A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Contest #2

It was just another cold evening on the streets of the busy city as Mr. Sean drove through the road looking for customers.

Mr. Sean was a Taxi Driver and took pride in this record of delivering customers on time and without any accidents. He was a calm and composed person who after 20 years of driving a taxi, had learnt of art of predicting his customers behaviour. One look and he would know if he had to switch the air conditioning off, play the news instead of music or to strike a conversation about the country’s state of affairs.
Knowing this in his trade, he was left with only happy customers and sometimes a lot of generous tips.

He spotted a prospective customer and pulled up near her.
The customer got into the cab and said “Get me to 34th Street”.

It was a woman in her forties. She was dressed in an expensive attire and wore more jewellery than that would normally be found in a typical jewellery box. The stench of her perfume was strong and smelt like a mixture of jasmine, citrus, sandal wood and blueberries. It was obvious she had mixed a lot of perfumes together to achieve this extremely uncomfortable flavour.

It had just been 1 minute and he felt like rolling down the windows to grasp a breath for his life.
He slowly rolled down the window a tiny bit...
“What is wrong with you old man??? Why are you opening the windows in this cold??? Close it right now and crank up the heater”, she yelled from the back.
Mr. Sean was startled by the pitch of her voice and the choice of her words, missed a turn.

“Are you trying to rob me now by taking me in a different route??? Just because I am beautiful??? My son works for the police force and is tracking my ride. You better watch yourself or you will end up in jail till you die”, she yelled back.

“No Mam. Ummm. That road is blocked due to the construction of the New building. Going that way we would end up getting delayed by 10 minutes more. This is the quickest route. I am an honest man and have no such intention.”, Mr. Sean replied.

He had a glimpse of the lady while getting in and she was no where close to how she described herself, yet he held it in.

“Play some good music. I listen to rock and metallic.”, She said.
“Sure Mam”, replied Mr. Sean as he tried to play a song.
“OMG!!! That is so last year!!! Cant you play the new K-Pop song. The one with those really good looking boys with rock hard abs... I am their number one fan girl”, she replied.

Mr. Sean was ready this time and he knew about the song and played it.

“They are very good looking. I was also very good looking in my age. Well I still am. I should get a new boyfriend I guess. My husband rarely comes home. I feel lonely most of the times and have to resort to other means... “ the women continued.

Mr. Sean was left stunned and shocked. He was left wordless at what the lady was speaking. It was annoying and at the same time mind boggling. She continued with her talk. Mr. Sean could only think of one thing, which was that this lady’s conversation should be censored.

Mr. Sean tried his best to avoid hearing her yet he could not. He tried increasing the volume but nothing could drown her voice. The only positive thing was the lady could not see if Mr. Sean was actually listening to her.

As the last resort he started singing his favourite song in his mind :

Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum...

The ride was finally done and Mr. Sean was left battered, shocked and tired.

He prayed to God, begging the almighty to be merciful on other taxi drivers and reducing their chances of encounter with this woman.

photo by @Slhomestead.

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Hello Freewriters.
This is my entry for the A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Contest #2 by @mariannewest and @freewritehouse.
The photo by @slhomestead is the prompt for this contest.
Details of the same can be found at the link below.
https://peakd.com/hive-161155/@freewritehouse/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words-contest-2

In the prompt I see a man who seems to be uncomfortable by the talks of the person in the back seat.
He seems to be toggling with the controls of the music system.
Based on this, my story is about a taxi driver facing a customer who’s talks make him feel out of his comfort zone.

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