Taxi
Jane stood on the sidewalk on a cold, chilly morning. She was cold and nervous. Cold because of the wind.
Nervous because she was finally meeting her mother.
Jane had grown up in an orphanage. That's why she didn't have a last name. She was just 'Jane.' In fact, she hadn't found her mother until last month two days before her 19th birthday. The hospital she was born at had informed her who her mother was. And she had sent private inspectors to find her.
And finally they had. Now today, she was off to Chez Maurice to find her.
She flagged a taxi and climbed into the passengar seat.
"Where to?" the driver asked.
"Chez Maurice, please," she said. She took out her mirror and started to put more powder on her nose.
The driver chuckled. "Off to some important meeting, eh?"
"Yeah," Jane said. She tucked her purse between her feet.
"Today's an important day for me, too," the driver said, chuckling more. "Today, it's officially my twentieth year of being a taxi driver."
Jane looked at him in surprise. He seemed to be only in this forties or fifties.
The driver continued. "Open the glove compartment."
Jane did just that...and a thick notebook fell out.
"Look inside," he instructed, smiling.
Jane flipped through and gasped. On each page was a written message and a signature.
"I ask all my customers to write in it," he explained. "It's a book full of memories."
"Cool," Jane said. "May I write in it?"
"Sure," the driver said. He looked at her for a split second. Jane saw his eyes. They were an unusal color of blue.
Jane took the pen that was attached to the notebook and started to write in it. Then Jane signed it.
"I remember the first customer who wrote in that book," the driver said. Jane looked at him with interest.
The driver continued, "I remember like it was yesterday..."
A young man in his mid-twenties was drying off his taxi. Today was his first day and he wanted it to be great.
He grinned as he climbed into the taxi. "Hope this is a lucky taxi." He laughed at himself then took out the notebook that he had bought earlier that day. He had tied a string around the spirals and had attached a pen to it. He took another piece of string and made into sort of like a handle. He hung it behind the passengar seat. On the cover it said: Book of Memories
"Wonder who will be the first to sign in it," he said to himself.
It hadn't been even two seconds after he had hung the book when a young woman climbed into his taxi.
"Albuqurque Hospital. Can you please step on it?" she asked urgently. "I have a really important patient waiting for me at the hospital."
He stepped on it, alright. In fact, he didn't even have a chance to mention the notebook. It completely flew out of his head.
As soon as she climbed out, he remembered the notebook. He sighed. "She was the first customer and I don't even know her name."
He took the notebook and absentmindedly flipped to the first page. He expected it to find it empty.
But instead:
Thank you! If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have gotten to the hospital at all. :) --Gabriella PS: I hope you don't mind I wrote in this. It looked a bit...empty.
He smiled to himself.
For the next few days, he had watched her from the distance. She would come out the hospital occassionally with a patient in a wheelchair. He loved to watch her. She seemed more and more beautiful everyday.
"And then one night, we finally met," the driver said.
Gabriella came out of the hospital, again with a patient in a wheelchair. She was talking to the patient and he was watching her.
Suddenly, a drunk man came out of nowhere and grabbed her.
"Ohmygod! Let go of me!" she shouted.
"You think of yourself as a doctor?" the man asked with a drunk smile. "Come on." He started to drag her.
"Let go of me!" she shouted again.
The man started to hit her, punch her, shout at her.
HE couldn't watch anymore. He got out of the taxi and ran toward him, shouting, "Hey! Hey!"
"It was quite a fight..."
He winced as Gabriella put a band-aid on a cut on his cheek.
"You didn't have to do that, you know," she said.
He grinned at her. "Yeah, well, bad people shouldn't just get away with things like that."
Gabriella smiled. "Yeah, there are bad people. But there's always someone watching out for me." She grinned at him. "Maybe...from a taxi."
He blushed. "So...you know."
"Thank you," she said.
"I knew I was in love from that moment. We were planning to get married. But her father didn't like me..."
"You're telling me that he's nothing but a measlyy taxi driver?" Gabriella's father asked angrily. "No! I won't allow this marriage!"
"Dad, what does it matter?" Gabriella asked. "He's charming and sweet and kind..."
"He basically has no life!" her father shouted. "No! I won't allow it!"
"I was there the whole time," the driver said. "I was so ashamed of what I was..."
"I don't care!" Gabriella shouted. "I don't care what you say! I'm gonna marry him and you can't stop me!"
She grabbed his arm and dragged him outside of the house.
"Let's elope," she suggested. "Let's get married and have a family. I'll give up everything if I have to."
He smiled at her. Couldn't believe that she would do all that for him.
"I love you, Brie," he whispered.
Gabriella smiled at him. "I love you, too...Troy."
"We were planning to get married, have a family...but her father didn't give us the chance..."
Troy stood in the middle of the park while Gabriella's father glared at him.
"You are not worthy of my daughter," he said. "And it's your fault she's giving up being a doctor to marry you! You see what you've done! You've ruined her life! Are you happy now?"
The young driver said, "I love her with all my heart, sir. Please understand that."
"If you love her so much...then stay away from her! Or I'll make sure you do!" the angry old man left, leaving Troy with tears.
He knew he had to do it. To prove that he loved her, he couldn't marry her. He had sent her a letter of apology and that was that.
He went back to watching her from the distance, but this time he had tears in his eyes everytime he did. She would always come out of the hospital, crying. He wanted to go to her to comfort her. Hug her. Kiss her. But he knew he couldn't. He loved her too much.
After a few weeks, she stopped coming out of the hospital. So he gave up watching...
"Wow, that's harsh," Jane said. "You must miss her a lot."
Troy nodded. "I think about her everyday. Oh...here we are."
They stopped in front of Chez Maurice. Jane stepped out. "Thanks. Bye."
Troy smiled and drove away while Jane headed in to meet her mother...
Troy drove and drove. He started to think about Gabriella. He missed her, all right. He looked at the passenger seat where she used to sit. Then something caught his eyes.
It was a purse.
"Oh, the young lady must have left it," Troy said. He flipped through the notebook and saw her message. It was signed by 'Jane.'
He turned around and headed back to Chez Maurice.
Meanwhile Jane was sitting with a woman in her early forties.
"It's good to meet you...Mom," Jane said.
The woman started to cry. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't keep you."
"It's okay," Jane said, taking hold of her hand. "What happened?"
The woman started to tell her the story:
She sat in bed with a smile. She had just gotten the news from a doctor at the hospital.
She was pregnant. She was planning to tell Troy...but then she got the letter.
Her baby was born and she named it Jane. She had Troy's nose and Troy's hair color. Even his smile.
Gabriella was hoping Jane would lighten up her father's heart.
But it didn't happen.
Instead, he took the baby to the orphanage.
"No, Dad!" Gabriella shouted. "Please! I'll take care of her!"
Her father ignored her pleas and protests and took the baby away from Gabriella. She collasped on the hospital floor while her father left with her daughter, its cries fading away...
"I wanted to keep you so badly," she said, crying. "But I couldn't. I just couldn't." She pasued. "You look so much like your father."
Jane was about to comfort her when suddenly a waitress walked up to her.
"Excuse me, but is your name Jane?" the waitress asked.
Jane nodded.
"This man was looking for you," the waitress said, gesturing toward the man behind her.
Jane recognized the taxi driver. "Hi."
"You left this in the taxi," he said, handing her the purse.
"Thank you," Jane said, smiling.
He was about to leave when he saw the woman sitting across from Jane. His mouth fell open and his eyes became wide.
She had aged. Her long black hair had a few gray strands. But there was no way he could mistake her.
"Gabriella?" he gasped. "Gabriella Montez?"
The woman looked up. She gasped and stood up.
"Troy Bolton?" she asked. "Is it really you?"
They stared at each other before they finally hugged tightly. Twenty years...so long...
Jane looked at her mother than at the taxi driver...er...Troy.
"Wait, so I've been riding alongside my dad the whole time?" she asked.
Troy looked at Jane and then at Gabriella. "What's going on?"
"Jane, this is Troy...your father," Gabriella said. "Troy, Jane is...yours. She's your daughter."
Troy and Jane looked at each other. Jane smiled. Then Troy smiled.
She has my smile, Troy thought.
I'm his daughter, Jane said to herself.
They stepped outside of the restuarant.
"Been twenty years, Brie," Troy said to Gabriella, who was crying again. He turned to Jane. "So you're my daughter. How old are you?"
"Nineteen years old," Jane told him.
Troy looked at his taxi.
"I guess one things for sure," he said.
"What's that?" Jane asked.
"It really is a lucky taxi," he said.
They all laughed, glad to be reunited.
okay, does it seem corny or whatever. I saw it on this TV show and I was like, "OMG! That's such a perfect oneshot!"