I had to rush out of work [in Manhattan] to my house [in Staten Island] this afternoon to get my hard drive and bring it back to work. I needed to burn some DVDs and overnight FedEx them to my boss who is in Texas for a shoot.
It was my first time taking a car service. I was relieved that I didn’t have to commute myself via subway/ferry/train. The black car and leather seats made me feel like a multi-millionaire. “This is a vedy vedy nice car,” I told him in an old English accent.
The driver was a Haitian man. He went through New Jersey to get to Staten Island, instead of going over the Verrazzano Bridge, the way I usually go. I got annoyed at this. I thought he didn’t know where he was going. We didn’t speak once on the way to my house.
He dropped me at my house and waited outside. I ran inside and found my mom cleaning with Light FM blasting from the radio. I kissed her on the cheek and ran upstairs to get my laptop and hard drive. I ran downstairs and grabbed a granola bar and banana. I asked my mom if she had a waterbottle for me to consume and she said, “They are in the back of the trunk.” I was embarrassed for the driver to see me coming out of my house so I said, “Nevermind, I don’t need water”. My mom opened the front door and was about to walk out of the house when I told her, “Get back inside.”
I was embarrassed that the bus driver would judge me if he knew I lived at home with my Mommy and Daddy. I then felt bad for wanting to hide my mother. She opened the trunk. I ran out, grabbed a water bottle, and shut the door.
On the way home, the driver wanted to take the Verrazzano bridge and this made me happy. We were taking the direct route in. It was a nice day outside.
I started to like the driver more and more. We chatted it up.
He has a daughter and son; 28 and 27 respectively. His daughter is in Law School, lives at home, and is obsessed with her car. He laughed, “She looks out the window at all hours of the night to make sure it is there.” He thought it was very amusing that his daughter has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. His son went to Berkley college and does “computers”.
Things were going great until we got off the FDR and were turning off the ramp. The car slowed down a little and swerved slightly to the right. I looked into the driver’s eyes and saw he was dozing off. I got that nervous feeling that happens when you are about to lose your life. I remained silent. I was really mad at him for dozing off while I was talking about my job aspirations.
At this point we got into the City and had to get from the East side to the West side. Traffic was slow. Our car would stop at a red light and when it turned green, he wouldn’t go. I would look into the rear-view mirror and see his eyes were closed. “Geez I must be really boring company,” I thought.
I called up the car service and made sure they new how rude he was.