Prompt: “There’s an urban legend that’s been circulating for years about a taxi cab that doesn’t take you where you want to go, but where you need to go. One night you step into this cab.”
Sometimes things have a funny way of working out. Not how you planned it, but working out another way. I don’t exactly believe in fate. Well…at least I didn’t believe in fate before I took an unexpected taxi ride.
I know how it sounds but it wasn’t like creepy or anything like that. It was special.
You see there had been some reports of people getting into a blue taxi cab around campus and then ending up “exactly where you need to be.”
It sounds crazy, believe me. But this blue taxi cab had been spotted a couple of times around campus leading up to my trip in the cab.
It had become an urban legend. Some claiming it was a ghost or a guardian angel. Others saying that it was just some kind of sexual pervert driving around and tricking girls into his car. Others doubted it even existed despite people claiming they saw it and a few claiming they rode in it. No pictures of it existed which is bizarre. This was a college town full of Millennials which all had the newest smartphone. If it existed, someone had to have taken a picture of it and uploaded it to Instagram or their Snapchat story. About five weeks into my Junior Year of College, we got the hashtag #BlueCabSearch trending around campus. People were really into it.
Anyway, my encounter with the Blue Cab happened a few weeks after that. It was the Friday before our “Fall Break” started. Me and a bunch of my girl friends went out to celebrate this occasion in the only way we knew how. We went to a Fraternity Party.
My friend Megan knew of all the best parties and which ones to avoid. She navigated college social life like she had been studying it for years. We would joke that she got into college on a beer pong scholarship. When she was sober, Megan couldn’t throw a ping pong ball into a swimming pool, but when she was drunk, she couldn’t lose. Seriously, she could have a literal rock as a partner and still school any Frat Guys willing to challenge her.
My other friend Amy and I just stuck with Megan. She could get us into anywhere. No problem.
Well that night in particular we went hard. Like jello shots at 8 pm and black out by 10 pm. It was crazy.
I can’t particularly remember a lot of the night, if I’m being honest. Again it was a crazy night. Which I know doesn’t really help the later part of the story, but hear me out. I know I was with Amy and Megan at the Fraternity House. Alpha Pi Alpha. Megan quickly ditched us to find a worthy Beer Pong adversary and Amy was with me. See Amy is very quiet and introverted. That is until you get some alcohol in her. Then she’s a ton of fun. But Amy also knows how to ride the line between drunk and black out drunk. She’s drunk, but she never gets black out drunk. Never.
That’s one reason why she is so fun. She remembers everything and can tell Megan and I all about the drunken exploits we don’t remember the next day.
Anyway I’m with Amy most of the night. We’re dancing along with the music. Talking to some cute guys. Drinking. The works.
Well late into the night, I start feeling barfy. Like just not feeling great. I let Amy know and she asks me if I want to leave. I do. I want to leave. Then she asks me if I want her to come with me and I tell her no. It’s fine. She’s having fun at the party and I don’t want to ruin that. She was really feeling this guy who plays water polo or something and I didn’t want to ruin her night.
I tell her that I can just walk to main street and catch a cab. The house was only a few blocks and cabs ran up and down main street all the time. This wasn’t my first time finding my way home after partying.
She asks again and I reassure her before ditching from the party.
Things get a little fuzzy here, but I make my way down 3rd street to hit main street. No big deal.
Around that time I black out. I don’t remember what else happened that night.
However!
However I do remember the next day.
I open my eyes and surprisingly I don’t have a hangover. No headache. Nothing. Usually I have a little something the next day. But not today.
However the bigger issue is that I don’t know where I am. I’m not in my bedroom. Not in my house. I’m in a car.
I immediately sit up to figure out what happened. Did I fall asleep in someone’s car?
I look up from the back seat and there is some dude sitting in the front seat of the car. You know, the driver’s seat.
He notices me and gives me a smile.
“Good morning, Chloe,” He says to me.
I’m freaked out. I don’t recognize this guy at all. But he knows my name. I’m trying not to panic. Maybe I met him at the party. Is that how he knew my name?
I ask him who he is and he replies.
“The name’s Gabe. You hoped in my cab last night.”
Got it. He’s a cab driver. Makes sense. But why didn’t he take me home? What was I still doing in his cab?
He explains things to me.
“Well you were quite drunk when you called me over. You got into my cab and laid down in the backseat. You said you weren’t feeling well. You gave me your address and told me to wake you up when we got to your house.”
Cool. Cool. All making sense so far.
He continues.
“However, Chloe. I didn’t take you back to your house. I thought that I better take you here instead.”
That’s when I look outside. He’s right. We’re not in front of my house. We’re in a hospital parking lot.
Immediately I get defensive. I start telling him that I’m feeling good now. That I don’t have alcohol poisoning or anything like that. Part of me just wants him to take me home and the other part of me just wants to jump out of the cab. The situation was a little freaky.
He then explains that the hospital wasn’t for me.
“I don’t mean to alarm you, Chloe, but that’s not why I brought you here. You see, your mother. She had a really bad heart attack last night.”
Last night? What was he talking about? Who was this guy and how did he even know this.
“I know that you and your mother don’t really get along. That you two fight a lot. But the heart attack was very serious. She could have died.”
At this point I’m silent. And really confused.
“I’d hate for you to go through life regretting that you didn’t make up with your mother. I know both of you argue and you fight. But I know deep down that you both care about each other and love each other. Lots of people live their life with regrets, but this would be a big one.”
“That’s why I brought you here. To see your mother.”
He stops talking and just gives me this sympathetic look. Almost like a puppy dog.
I’m so confused. Distraught.
During all of this I pull out my phone and see that I have 34 missed calls from my dad and text messages from my dad, Amy, and Megan. Both of my friends wondering where I am and why I didn’t come home last night. My father begging me to pick up the phone and then a lengthy message about how mom was in the hospital with a heart attack. Just like this cab driver, Gabe, said.
I ask him if he went through my phone.
He shakes his head no and tells me that he just let me sleep in the back of the cab. Didn’t touch any of my stuff.
I’m still not sure exactly what is going on but I thank him. I reach for my purse in order to pay him and I swear he reads my mind.
He holds up a hand.
“No need, Chloe. This one is on me. No need to pay.”
I feel bad. If this is really the hospital closest to my home, that means he drove over two hours to get me here. And then let me sleep in his cab.
I don’t argue though. I’m a poor college student and free cab fair is free cab fair. Plus this dude was still kind of freaking me out. So I just leave.
I collect myself and open the cab door. I close it behind me and then I notice it’s color.
Blue.
It’s blue!!
I’m even more stunned. It’s a blue taxi cab.
Before I can even think to pull out my phone, he starts the cab and starts to drive.
I yell thank you as he drives away.
Then I go inside and meet up with my father and find my mother’s room. After that there was a lot of talking and figuring stuff out. I don’t want to get into it too much, but me and my mom are still working through stuff little by little. Our family is happier and there are less fights. Plus the whole family is eating less sugar, less salt, and more leafy greens.
Can you believe it?
I can’t.
It’s still so crazy to me.
I tried to tell Megan and Amy about it, but I don’t think they believe me. Amy maybe, but Megan thinks I hallucinated the whole thing. That it was some normal cab and the guy was just being nice.
No.
This cab was blue.
And it did take me exactly where I needed to go. I needed to go to that hospital to see my mom and make things right.
So yeah I believe in miracles now. Or at the very least I believe in blue taxi cabs that take you exactly where you need to go.
Header Photo Credit to SendingPostcards.com
http://www.sending-postcards.com/2012/05/ny.html
Writing Prompt submitted to r/WritingPrompts by u/thedarkendkb
Allen The Writer 