Fare Beater Beatdown
Pay your fare or pay the price!
New York City cab drivers all knew that our biggest money-making days were MLK Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter Sunday, Halloween, New Year’s Eve, and last but not least, Gay Pride Day. Yeah, it could get crazy on those holidays. But we always came home dog tired and loaded down with cash.
Pursuant to the reality (lots of money and aggravation), I worked a lot of those holidays — because of the former. I particularly liked working Gay Pride Day because everybody was so festive and considerate. The city was a huge party with participants who weren’t drunk, religious, or entitled. They just happened to be inclined to fall in love with same sex people. As if I gave a shit about that.
So one Gay Pride Day, I’d really had the perfect shift. No breakdowns. No traffic jams. No assholes to piss me off. Just friendly people and a hank of money in my pocket at the end of the night. But then came my very last fare to fuck it all up.
She was a trans girl I picked up at 6 AM headed downtown from 38th Street and 9th Avenue to 16th Street where coincidentally, I was headed to turn the cab in for the night. And when she gave me her destination, it was almost as if I’d found $4. What a perfect way to end the shift.
