're writing could be generated by high-schoolers, and that's about the level you're writing at.
Th...
Actually, this piece is literature. It is realism. Some people find both journalistic and fiction realism offputting. They think writing should be about 'nice' things. That's a very shallow perspectiv...
Gosh Julia, do you mean that people who don't like this night cabbie don't like thoughtful and sophisticated writing?
What happened to the cat?
