Just Drive, I Said
There was a stench in the air of sweat and indifference,
But in my state of mind I didn’t want to comment
Lest I give myself away.
My gut wrenched as the cab ran another red light.
My design. “It’s late, just go,” I’d said,
Praying it wouldn’t draw needless attention our way.
The fool cursed as he spilt his coffee.
That’s why they have lids I bristled.
Uh, it stank in here.
I cracked the window.
His whining for direction finally broke the miasma
“Docklands east — the furthest berth,” I instructed.
We finally stopped chasing our tails
As he turned the car towards the water
Towards freedom.
“Nice of you to let me know,” he slurred
“Just shut up and keep your eyes on the road,” I barked.
Then realising he was but a poor wretch like myself I muttered
“And just drive” as a way of apology.
I know it didn’t sound like it.
“Just drive.”
I couldn’t believe we’d gotten away with it -
That I’d gotten away with it.
Poor Teddy. Will I ever forget his face?
Those eyes pleading not to leave him behind
But he was already gone
The colour bleeding from his face told me that pretty fast.
Then of course there was that no-good, unreliable snake, Donny.
The anger spiked within me as I suppressed an uprising of bile
Sad, pathetic Donny. Always looking out for number one.
Must’ve run as soon as the alarm sounded.
The car was nowhere to be seen as I ran to the curb.
That’s when Lady Luck gave me dumb-dumb.
He’d just gotten back in his cab with his donuts and coffee
When I jumped in and barked the order to drive.
“Where?”
“ANYWHERE BUT HERE!”
His sugar coated fingers
Smeared through what remained of his hair,
As he kept peering back at me
With those sad, quizzical eyes.
He was a talker
And I wasn’t in the mood.
Trying to break the silence
He offered a donut which I deflected with a slight of disgust.
He pried “Lady, are you in a fix?”
The last straw in this night of incompetence and heartbreak.
I pulled my gun from my purse, took a calming breath and said,
“Now … just shut up … keep your hands on the wheel … and …”
And I realised this was the beginning of the end
Or the end of the beginning.
No more Teddy. No more dingy apartment overlooking the pharmacy carpark.
No more dreams of the two of us growing old together in Cuba.
“Just drive,” I muttered.
The street lights interrupted both our thoughts
As the night sped past quietly.
Out of nowhere a burst of rain reflected my melancholy
The fool had to turn the wipers on full.
Without knowing it, I’d begun welling up with tears.
Was it for Teddy? Our life that would never be?
For this idiot driver, a pawn in my game of freedom?
Or even for myself?
Whatever.
He’d been looking at me and my things in the mirror.
A look of actual concern on his face
Wiped away as our eyes met
I knew that he knew what I’d been up to
“You don’t have to worry about me — nope,” the fool said
Meaning to placate me or just change the subject
He looked away at the road, or beyond the road
Lost in his own fantasy.
I needed him in the here and now.
“Drive!” I shouted, rattling my gun on his headrest
bringing his attention back to where it belonged.
The car shivered a little as he stiffened and returned to his duty
“Just drive.”
Somehow he managed to shove another donut into his face
Spin the wheel to turn us into an alley
While sneaking peeks at me in his rear-vision mirror
All at the same time.
This fool had quickly become an object of fascination for me
Was he judging me?
Trying to unravel my story?
Or a psychopathic pervert thinking he might have his way?
No. He would’ve made a move already.
I wouldn’t call him innocent, a creep maybe, but not a killer.
I could smell the ocean
As he turned into the intersection
Just beating the red light this time.
I was going to have to leave him a good tip.
That’s OK. I could afford it.
My first smile of the night.
I pulled out my mirror and checked how the escapade had left me.
Surprisingly, aside from a smear of mascara
My makeup was fine. Hollywood starlet fine.
Just a quick fix of my hair and I was ready for my exit.
I don’t even remember leaving the cab,
Let alone paying the poor fool.
But the dumbfound happiness on his face told me
I’d compensated him nicely for his troubles.
He looked up at me from the wad of cash in his sugar dusted hands
And I blew him a kiss
Turning the wheel of the boat as I reversed it out of its mooring.
“Just drive, baby!” I cried out jokingly over the sound of the engine.
I hadn’t even reached the breakwater
when the flashes of police cars glowed over the masts receding behind me.
The drudgery of the past behind me.
Cuba beckoning me forward.
I wonder how the idiot would relate my story.
Would he paint a picture of my porcelain features?
I wasn’t going to disguise my favourite make-up no matter the cost.
Would he cry victim?
Held at gun-point, against his will!
Would they find his cash bonus?
That’d be a shame. The poor fool was just a tool.
Or would he play ignorant and tell ’em I told him to “just drive”.
THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THIS SHORT STORY
Using the phrase “I sat in the taxi” as a starting point, inspired by Stan Ridgeway’s classic 1985 alt-rock-pop-can’t-be-pigeon-holed Drive She Said, writing from the viewpoint of the mysterious passenger in Stan’s cab.
Should you not be familiar with this almightily brilliant piece of genius, please be my guest. Oh, and play it loud.*
*and obviously, if you are familiar, you’ve already played it to death. So play it again, Sam. Bonus points - the Vimeo link is from Andrew Doucette, the video director himself.
Drive She Said by Stan Ridgeway - Lyrics:
Sittin’ right behind me I could smell her perfume
It was something I smelled before
Went through a red light while I spilled my drink
I could feel something sticky on the floor
I said, “Miss you gotta tell me where yo want to go to,
I can’t keep driving ‘round the same block.”
Then I crumpled my cup and pulled the gum off my shoe
And then she told me,
“Just shut up and keep your eyes on the road…
And just drive, “ she said
“Just drive, “ she said
Well, I watched her grip her hands on the bag in her lap
While I scratched the bald spot on my head
I knew then that my cab was just a getaway car
But I shut up and drove like she said
I took a bite off my donut then I offered her one
I said, “Lady, are you in a fix?”
Then she reached in her purse and she pulled out a gun and said,
“Now, just shut up and keep your hands on the wheel…
“Just drive,” she said
“Just drive, ” she said
And then the moon disappeared and it started to rain
So I turned the windshield wipers on full
And on the bag in her lap I saw the name of a big bank downtown
And I said, “You don’t have to worry about me…”
And when I turned the headlights on,
Just for a minute I thought I saw the both of us
On some kinda tropical island someplace
Walkin’ down a white sandy beach eatin’ something…
“Just drive,” she said
“Just drive, ” she said
We pulled out of traffic down a dark side street
She was fixin’ her hair in the mirror
I made a left turn at a yellow light
Drove my cab fast towards the pier
She boarded the boat and turned and blew me a kiss
and later on when the squad cars came ‘round
I ate a handful ‘a peanuts and then I told ’em this
“I don’t remember much…
Just keep your hands on the wheel, and just drive, she said.”
Songwriter / Performer: Stan Ridgway
Drive She Said lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, The Bicycle Music Company
Originally published at r0adt0n0where.wordpress.com November 5, 2019.
