Chapter 5

Most of driving a cab was fairly boring routine. She bid on calls, picked people up in one place and dropped them off in another. When it wasn't busy, she found a taxi stand and sat reading to pass the time. When the weather was nice, she sometimes took a break to walk in a park. When the weather was not nice, she was usually busy. Bad weather almost always meant good business in the cab industry.

In Wisconsin they say there are only two seasons: Winter and Road Construction. As soon as the snow cleared up in the spring, usually around April, the road crews would start tearing up whatever they were going to fix that year. This year, that included First St, between Winnebago and the Avenue.

Three blocks of First St were completely closed, and had been dug out well below the freezing depth. Even 10 to 12 feet deep in some places. There were stacks of large concrete tubes to one side, so it appeared they were redoing the storm sewers while they had it torn up.

Mickie was heading east on the Avenue one afternoon, when she stopped at the light at First. An odd tingle made her look to her right, into the construction zone. There was a man walking down the sidewalk toward it, cane tapping in front of him. There was no barricade on the sidewalk before the drop.

Mickie swung her cab around the corner and pulled up beside the man, rolling down her window.

“Sir!” she called, “There is a hole in front of you!”

He stopped, turning his face toward her. It was clear that he was blind. She recognized him as a fairly regular rider.

“It's alright,” he said, “They told me I can get through.”

“No!” Mickie cried, “There is no way through!”

“I called the city this morning and they assured me that there is a path.” the man said.

“Please! There may have been this morning, but now there's just a big hole! No sidewalk! Nothing!”

“Why should I believe you?” He asked, suspiciously.

“I'm driving a Mad Town Cab. I have driven you places before. I know you live on E. Johnson St. near Emerson School.” she said. “Please let me take you to the other side of the construction. I won't even charge you.”

“I don't believe you.” the man said, and started walking again. He was moving more slowly, though, tapping his cane more carefully.

At this point Emily hopped up out of Mickie's cab bag, and jumped out of the window. She meowed loudly at the man, who stopped and cocked his head. Emily ran over and leaned against the front of his legs, meowing again.

“Who are you?” the man said to the cat.

Emily pushed against his legs, staring up at him. Suddenly, he stumbled back a step, looking shocked. Emily followed and rubbed against his legs, purring loudly enough that Mickie could hear it from the cab.

The man leaned down, extending his hand. Emily raised her head up under it, letting him pet her. She then grabbed his sleeve in her teeth and pulled in the direction of the cab.

Now Mickie was a bit shocked. Emily rarely let anyone else touch her. But it seemed to have been the right thing to do. The man stood up and started tapping his cane to find his way across the grass to the curb. He found the cab, felt his way to the back door handle, and opened it. Emily jumped back in the open window.

The man sat down in the back seat, saying, “Alright, the cat convinced me.”

“Thank you.” said Mickie, relieved. “Where are you going?”

“I have an appointment at a medical office at the corner of First and Winnebago.” he said.

“I know the one. I'll just take you there.” said Mickie.

She knew she could get in trouble for not charging him, but she didn't really care. She was just glad to have gotten him in the cab, and not walking toward what would have been serious injury, if not outright death. She knew she would never have forgiven herself for not acting. If there was a problem later, she would tell them to dock her pay.

She put the cab in gear and drove the six blocks down and five blocks back to get around to the other side of the construction site. She pulled up in front of the office building.

“Here you are.” she said. “Your door is lined up with the sidewalk to the front door.”

“Thank you.” he said, getting out of the cab. “You've been very kind.”

She watched him tap his way to the door and enter the building. She let go a breath.

“What did you do?” she asked Emily.

“I let him feel what was in front of him.” the cat replied. “Like this.”

Mickie suddenly felt herself walking and then stepping on air, falling forward. She jerked back in her seat, eyes wide.

“Whoa! I didn't know you could do that!”

“It was necessary.” Emily said.

Mickie reached down and stroked the little cat's fur.

“You are amazing!” she said.

“I know.” Emily said, smugly, and curled up to sleep under the towel in the bag.

The next two calls were school kids who lived outside the area covered by the buses. There was a program that paid for them to get cab rides to and from school. One of the kids talked animatedly about her day, happy to be going home to her new puppy.

The second one sat sullen and silent the whole trip. Mickie got a flash of arguing, yelling adults from his thoughts, even through her shields. Just before she turned onto his street, she heard a sniffle. She looked in her mirror at him, and saw a tear on his cheek.

“It's not your fault.” she told him.

He looked at her, startled. “What?”

“Whatever they're fighting about. You didn't cause it.”

“But they always blame me for stuff.” he said. “If I wasn't there, they wouldn't fight.”

Emily sat up and looked over the seat at him. He met the cats eyes, and she slow blinked at him.

“If you weren't there they would find other excuses.” Mickie said. “You are a good kid. They are having trouble with their own anger. You didn't cause it.”

The boy nodded, eyes still on Emily.

“Hang in there.” Mickie said, as they came to a stop at his driveway.

“Thanks.” the boy said, looking up at Mickie in the mirror. He reached up and gave Emily a tentative scratch behind her ears. He looked a little less lost as he gathered up his backpack and got out of the cab.

Then it was a bartender on his way to work, followed by a man picking his car up at the dealership where it had been dropped off for service that morning. Three women sharing a ride home from the office talking and laughing about their boyfriends, and an elderly man going back to his daughter's house after spending the day at an adult day care center.

An amazing number of stories passed through her back seat every day. Sometimes Mickie felt like her cab was a vignette in a series of soap operas and sitcoms. Sadly, she didn't usually get to hear the ends of those stories. She often wondered how things turned out.

After the dinner rush Mickie drove out to the airport, where she pulled up at the back of the line in the taxi loading zone. There were three other cabs in line ahead of her, two Red Tops and one Mad Town. She got out of her cab for a stretch.

“Hey, Mickie, how's it going?”

Mickie looked up to see Jock leaning on the Mad Town Cab in front of her. His thin face and bulbous nose were unmistakeable. He had his dark blue stocking cap pulled low on his forehead and over his ears. She'd never seen him without it.

“Eh, it's going.” Mickie replied. “How 'bout you?”

“Ah, it's ok, I guess.” He chewed on a toothpick. “ I heard ye had quite the experience last night.” He looked at her sidewise, his eyes intense.

“Yeah, you could call it that.” She replied. She didn't really want to talk about it. Besides, there was something about Jock that made her slightly uncomfortable.

“Well, the night crew's got yer back, if ye need it.” he said, looking away, as if what he was saying wasn't very important.

She looked more closely at him. “Thanks.” she said. “I appreciate that.”

Jock gave her another sideways look. “Ah, ye'll figger it all out. Ye got the power.”

“The what?” Mickie asked, looking up sharply.

A whistle sounded from the front of the line. They both looked that way, and saw people coming out the door towing suitcases.

“Well, here we go.” Jock said, clamping down on his toothpick and popping his trunk open. A man hurried toward him, pushing his suitcase into Jock's hands.

“I need to go to the Concourse!” the man said.

Mickie heard no more as she was approached by a pair of college students wanting to go to the Lakeshore Dorms. She would have to try and catch Jock again later and ask him what he knew.

When she walked into the office at the end of her shift to pick up her slips and hang her key, James leaned out around the dispatch desk.

“I got a call about you today.” He growled.

“You did?” she said. She worried that she might, indeed, be in trouble for the freebie from that afternoon.

“Yeah, the receptionist at the medical office over at First and 'Bago called. Said you probably saved the life of one of their clients.” he told her.

“Oh, the blind guy?” She said, “I couldn't just let him fall in that hole! You can take the fare outta my check if you have to.”

“What?!?” James looked shocked. “No way! Id'a done the same thing. Besides, it's good PR.”

He turned back to his desk. “Now get outta here! I got work to do!”

Mickie grinned to herself, and did as he said.