The Cabbie

Jun 30, 2022

The sky opened up, and the rain poured down hard. In an instant, Gary was drenched from head to toe. Before he could fiddle with his umbrella to successfully get it open, Gary was a wet mop. On rainy days, the colourless industrial buildings of the city blended into the skyline, turning everything into a single streak of lifeless grey. Gary debated in his own mind if he should even bother with the umbrella anymore; he wasn’t going to get any wetter than he already was.

He hailed a cab instead. Squinting through the thick droplets of rain and peering down the street, he looked for a bright yellow beacon approaching. Out of the grey mass, he saw one emerge, and shot his hand up, waving it frantically so he wouldn’t be missed. Admittedly, today was the wrong day to wear his grey trench coat with his grey trousers. There was a good chance the cab wouldn’t see him altogether. Luckily for Gary, the cabbie spotted him, and pulled up to the curb next to him.

Gary flung open the door and barrelled into the cab, splashing drops of water every time he moved. “Mason House Bar please,” Gary said as he wiggled in the back seat, reaching for his phone in his back pocket, and settling into the puddle he was making. He tried to shake off some of the water that was clinging to his jacket, but it didn’t help his predicament at all.

“Is that where you want to go?” The cabbie asked, his voice deep and serious.

Gary glanced up and caught sight of the cabbie’s eyes in his rearview mirror. They looked directly back at Gary, their dark amber colour piercing all the grey that surrounded them. Gary narrowed his eyes and cleared his throat.

Obviously that’s where I want to go… that is how cabs work after all… is what Gary wanted to say. But instead he quietly nodded his head and checked his phone.

The driver adjusted his rearview mirror and switched the cab into gear, “Suit yourself.”

Gary locked eyes with his phone screen, obsessively checking the notifications every few minutes during the ride. A pit in his stomach started to form. He was expecting his girlfriend to call. They had gotten into an awful fight last night, and she was always the first one to call. Gary had said some things he wasn’t proud of, and he worried now he had crossed a line. The city blurred outside as the cab drove on, and Gary became increasingly unsettled with the lack of phone call.

In a haze of emotions, Gary heard the cab driver call out, “We’ve arrived.”

Gary looked out the window and was greeted with bright blue skies and dry sidewalks. He hadn’t even noticed the rain stop.

Then he realized where he was. Or rather, where he wasn’t.

“This isn’t the bar,” He spun his head to meet the cabbie’s amber eyes again, “Why didn’t you take me there?”

“The bar is where you wanted to go — but this is where you need to be,” He said as he put the cab in park and took his hands off the steering wheel.

Gary peered out the window again and instantly recognized the brownstone home that they were parked in front of.

“How do you know where I live?” Gary was feeling that pit in his stomach grow stronger. His hands were shaking ever so slightly. He steadied them by gripping his phone tighter.

“You are here because you regret the way you handled things with Margaret yesterday.” The cabbie replied, ignoring Gary’s question, “And you have a chance to change that now.” The cabbie paused, and for a brief moment, Gary thought he saw his amber eyes glow.

“How do you know about that?” Gary’s temper flared now, feeling his cheeks get hot and his heart start to race.

“You can continue to ask questions, Gary, or you can get out of this cab and fix things. Your choice.”

Gary stared at the brownstone. He could see Margaret’s silhouette in front of the window, pacing back and forth. Gary got out of the cab and slammed the door hard enough to make the cabbie flinch.

He unlocked the front door, carefully swinging it open and then closes it behind him.

WHOOSH.

A crumpled ball of paper whizzed past his head, missing him by a hair. It hit the door and fell quietly to the ground. Gary reached down to grab it.

WHOOSH.

Another one flew over his head as he stood up. Gary threw his hands up, “Wait! What are you doing? I’m here to talk!”

Margaret glared at him from across the long, dim hallway. “Talk? Sure let’s talk. Let’s talk about how I just found out that you lied to me about being at the casino last night.”

Gary froze. He twisted his face into a look of confusion. Just found out? She found out yesterday. I was at the casino two nights ago…

Margaret raised her arm again, ready to throw another paper ball at Gary’s head before he could finish his thought.

“Are you going to say something? Or are you going to stand there and act like I don’t know how much money you gambled away yesterday?” She waves a stack of papers around, “Hotel bills, ATM transactions, drink receipts. I found it all. We were saving that money to visit my parents this summer,” tears were streaming down her face now.

Wait — we are having the same fight as we did last night, Gary blinked hard at Margaret. The cab didn’t take him back to his house, it took him back in time. This way Gary could have a do-over with their fight. And this time, he knew he wasn’t going to handle it in the same way.

Gary took a step towards Margret. She tensed in front of him, her body convulsing from her sobs, her knuckles turning white as they grip the stack of papers tighter. Gary tried to relax his shoulders.

“Margret, I’m so sorry. I messed up. I got carried away and I shouldn’t have. It was reckless of me,” His phone buzzed loudly in his hand, sending vibrations reverberating up his arm. He ignored it, and pressed on, “I’ll pick up extra shifts at work and make the money back.”

Margaret lowered her arm and wiped her face with the back of her hand. The air in the hallway separating them was thick. The words hung heavy between them. Gary was feeling hot, uncomfortable, and he wanted to rush over and take Margret in his arms and hold her. But he held firm where he was, watching as her shoulders slumped forward, her small body looking broken in the dim lighting.

“It’s not about the money, Gary…” She tossed the crumpled paper down next to her, “It’s about the lying.”

Gary’s phone buzzed again. This time he peeked quickly at the screen. There were two messages from an unknown number:

COME BACK TO THE CAB.

And,

NOW.

Gary stared up at Margret, “I think I forgot something in the cab. Let me run down and grab it and I’ll be right back. We can come up with a plan so I can get some help,” He pleaded with her.

Margret gave a small nod, barely perceptible at the distance they were standing, before she retreated into the living room.

Gary bolted down to the cab and flung the passenger side door open. “What?”

The cabbie’s eyes flashed him. The colour was even more intense in the sunlight washed car.

“You have this one chance for a do-over, but you won’t get another — ”

“Actually this would be really helpful for me to fix things with my brother. Maybe after this we could go back to the last time we — ” The car horn blasted loudly in Gary’s ears. He covered them with both his hands until the driver finally released the horn. Gary stared at the driver with wide eyes.

“No. As I said, you only get this one chance here,” Gary’s face fell, and he started to pull away from the cab when he heard the cabbie call out, “But it’s never too late to fix things that you broke with others. You don’t have to continue to live with that regret. Choose another path, make it right, instead of living in the past.”

Gary smiled at the cabbie and shut the door, tapping the roof of the car twice as the engine started up again. He watched as the cab drove off down the narrow street, and the next time Gary blinked, it was already gone.

Above him, the sky opened up, and the rain started again.

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