A Strange Taxi Ride - My Short Fictional Story

We were getting quite near my house, when the taxi driver was warned by one of his colleagues, that not far ahead on our route there were police doing a random alcohol control check. As it was impossible to turn around where we were, nor escape by a side street, the taxi driver confessed to me that he had had a couple of drinks just earlier on with a couple of childhood pals he hadn't seen for years.

"Well, what do you suggest we do?". I couldn't think what I was expected to say.

"You come over here and take the wheel." He said, "And I will sit at the back, as if you are the driver and I am the passenger."

I laughed and shook my head. The proposal seemed absurd. Then I saw, through the back-view mirror, his look of desperation and, panic. I began to feel it too, inexplicably shouldering some of his responsibility of the family burden and obligation, that would befall him should his license be taken away. I argued silently with myself that there's nothing I could do to help, but with my inborn weakness in my character, I quickly found myself sitting behind the wheel and the driver was in the back seat.

Arriving at the roadside control, a traffic policeman signaled me to stop at the curb. Then he approached and told me to step out and blow into the breathalyzer. I did, not without some trepidation and fear. Although I had not taken any drink at all, I knew the organism could, under circumstance of stress, produce all sorts of God knows what substances. By good fortune it showed me clean and I was allowed to continue on my way. I stole a glance at my 'passenger', he was smiling and thanking the policeman (not me!).

As I said before we were now even nearer my house so there's hardly point to make the change over. By the time we were totally out of sight of the police, we would be at my door anyway. So I drove on and stopped at the front porch of my building where, after casting a look at the meter, the taxi driver took out a €10 bill and handed it to me, opened the back door, stepped off the taxi, and disappeared inside the building!

All happened so very fast I didn't even have time to react. By then, another customer had got into the back seat and ordered me to "Step on it, Airport, I'll pay you extra!"

How strange reality is and how unexpected life could be, I thought, while I turned on the ignition and stepped hard on it as I was told.

Foot Note: Seven years ago, I entered a competition submitting a 100 word only fictional story in a local newspaper. By luck I won. The story was also put in my Blog when I was with Yahoo 360. I wrote a few more later just for fun, 5 or 6 I think, all ended up in my Blogs there. Since then, sporadically, I had written some more short, fictional stories. Fun to do and without the imposed restriction of limiting each story to 100 words.

Tags:breathalyzer,taxiride

Current Mood: Creative

Passion - The Force Of Life

Happiness comes from following your passion. Excellence comes from work that you are passionate about. Knowing what to do is certainly important, but knowing why you do it fuels your motivation … your passion. Strong passion enables you to find a way to achieve your goals … any goal. Passion turns your stumbling blocks into stepping stones. Not only does passion ignite your pursuit of excellence, passion also makes the journey more fun!   What the people you might know, or know of, say about passion: ~ It’s not enough to be busy. The question is, what are we busy about? ~Henry David Thoreau The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. ~Richard Bach There is no passion to be found in playing small – in settling for a life that is less than what you are capable of living. ~Nelson Mandela Tags:passion

Current Mood: Accomplished

The Absolute Solitude Of Madness

On the 5th of July, 1996, Sally was kidnapped, by delirium. Michael Greenberg, the famous American author of many acclaimed books, wrote his true experience in a book 'Towards Dawn' about his own daughter Sally. A somewhat cold and detached description that burns like acid. Probably that's the only way he could talk about the experience of hell that's the story of Sally.

The book begins with the phrase: 'The 5th of July in 1996, my daughter suddenly became crazy.' From there begins the horrific journey of the heart through darkness and desperation. Sally was then 15. During the first couple of months, while the daughter disappeared totally into the outer space called madness, the most remote place a human being can go, Greenberg tried not to lose her altogether by his dogged effort to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Sally was diagnosed as suffering bipolar disorder. That etiquette in reality is irrelevant. What was crucial was that on that very day of 5th of July, a severe psychotic crisis occurred and she disappeared into a state of oblivion, taking her place was a complete and incommunicative stranger. Like the old superstition that one is possessed by a demon. "If not, how does one explain such grotesque transformation?" he wrote.

The calamity hit all of a sudden, like the wave of a Tsunami. She seemed to have acquired a sudden vision, with a new weird sense of the world, bright and brilliant for her but impenetrable for the rest. She acted the prophet, the truth and could stop cars with her mind. Although what she says has subject, verb and adjectives, but made no sense whatsoever like an alien.

Her face is pink and beautiful, illuminated and distant. The maniac state became so fulminating she had to be eventually put into a psychiatric ward. But that kind of measure inevitably creates immense guilt for the families who had to do so to their beloved ones. As if somehow they themselves had failed the affected in some way.

I had always thought that madness occurred to someone by stages, progressively. Not normal and sane one day and raving mad the next.

The thought that this could have happened to anyone at any time is really unsettling, frightening and alarming.

Tags:madness,solitude

Current Mood: Anxious

Chameleon Facts - A Most Fascinating Video

... And the most educational I have seen -True Facts About The Chameleon. I think you’ll find this both fascinating and funny at the same time. I’ve had to watch this several times already to try and take in all the Chameleon facts. ...

My Mobile & My Slippers

During the last Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, numerous novelties in the new range of mobile phones were presented and exhibited - ecological phones, intelligent phones, stunning new features and functions of all sorts, including possibility of universal charger up to a year, even with solar back to be E-co friendly and energy saving, etc. etc. The only thing they can't do is make you coffee. We are all fascinated by the high technology in all aspects, esthetic, functionality, capacity, convenience of all in one sufficiency and more.

But of all that mind boggling phones available, there are still people, in fact a great number of them, who are interested in a simple phone, easy to use and with big letters, not just for the old but the poor sighted. The crisis, relating with something positive too. If not, no matter. It is still helpful to have the sector bear in mind that there is a sizeable market out there they have but totally neglected. The vast number of people who are not so young or active in the business world, the handicapped, the not so technologically capable, seniors and pensioners who now lead a simple life, but need to communicate for necessity, emergency, or simply to socialize. All they want is a reliable mobile phone, easy to use, comfortable to carry around, so simple that they can find the button in the dark, to call and to receive calls and simple SMS. And, economical.

I can see myself amongst that category of users too. I need the technology to make my life simpler, not to complicate it. I don't mind this type is generally considered as only for the old or disabled. I have no problem being one or the other; that of old age is better to reach it than not, and as to incapacity, well, we all have some don't we? Even though socially we are not so considered.

It just seems to me that the potential clients for that type of simple but functional mobile phones extends to a public much bigger than the industry seems to realize. There's a sure market not to be disdained and overlooked. For the extra multi-functions one can also carry another little gadget for a particular purpose of the day or journey. I can't believe everybody uses all the dozens of functions every single day. I bet one of the obsessions is that most don't want to be thought of as square, not hip, not cool, not fashionable and, almost an insult, Tech-ignorant.

It's like me with my high heels. Not because they are comfortable or functional, not at all, more on the contrary. Just my obsession. At home I am barefooted a lot of the times, or in old and comfy slippers.

Tags:slippers,mobiles

Current Mood: Chipper