Yellow Hack Lost
Habib ought not to have rolled down his window.
His yellow cab was stopped at a red light behind a bus in the tar-dark Queens night when I approached. But roll down his window Habib did. And from there Habib’s immediate future was sealed.
Unfortunately, as it turned out, for us all.
Habib is a Manhattan hack who had the misfortune of dumping a fare over the river. Or actually, the misfortune of rolling down his window after dumping his fare over the river and entertaining my pitch. Misfortune because Habib had no business thinking that he could negotiate the streets of Queens efficiently (and if not efficiently, then efficaciously). And no business because Habib couldn’t have found an intersection even if he rolled right through it—which, it turned out he did with great frequency, if not alacrity.
All of this became immediately apparent when I hopped into the front seat and announced my crew’s intended destination. There, flashing through Habib’s eyes were two thoughts: “perhaps you’d better step back out of this cab, Sir” and “I can do this! I’m sure I can.”
In the battle of voices -– we might label Habib’s contending thoughts “red” versus “green”. Red being “stop this nonsense (right now!)” and green being “for the love of money (let’s jump on it!)”. Unfortunately for our side, green prevailed. And after muttering our destination, “Rockaway Boulevard” to himself three times, Habib shifted into Drive and away we did.
