Taxi Driver (13 page)

Old Friends

I went back to work driving because work is a kinda love, self-love, and there’s not too much of that around these days. Either work or love.

For a while I had quite a reputation. The guys at the garage called me
Killer.
Eventually that wore off. I stopped carrying guns. Well, I figured a guy like me with a temper such as mine has no business using guns if anybody has.

What else can I tell you? Palantine won his primary. He got the nomination, too.

One night outside the Plaza Hotel I was hailed by a familiar female voice.

Betsy wanted to go just a few blocks away to Fifty-sixth Street. Of course, she looked lovely, as usual. Even lovelier.

She recognized me immediately, too, and after we had discussed Palantine and I told her how I hoped he would win, she asked, “How are you Travis? I read about you in the papers.”

“O,” I said, shy as ever, “I got over that. It was nothing, really. The papers always blow these things up . . .”

She seemed to wish to tell me something, but I interrupted her. Said, “There’s just a little stiffness sometimes. That’ll go away. I just sleep more, is all.”

We pulled up in front of her address on Fifty-sixth Street and, of course, I wouldn’t take any money.

I really meant it, too. Said, “No no, this fare’s on me. Please.”

Betsy liked that. She said, “Thank you, Travis. You’re real sweet. A really sweet guy.”

Well, she got out of my cab and stood by the front window. It was sorta warm for October and we were both feeling good. I was feeling good for being with this beautiful woman I used to know if only for a little while.

Well I didn’t want to break the mood of the spell but I had my work to do. I started to drive off when I heard: “Travis?”

“Yeah.”

Betsy said, “Call me up sometime, huh?”

“Sure,” I said. “Sure I will.”

As I drove off I was smiling. I knew Betsy was watching me. It was sort of nice to know I wasn’t the only person in New York who liked me.

Galore.

Lotsa people have problems making friends, I thought, even Betsy.

Getting along with other people is never too easy.

Which is no excuse for not living.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R
ICHARD
E
LMAN
, who has written the novelization of the screenplay of
Taxi Driver,
has received critical acclaim for his fiction. He first made his impact on the American literary scene with his trilogy,
The 28th Day of Elul, Lilo’s Diary
and
The Reckoning.
Writing of Elman’s second novel, John Leonard said, “In conjunction with
The 28th Day
, it is an enterprise of art, a work that alters the consciousness of the beholder.” His most recent work includes: two novels,
An Education in Blood
and
Freddie & Shirl & the Kids
; a nonfiction book on the Rolling Stones,
Uptight with the Rolling Stones;
a short story collection,
Crossing Over;
and the first published collection of his poetry,
The Man Who Ate New York and Other Poems of Manhattan and Ossabaw Island.