The Impossible Quest Of Hailing A Taxi On Christmas Eve (3 page)

"Banning
me?" Scrooge spat out. "How can you ban me? I'm the paying
customer! I give a star rating to the driver at the end of every
ride."

The
driver raised his palm. "And the driver gives a star rating back to
you," he added.

Scrooge
was caught unaware for a moment. Really? They rated him back? "What
sort of business are you, banning paying customers?"

"You
sir, have been rude to six out of ten drivers in these last few
years," the driver said calmly, reading from a list on the tablet
on his dashboard. "Have filed complaints to five out of ten, have
rated below three stars almost nine out of ten, and have verbally
assaulted four out of ten."

"That's
just stupid. I have only made valid complaints where there was
necessary. When I'm paying I demand a certain level of-"

The
driver looked back at him. "You don't remember me do you,
Sir?"

Scrooge
gawked with his mouth open, trying to recall.

The
driver sighed. "Well, I guess us cabbies really are invisible.
Anyway, the Supertaxi Terms and Conditions you have signed and
agreed to by using our service, allow us to deny access to
undesirable customers." He put a big index finger in Scrooge's
face. "You Sir, are undesirable."

"That's
insane," Scrooge let out with a hiss. "What do you want, a bribe?
I'm not giving you one."

"I
couldn't accept a bribe, everything we do and say is recorded
Sir."

Scrooge
looked around the spacious car. "Recorded?"

"Of
course. For your safety and ours. It's in the Terms and
Conditions," the driver explained.

"I
didn't know that," Scrooge said, his eyes darting around the place,
looking for cameras.

The
driver tapped the ceiling of the car, where a slight bump housed
the cabin light. "It's right here. It's not hidden, nor is it a
secret. It's just discreet."

Scrooge
lifted up the coat to cover his throat and said, "Whatever. It's
been a hard day's work, I need to get home and rest. Take me
there."

"I'm
afraid I can't do that yet."

"You
what?"

"As a
long-time customer, you are entitled to a special condition. You
need to accept a disciplinary action, and take a reprimanding
ride," the driver said, presenting the offer with a big
palm."

"What's
that? A ploy to get more money out of me?"

"No Sir,
no further cost will be incurred. The reprimanding ride in itself
is free."

Scrooge
squinted. "What's the catch?"

"The
catch is that by the end of the reprimanding ride, it will be
decided if you will remain a customer of ours, or if you will be
blacklisted and denied further service."

"Nonsense. You are speaking nonsense. A company can't do
that! You'll go broke in a year! Take me home right this
instant."

"We
can't do that yet. You need to accept the reprimanding ride, it
needs to be on record."

"Blasted- I will not subject myself to that, no." Scrooge got
out of the taxi and stood in the sidewalk once more. The driver
didn't leave. Instead, he leaned forward and turned up the volume
on his radio, muffled music coming in from the car. He sat back in
his driver's seat and made himself comfortable, pressing the alarm
lights on his car to make himself more visible in the dark. The
orange lights just added to the whole flickering coloured lights of
the street and the shop fronts.

Scrooge
snarled, and went down the road to hail a taxi the old fashioned
way, by raising an arm and yelling at it. Supertaxi had pretty much
engulfed the whole taxi service, leaving freelance taxi drivers few
and in-between. There were some though, since this was the centre
of Athens, so Scrooge tried to hail one.

After a
lot of running about the busy streets and a lot of wild gestures,
he managed to hail a taxi. He had two more passengers inside, and
the man leaned towards the passenger window to talk to
Scrooge.

"Where
are ya going? South? Nah, sorry, going the other way," the driver
said and moved into the traffic again.

Scrooge
just stood there exacerbated. He turned back towards the Supertaxi
that was waiting for him calmly, so he sneezed at it literally and
went on with his search.

Standing
at the road, waiting for a taxi to roll through another man came
close and was doing pretty much the same. But then, the man walked
infront of Scrooge so as to pick up a taxi first. Scrooge wasn't
going to accept that, he was here first dammit! Scrooge walked
infront of the rude man, cutting back the line. The man sniffed his
nose loudly, checked the old Scrooge for a second and then cut in
his line again, going further down the road. Scrooge went forward,
and then some more, standing on the street corner, and looked at
the man with a triumphant face. There was no more pavement to rush
forward to. The man raised his palm in an open-fingered gesture
that was very rude indeed and left to go to another
street.

A
quarter of the hour later Scrooge located another taxi, and this
one was empty. He wasn't going to leave anyone before him, so he
rushed to it, hailed the driver, and even before the vehicle was
fully stopped he got inside and blurted out his address.

The taxi
driver looked at him from his rear-view mirror. His cheeks were red
and there was a whiff of alcohol on the air. "Sorry man, only going
east. Going back home to my family, Christmas Eve and all. You
understand." He shrugged.

"No I
don't understand! It is demanded by law, that once a customer steps
foot into the taxi you are obligated to take him to his
destination!" Scrooge said a bit too loudly.

"If you
happened to be going my way, sure. But you're not, so bye bye. Get
off."

Scrooge
was pretty much furious at this point. "I'm going to file a
complaint about you!"

The
driver shrugged. "Don't care. I just want a ride near my place and
then retire for the night."

"So, to
be clear, you are not accepting to take me to my destination, even
though you know fully well that this is forbidden by
law?"

The taxi
driver leaned back and popped the door open for Scrooge. "Just get
off mister."

Scrooge
did.

The taxi
left, leaving him once more into the cold. Scrooge cursed a few
times and gritted his teeth. He was too shaken up to really jot
down the taxi's license plate. "People have gone insane," he
muttered to himself. "Denying a customer proper service, rejecting
money!"

He
stared back at the parked yellow Mercedes that was waiting
patiently for him. He decided to wait five more minutes, just to
spite the man. But in the end, Scrooge was the one standing in the
cold instead of a heated luxurious car, so he gave in.

"Quick
as you like, take me home," Scrooge said, rubbing his hands
together.

The taxi
driver simply rubbed the tip of his moustache.

"Oh
fine. I accept the damn reprimanding ride. There. I said it. Happy
now?"

The
driver grunted in approval and turned the ignition on. The classic
car rumbled in a deep satisfactory purr.

They got
into traffic and moved in the city roads. "I'm obligated to inform
you about this ride. The AI that monitors our clients and helps us
provide a better service for you, has flagged you for this
reprimand. At the end of the ride, you will be taken home. Until
then, we will do a small detour."

Scrooge
waved a hand and stared outside the window. "Whatever. Let's just
be done with it."

The taxi
took on speed and moved into the dark afternoon.

"Where
are we?" Scrooge demanded, looking around at the place. It seemed
familiar, but it must have changed so much over the years, so he
couldn't really put his finger at it.

The
driver pointed at the big and flashy entrance to the Titania Hotel.
It was lit up, decorated to perfection, a warm welcoming to their
guests.

"Oh
right," Scrooge said, and a few buried emotions seemed to stir
inside him. Just a bit.

The
driver tapped a few buttons and the monitor for the back-seat
passengers turned on. It showed a distorted image, a wide-angle
view of the inside of a taxi. It wasn't this one, but it was
something quite similar. A couple was sitting in the back, you
wouldn't call them young, but they weren't elderly. In their late
thirties was more like it. Scrooge squinted and put on his reading
glasses.

Why, it
was him! A young Scrooge! With his fiance Beth! This was years ago.
The young couple had just entered the taxi, and the woman was
staring firmly outside, her lips pursed together and her arms
crossed over her chest. She looked upset.

"What is
this? How do you have this recording of me?" asked Scrooge with
irritation in his voice.

The
driver replied in a straight tone-of-voice, "As I said Sir,
everything is recorded for your protection and also ours. This is
only in case of emergencies, or to parse data so as the service
provided to you be as smooth as possible. It's all in the
Terms-"

"Terms
and Conditions, yeah yeah," Scrooge interrupted. "It's still wrong,
keeping a recording of me for so long."

"Please
pay attention to the video or we'll have to go over it again," the
driver said and then went silent.

Scrooge
grunted but couldn't keep his eyes off the recording even if he
wanted to. There is something mesmeric in seeing yourself, more so
if it's something so old, almost twenty years ago. A part of your
life that you had half-forgotten yourself.

In the
video, the young Scrooge said, "Come on now Beth, it was a steal!
Double dot they call it, charging twice the price for the very same
dinner as always! I will not be subjected to their marketing ploys
like that."

Beth was
quietly sniffing a handkerchief, trying to fight back her tears.
"It was all lovely until you ruined it all. I never asked for any
expensive presents, or clothes. I don't nag like other women to
take me to fancy restaurants. It was just this once, to have a
romantic Christmas Eve, us together."

"We can
go somewhere else, where they aren't price gouging so blatantly,"
young Scrooge explained.

Beth
cried and said, "But it was my dream, to spend a perfect dinner
with you up on the Olive Garden, in full view of the Parthenon, the
lit Athens below, us tasting wine and taking in the moment." She
rubbed her eye and her makeup got blurry. "It wasn't about the
cost, you know me damn well. I just wanted an experience for us,
something to treasure."

Young
Scrooge sighed it away. "We'll just go to a nice gyro place, warm
and cheap."

"I'm not
going to a gyro place dressed in a gown!" she cried out in
surrender.

"It's
better to be overdressed than under, I say."

Beth now
cried out loud and was going through the taxi's handkerchiefs like
a river. "I'm sorry," she gulped. "I know this will seem that it's
about the fancy date, but it's not. It's about you. I know you'll
always love money more than me. I know you'll always feel cheated
because my father has no dowry to give for our wedding. I know that
you have placed me and our upcoming wedding in a balance sheet on
your mind and are feeling an itch about it, constantly."

Young
Scrooge just stared at her. Of course he had, it was how he viewed
the world.

"You are bitter, you just are. You don't care for a romantic
evening, just once in our life, because you don't think it's worth
the cost. You don't think
I'm
worth the cost," she ended and exhaled through a
stuffy nose.

"No
darling, don't think-"

"We are
done. We are breaking up. Because I love you, and you'll never be
happy loving me. So I release you. There. No more 'girlfriend
expenses' for your balance sheet. Merry Christmas my love," Beth
said and demanded to be left out the taxi. A few seconds later, she
got out, young Scrooge running after her. There were some muffled
sounds coming in the video. After a while, young Scrooge got back
into the taxi, alone.

Just as
his young counterpart, Scrooge himself was staring out into the
window, deep in thought. The driver didn't say anything, he just
started up the car again and went into the flow of traffic once
more.

Beth,
his ex-fiancee. So long ago. He shuddered as he remembered how warm
she made him feel. The touch of her hands, the tenderness. The love
he never acknowledged. Scrooge just took in the dark roads,
illuminated by red lights and green lights and yellow lights, all
in a Christmas Eve.

"Why are
you taking me back to my office?" Scrooge said wearily.

The
driver nodded, "The reprimanding route is decided by Supertaxi's
AI. I'm just taking you there."

They
stopped right back where they started from, at the corner beneath
his office. The driver tapped something and the video screen showed
another recording.