The Life of a Jamaican Taxi- Part 3

Part One

Part two

Hey everybody. Man, it’s been raining cats and dogs lately. Trust me, definitely not my favourite time at all. Things get very different around here when it rains. It’s sad all round and a bit scary too. I’m constantly in fear that I will get damaged. First of all, everybody comes and plops their wet derrières on my seats. It's quite nasty actually, everybody with varying degrees of wetness and smells. Thats the nice way of putting it, wetness and smells, yes thats it...i wish so much that i could dunk my head in my engine oils, thats a much better smell than what i was experiencing the other day. Thank God my owner, Redis, had the good sense of mind to air me out after all the rains and buy me a "nice smelling air freshener" that lasted all of three days, i must admit, it was much better than what i was enduring. I can imagine if Redis had a date, he would probably have left me at home and opted to take a car with a better environment.

The encounters I've had over the past couple of weeks have been quite interesting. I'll tell you about one. Quite traumatic, I must say, I was almost sure I would have been taken away and carried to the impound. I've heard many stories about that place. I can't imagine surviving in such a place. No one to take care of me, no chance to drive around, doing what i was designed to do; Having those police officers rummage through my interior, quite degrading. I still shudder from thinking about it. We did our usual journey from Half Way Tree to Campus. Today I think Redis was in a particularly defiant mood. We entered the campus and continued toward the ring road, when we got to the ring road, some young ladies flagged us down. Redis shouted out the usual "half way tree" and some signal was made, Redis stopped. Now, I saw the sign, no disembarking, or stopping. I know my English is very good, i double checked just to make sure the sign was referring to the zone I was in. Now, some of the other taxis told me that UWI is trying to get rid of us taxis because we don’t follow protocols. I have been on the alert, trying everything in my power to help Redis obey the rules and today I tried without any avail to help out. He tried to stop, but I refused, I chuckled a bit, and fought against the breaks, used all my will power and managed to launch myself into a forward movement. Redis was most surprised, he readjusted the gear and attempted again, I couldn't do it anymore.

We stopped. As soon as we did I heard the voice I was afraid of, calling out to us. Redis chose to ignore this summons, I noticed, he continued to call to the young ladies and they too seemed quite oblivious to the security guard trying to get our attention. I got scared, he looked quite upset, I knew what he wanted to do, was to tell us to that we should not be disembarking where we were. Redis, continued to ignore the security guard, and drove off. I’m sure my fear must have shown because I could swear I stalled a bit. We were on our way. Out of no where I saw, in my mirror that the security guard was chasing us. Oh My God, I nearly spat gas out of my tank, he was after us, it was gonna be a chase, I’ve only been here so long and here I am already, running from the law. I got pretty nervous and wondered why Redis seemed so compose. I took some deep breaths, now was not the time to fail him I thought to myself. But there was the security guard closing in, closer, closer, closer. He’s right beside us, he’s flagging us down. Is Redis gonna stop! I don’t know if I want him to. But, wait he is slowing down. I know I must be overheating, am I not? Redis eventually came to a stop. I could feel myself getting even more afraid. I held my breath and waited…(Sigh) what a relief, no impound. Luckily it turns out, though furious, the security guard only warned Redis and explained to him that this was why some taxis were not going to be allowed on the campus. I was one relieved soul. I don’t think I could have dealt with any further shame, especially one such as this, being taken for disobeying the law. My family is known for being quite compliant. I[‘m coming to realize that this is just the beginning of a looooong journey and adventurous life for me.

Jerry.