The Joe gets in. The rain drums on the roof of the taxi.
'Higham Road,' says the Joe.
The Cabbie doesn't know it, so he punches it into the SatNav. Far away.
'That's gonna be fifty quid mate, that alright?'
The Joe smiles and nods.
The Cabbie shrugs. Can't really chuck him out now. Guess he's in for a late finish.
Orange streetlights slide across the upholstery.
He's smartly dressed, the Joe. Looks like he's come back from an office job, the kind where you get a big corner office in a skyscraper. A smart, green quilted jacket. Might be off to a cocktail bar after work, if it wasn't 03:42 and if he wasn't off to the middle of the countryside. Maybe he's visiting some girl his missus doesn't know about.
He, the Cabbie, likes this game he plays with himself. Making stories up for the Joes. Passes the time.
Doesn't take long to get past the suburbs and onto the motorway. Beyond the reach of the pale lights, the country is black against the false black of night and the stars beyond.
He doesn't say anything the whole ride, and the Cabbie is the kind of man to oblige a Joe a trip in silence. Suits him fine.
But after a while it starts to feel strange. He think the Joe might have fallen asleep but when he checks the mirror he sees the Joe is starting right back at him. He looks away. Focuses on the road, but unable to shake that brief moment from his mind.
When they reach what the SatNav says is Higham Road, the Cabbie frowns. It's just a stretch of country road. Nothing on it as far as he can tell.
'Where'd you want me to stop mate?' asks the Cabbie.
'Anywhere around here is fine.'
But he doesn't want to stop here. The Cabbie was hoping he'd say there's a farmhouse around the corner. Stopping out in the middle of a pitch black road, surrounded by formless fields, with no one around for miles - no it doesn't feel right. But he can't say that really, can he?
The Cabbie starts to slow down. 'Just… here?'
'Anywhere around here is fine,' says the Joe, in the same tone he said it the first time, as if he was playing a recorded clip of himself.
The Taxi comes to a stop. The engine idles. The Cabbie looks in the mirror and sure enough, the Joe is watching him with a unrelenting gaze.
'That'll be fifty quid mate,' he says, just wanting him gone and out the taxi.
'Are you sure you want to stop here?'
'What?' The Cabbie hears his own heartbeat in his ears.
'Are you sure you want to stop here?'
'I- I don't know what you mean mate. You said you wanted to stop here.'
'Anywhere around here is fine,' the Joe says, and smiles. 'If your sure you want to stop here, we can. I can do that for you.'
Paddy Dobson
6th April 2022