“His attention was drawn to a guy pretending
to be a statue and next to him to a guy
imitating the guy pretending to be a statue.”
Returning to the cab, he asked the driver how much the fare came to
and thumbed through the bills in his wallet whilst half - listening to the
obligatory rant about how he’d picked up a fair to this place and suddenly
it wasn’t this place it was some place else and how he’d lost this much
money. James retrieved his card, handed over a wad and assured him
he’d really rather walk the rest of the way. And of course, he’d pay the
guy the full fare for taking him to the place he no longer wanted to go
to. Plus 15%.
He found himself close to tears as he
made his way through Times Square.
Since Monday, he had become suddenly
this leaky tap. He didn’t even have to be
thinking about the situation to find his
cheeks damp and burning. In fact, it
more usually happened when he stopped
thinking.
His attention was drawn to a guy
pretending to be a statue and next to
him to a guy imitating the guy pretending
to be a statue. James guessed that Statue
Man must be pretty annoyed at having
his performance parodied but that
trapped in his persona he was in no
position to protest. Across the road, a
woman stood proudly by the subway »
Finding Peter
He took a yellow cab to The Hudson. The taxi driver was Greek and had
lived in New York for 35 years. He opined at length about racial segregation;
complicated bylaws regulating the taxi trade and how these threatened to
put him out of business; his brother who had moved to Florida but was
thinking about moving back to the city and his fondness for cats. James
asked him to pull up outside a pharmacy while he ran in to get some
Tylenol. The driver finally agreed having first recounted to James a
cautionary tale about some other guy (well groomed, apparently) who
had made a similar request only the other week and had he returned to
the cab? No. That had taught him a valuable lesson: you never judge a
book by its cover. So, sure, he’d stop but he’d need security. James
handed over his watch. Unimpressed, the driver suggested a credit card.