NIGHT CABBIE "He lives right here! The king of the Gypsies lives right here!" The middle-aged woman's boyfriend and I can't keep from laughing as we pass through a nondescript residential intersection in outer No ...   More

NIGHT CABBIE "Are you all right?" This is, on the surface, a foolish question—the young woman was sobbing even before she got in the cab. It's meant more as an inquiry as to whether I can help her, or if sh ...   More

NIGHT CABBIE "I'm just not too jazzed about the thought of dying," says the old woman next to me, and it's a far less abstract consideration for her than it is for me. Her kidneys have failed, and she's telling me ...   More

NIGHT CABBIE The young woman in the red sundress is gorgeous. She also has a huge bruise and a thin trickle of blood on her cheek, and is standing plaintively in the Safeway parking lot at Southeast 122nd and Powe ...   More

NIGHT CABBIE "Don't you have to be at work?" My shift technically started at 5 pm, but my friend and I are lazily kicking around a swimming hole in the Washougal River, enjoying the sensation of the sun on our sk ...   More

NIGHT CABBIE The old drunk is, well, drunk. Really drunk. As always. He's just told me that he only has $20, with the meter at $22. I've told him the ride's over. "This is the thing I hate about people from Portl ...   More

NIGHT CABBIE "Can I just say something, since you don't know anyone and don't care?" "Shoot," I respond. "I'm completely in love with that man." "I kinda picked up on that." "Is it really that obvious?" "Not ...   More

NIGHT CABBIE The customer's not always right. The customer is, in fact, often severely intoxicated, and thus perhaps prone to some serious misconceptions. This gentleman, for example, has thrown open the rear do ...   More

NIGHT CABBIE "I don't know who you are." I've just knocked on the door to the young woman's apartment, and been greeted with a sneer. "Oh, you're a cab," she says, "one second." I get back in the car, turn on the ...   More

NIGHT CABBIE The middle-aged gay bartender and I have a nice conversation on the drive from downtown to his place in outer Northeast. We talk about cabbies he's met over the past 30 years, how Portland has changed ...   More