I Love Taxis

May 7, 2008

My friend Halley and I were sitting in a taxi waiting to go to Mary this morning when an intoxicated, one-legged man hobbled his way into our car.

Did I say intoxicated?

I meant completely, beyond all belief, absolutely trashed.

As we began our journey into the city he snapped at Halley and I for talking.

“Shut up!” he slurred in Turkmen. “I have a headache!”

Immediately our cab driver, who was a friend of mine, jumped to our defense.

“Hey be quiet!” he warned him. The drunk man’s head was rolling around back and forth and occasionally dropping down into the driver’s right leg.

“These American girls are our guests. You have to be nice to them,” he told the drunkard.

So we drove on and the man passed out with his head hanging and flopping back and forth to the gear shifter and glove compartment.

“Angela guess what!” the driver said. “It’s my birthday this week!”

So immediately I started singing happy birthday and the driver woke up the drunkard so he could join in. Our drunk friend wasn’t happy about that and Halley and I immediately started laughing.

This pissed him off more than ever and he started screaming as loud as he could but he was so drunk that no one in the car could understand a word he was saying.

And so the rest of the ride was like this…Halley and I talking, the drunk man either trying to hold her hand or telling us to shut up, him passing out and knocking his head against the gear shifter, and him waking up and yelling incoherently.

Oh and at one point he nearly burned his fingers trying to light a cigarette.

The adventures keep on coming.