Young Writers Society

I’m so pissed off with my day right now. She, throwing up in my taxi was the peak of this mess.I turned off my car and heavily exhaled. I just did fast and furious for about fifteen minutes with some guys I didn’t know. I turned to my worse passenger of the year.

“Thanks for your patronage mam, but will you please go now?”

She looked at me expressionless. It was like she was dead. She then grinned, opened the door and gently started walking away like a zombie. She even left my door opened.

That moment I felt one of the craziest relieve I have ever felt in my life. I rested my head on my staring and heavily exhaled.

For the first time in a very long time, I didn’t care a bit about the payment. In fact, I would gladly return her cash to her. I just wanted to be free from this mess.

I started the car, anxious to leave this scene. It wouldn't be cool if those guys get to see me here. I started the car, about to zoom off. I looked at her. She was just standing.

I was really beginning to think of the probability of giving an actual zombie a lift. Then she just suddenly collapsed. I can’t just explain the feeling, but I think I was about to explode in frustration.

'If I hadn't stayed, I wouldn't have witnessed this,' I thought.

Once in a while, frustrating passengers would show up. Some would keep screaming at you cause they are late for an event, expecting you to just hit the gas and be there in a sec. Some would even expect you to make your car fly over the traffic.

For some, they would prefer the car moving like a sloth cause they want to get a view of the city.

There was even a day I gave some teenagers a lift. They were attending a prom night, and before I knew, they were making out in my car. Like, what the heck is wrong with the young bloods of this age?

Been a taxi driver, some passengers have made me disgusted, some have made me pissed and some have made me scared but none has ever made me feel all at once except this one. I sincerely won't hesitate to nominate her as 'Worse passenger of the century'. I seriously wished I could drive off, but my conscience wasn’t cool with that.

I got out of the car and walked towards her. Each breathe I took as I moved close got more intense after the last.

“Hey mam”, I called. I waited for her to move but she didn’t bulge.

'What if she’s dead,' I thought.

I slowly moved closer and put my finger in front of her nose, and thank goodness she was breathing.

I was so relieved. As much as I am avoiding the bad guys, I don't also want to have any reason to sit opposite a cop for question and answering.

She must have just passed out, I thought. I looked closely at her face. She had this peaceful look on her face that made me think, there might be a better person behind the whole drama. I checked the time, and it was 7:40pm. I can’t leave her here, neither can I drive around with her in my car. I doubt anyone would even want to enter the taxi after she threw up inside. I deeply exhaled again, hoping to steady my breath.

“Jed, I hope this doesn’t blow up in your face,” I told myself. I lifted her and placed her on my shoulder. That moment dozens of flirty thoughts clouded my head but I was too scared to even think twice about any of them.

I sat her down in the back seat and went to sit in front of the staring. I felt like I could choke on the odor in the car so I wind the glass down completely. I drove out of the car park we had his and made a beeline for home.

On getting home, my housemate wasn’t home yet. I and Theodore have been living under the same roof for about two years now. He is like the opposite of me, but we seem to always get along. I carried her to my room and laid her on my bed. To be sincere with you, my thought was on fire. To prevent doing something I would later badly regret, I turned off the light and left the room.

I went to sit in the living room and turned on the T.V. If I was to count, it would have been about two months now that I sat in front of television at this time of the day. There are days I would be behind the wheels after 12 in the midnight. I went to the kitchen to make a little cereal for myself and went back to the living room. I took first, second spoon and yawned. Before I knew it, I dozed off.

But then, my life doesn’t pause there. For a while now, I have been having series of dreams. The thing that scares me about the whole thing is, part of the dream always gets to happen. I saw myself dressed like an English sailor from the age of Christopher Columbus. In fact, I was on the same ship with him and we were sailing paddling a canoe through a desert. I mean, an actual desert with sand. Suddenly, we heard a loud thunder. It was followed by an advancing sandstorm.

“Don’t worry modernian, we would sail through,” Columbus shouted at the top of his voice as he started laughing boisterously.

The sandstorm hit us hard and we were buried in brown hue. Why I was dumb enough to keep my eyes, I don't know. Part of the hue thickens forming a door. I pushed the sandstorm door. The door opened and standing before me was a guy in black suit and black sunshade. Under the sunshade his dark blue veins bulged.

Slowly, everything around me shifted and I was in the living room where I was sleeping in. The man on black slowly mouthed something to ne. I moved closer trying to hear what he was saying as he suddenly head-butted me. I was launched backward with the force, crashing into everything behind me. I immediately stood up, as though nothing had happened but the whole room had changed again. It was all scattered. I faced the guy that head-butted me, but now they were four. He charged towards me and gave me a superman punch that pushed me to reality.

“Wow,” Theodore was startled. He wanted to wake me when I jerked back to reality, scaring the hell out of him.

“Bro, what happened?” he asked as he carried the bowl of cereal I had prepared and dug into it. “Looks like you crashed into something with the cab.”

“Nothing much. Just one of the worst days,” I said as I touched my face just to clear all doubt of me incurring injuries in reality cause I got beaten in my dream.

“Actually, this one is the worse.”

“What happened?” Theodore asked.

I sighed. “It was this passenger I took today. She was kinda been chased by some rogue looking guys. I was luckily able to lose them.”

“Wow. Dude, that means your day was fun.”

“Fun,” I mimicked.

Talk of fun to Theodore, then you are ready to die untimely. His definition of fun is far too rugged, even for me.

“Did you do it?”

“To be sincere with you it wasn’t as cool as I always imagine.”

I and Theodore are big fans of Fast and Furious. We always fantasize about driving with a supercar through the city with some bad guys our trail. But it wasn’t all fun when the bad guys are chasing your 2015 Camry ass with 2020 Audi.

“It wasn’t a fair race brother,” I said.

“So, did the passenger tell you why they were chasing,” he paused. “By the way, is it a he or she.”

We are now just getting to the party that will blow Theodore head off. He surely somehow doesn’t know a girl was in my room. With his unwavering desire for women, if he was a rich dude, I’m sure he won’t hesitate to try competing with King Solomon. By the way, how does Solomon fair. He really have invulnerable balls.

Literally.

“It’s a female passenger.”

“Wow,” he said as he took the last spoon of what was left of the cereal. “Did she now tell you why they were chasing her?”

I shook my head. “But I can learn that in the morning.”

“Hmm?”

“She is inside.”

Theodore froze. His hazel eyes were so strongly fixed on me. His stare was piercing. Like he as a telepathic ability to know if I was lying by just looking into my eyes. He didn’t say a thing. He just stood up like a zombie. I have seriously seen enough zombie act for a day. He headed straight for my room and opened the door. He looked at me. His eyes bore shades of disappointment and disgust.

“What?” I said.

“I seriously fell for it.”

“Hmm?”

He hissed and walked off to the kitchen. I didn’t know what to think. I stood up and went to check her. Getting to the entrance, my bed was empty. I entered the room and checked everywhere. She was nowhere to be found. I went to the kitchen. I almost collided with Theodore at the entrance.

“Hey dude, watch out.”

“Theodore, am serious,” I said.

“She passed out after the whole thing and I had to bring her here cause I didn’t know anything about her. It’s still so surprising how she-

There was a knock on the door. I looked at Theodore, who looked at the door and back at me.

“You can check it out. You might be lucky”

Luck is not what I really believe in, but I hope luck really works for me at this point in time.

I walked to the door and opened it. Seeing the person standing right before me, my heart sank in my butt. It was one of the guys that was chasing us.

“Hey bro, I-

I was still trying to rapport with him when he gave me this massive head butt. Instantly, memories of my dream swam in. I staggered backward and sank on my couch. I held my head as tight as possible.

He wasn't only one of the guys that chased us. He was the guy I just saw in my dream.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered.

He walked closer to me and was about to hit me when Theodore showed up.

“Hey Mr man. What’s going on here,” he said. He was with his towel around his waist.

I stood up. My head was been invaded by killer headache.

“I don’t know what’s between you guys but after you guys chased us, I dropped her off but she passed out when I was about to leave so I had to bring her here-

“So, where is she now,” he interrupted.

Theodore couldn't hold his anger in anymore.

"Seriously dude, who are you?"

“I swear I don’t-

I was still trying to express myself when he, in a smooth motion, brought out a penknife and placed it against my neck. I hate been powerless, but I don’t see anything so important to prove to make me want to mess with this guy.

“I swear, that’s the truth."

It was unintentional, but my voice was shaky. He walked closer to me so that I could feel his breath. He must have taken a ton of mint chewing gum before showing up here. He shifted the knife to my chin as I raised my head. He looked into my eyes and groaned. I imagined veins growing round his eyes. He removed the knife and kept it in his suit. He looked at Theodore who has been quiet since he saw the knife. He turned and was about to leave as he suddenly turned and punched me in the face. That was the first time someone would punch me in the face. I always envisaged how a punch to the face would feel like, but that didn’t prep for the agony I was about to experience. The pain from the punch coupled with the headache gave me the most unpleasant pain I’ve ever experienced. He walked out of the house, leaving the door open. I felt like I was going to pass out but I was still very much conscious and in pain.

Chapter 2 arrives on Monday