San Francisco, California.
April 1999.
On the top floor of a small, elevated parkade, three people stood surrounding a bright yellow 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible. A car cover, carelessly tossed aside, lay crumpled beside the vehicle. A conspicuous "Taxi" sign had been attached to the top of the car's windshield.
"Well, what you guys think?" said one of the three, his voice a deep baritone. The oldest of the group at forty-two, he was unshaven, had a receding hairline and a bit of a gut. However, that didn't stop him from rocking an open Hawaiian shirt.
"Looks nice, Gus. But I want a look under the hood. Let's see what makes this thing tick," said one of his companions, an attractive young redhead and the lone female of the group.
Gus reached over the door of the Cadillac and popped the hood. The redhead lifted it and let out a whistle.
"Quite an overhaul," she commented coolly, "not bad at all. I've just got one question..."
Gus' smile never wavered. "What's that Gena?"
Gena slammed the hood down and glared at him. "How much of OUR money did you spend on this damn thing?"
"Now wait a minute! This baby isn't costing us any money; it's going to be making us money. Crazy money!" Gus put his hands up in a mock show of defense and turned to the third member of the group. "Help me out here Joe."
B.D Joe slowly took off his shades and peered at the car from underneath his floral patterned hat. He was a smooth black man who oozed cool.
"It ain't gonna be makin' us any cake sitting in the garage, Gus," he said, "in case you forgot how to count, we've now got four cars and three drivers. This thing will just be taking up space."
"So we hire a new driver, what's the big deal?" Gus shrugged. "I found the two of you didn't I?"
Gena had already stormed away from the others and was heading over to her own car, a heavily souped 1965 Chevy Nova. She hopped over the driver's side door before turning to look at Gus one more time.
"You'd better find a damn good driver pretty damn soon. Look Gus, I know you like to gamble, but next time do it with your own money alright? The company can't afford to support your bad habit." With that, she turned the ignition and peeled out.
Gus turned to B.D Joe, who was putting his shades back on. "Good luck, man," was all he said before turning away.
"Axel!"
The shout roused a young man from his afternoon nap. He sat up and ran a hand through his bright green hair. "Yeah, what is it boss?"
"We've got a customer. Wants be picked up down at the beach. Get off your ass and get over there, now!"
"Alright, alright, I'm on it. I'm going." Axel got up off the decades old couch that made up one of the only pieces of furniture in the dingy office of the SF Rickshaw Company.
Stepping out into the California sunlight, he cracked his knuckles and walked over to the three wheeled bike cab the company used to transport their passengers. The cab was rusty and the passenger's seat was in rough shape. The run-down look of the thing was probably the main reason Axel rarely seemed to pick up a customer. He hopped on to the bike and started his journey down to the beach, weaving in and out of the backed up rush hour traffic with ease. His destination wasn't too far away from the office, and soon he had picked up speed as he traveled down the huge step-like hills alongside the city's cable cars. He reached the bottom of the hill and made a sharp turn, merging in with the traffic from Sail Street, then from Freshtree Street. He practically flew by the Seaside Market before finally coming to a stop on the beach, hunched over the handlebars panting as he waited for his passenger, a girl with a snorkel still on her face, to stroll across the sand towards the cab. Axel was in good shape, but riding around this city with all its traffic and hills was still an exhausting endeavor.
The girl finally reached the cab and jumped in the back.
"Where to?" Axel asked her.
"I need to get to the KFC," she answered. "I forgot I was meeting my friend there and I'm due in a few minutes. Do you think you could hurry?"
"Sure thing!" said Axel. He started pedalling, pulling back out onto the street. Traffic was still heavy, and he was doing his best to keep pace without crashing into any moving vehicles. The yacht harbour was coming up on his right. He followed the road as it turned left, then right, then left again. As he passed by the Pizza Hut, he noticed his passenger looking nervously at her wristwatch.
"Oh no, I'm really going to be late!" she cried. She looked up at Axel. "Look, I hate to ask this of you but...see I usually call up this other cab company. Apparently they all have a meeting to attend today and...oh, could you just cut through the park please!"
Up ahead was Square Park, a place that lived up to its name. On a map of the city, the park was a big square green space that suddenly appeared right in the middle of the road. The fastest way to get past the park legally would be to stay on the main street and ride all the way around the perimeter. The last thing Axel wanted was to have a cop catch him riding over someone's picnic basket. He was about to give the crazy girl behind him a less than polite refusal, but her next statement quickly changed his mind.
"Look, I'll give you an extra hundred dollar tip if you can do this for me!"
If there was one thing that truly spoke to Axel, it was cash. The prospect of a hundred extra bucks was one that he could not pass up. He had to pay rent and his usual wage wasn't enough to cover it. He could be risking his job, but if he pulled this off...
The park was made up of a few grassy knolls, separated from each other by 4 roads that cut through the square before meeting in a large roundabout at the center. Ignoring the intersection with the perimeter streets, Axel pedaled the bike with everything he had. He barely missed a hotdog cart as he rode up the first knoll. As he reached the apex of the small hill, he could even feel the wheels leaving the ground. The bike was going fast enough to get air! He touched down again, cutting straight across the curving street of the roundabout. At its center was another knoll, and again Axel's bike became airborne. The small hills of the park were acting as natural ramps! There was one more section of the park to cut through; Axel was going to pull this off after all! He grinned as he blasted his way over the final hills, and the ride became a lot smoother as the bike cut back onto the main road. Suddenly his grin faded and he hit the brakes hard. He'd driven his cab right up into the tail end of a traffic jam!
"Oh, damn it!" his passenger cried. "I'm never going to make it to KFC on time now!"
Axel could already feel the sweet, sweet C-note slipping out of his fingers. He glanced around himself, desperately trying to find some way to get through the clogged road.
Then he saw it. A conspicuous yellow convertible (a gorgeous 1963 Chevy Impala, to be precise), was making its way down the ramp from the old parkade. Axel turned around and looked his passenger in the eye.
"Look," he began slowly, "I've got an idea. It's insane, but-"
"Just do it!" she said. "If you can get me to the restaurant on time, it's another hundred bucks for you!"
Another hundred? Axel was convinced she was crazy now. Crazy, but hopefully loaded with cash. Quickly, the bike dashed out from behind the car in front of it and cut into the oncoming lane. Axel pedaled up the parkade ramp and turned right, speeding through the mass of parked cars. There was only one other person in the parkade currently, some old dude in a Hawaiian shirt standing beside an old Cadillac.
"Hey!" his passenger shouted, "there's Gus!"
"You know him?"" Axel asked.
"Yeah, he's a cabbie that works with the company I usually call up. The one I mentioned earlier."
"Hm," Axel grunted. He didn't have much time to think about some other cab company right now. "Hang on, lady. This is about to get rough!"
An interesting feature of this particular parkade was the concrete wheel stops at the end of each parking stall. They were somewhat oddly shaped, not so much wheel stops as small ramps. When parking, the occasional driver could feel the front of his car slope upward slightly if he went to far forward. It didn't pose much of a safety hazard, however, as a large concrete wall ran most of the way around the perimeter of the parkade. It would take a lot of speed for anything to clear that wall.
Axel's cab had a lot of speed.
The bike hit one of the wheel stops. Axel leaned back and pulled up on the handle bars, trying to give the cab as much leverage as he could. The bike got enough air; it cleared the retaining wall! For a moment the bike soared through the air. Quickly though, it began to plummet toward street level.
Gus stared at the spot where the bike had just been. "Well I'll be damned." He muttered to himself.
Axel grimaced and braced himself for a hard landing. He wasn't too worried about his passenger; with her padded seat she should be fine. The bike came down hard on the asphalt of the street, the impact nearly wrenching the handlebars from his grip. Just behind them, he could see the cause of the traffic jam he and his passenger had just avoided. A car pulling out of the Levi's store just across from the parkade had been struck by an oncoming truck. That crack-up had nearly cost Axel the biggest payday of his life, but quick thinking and a daredevil attitude had paid off. He was on the home stretch, just a few metres away from his customer's destination. Tower Records passed by on his left. Up ahead the road split in two, and right at the fork laid the KFC. Axel hardly slowed down as he flew into the parking lot. Just outside the glass doors of the entrance to the restaurant, he jammed on the handbrake of his cab, bringing it to a screeching halt. Behind him, his customer was ecstatic.
"Wow! What a ride! And I'm right on time!" she said with a huge smile. She climbed out of the rear of the cab and brought out her purse. "That was a great job! If my usual cab company is ever busy again, I know who I'll be calling!"
From her purse, she extracted eighty dollars and fifty-five cents, the total fare for the trip. To this, she added three one hundred dollar bills. "And there's the tip for your trouble," she said, her huge smile still on full display.
Axel stared at the cash as he took it into his hand.
"Oh wow! Uh, thank you," he said.
"No, thank you!" she replied cheerily.
It was only when Axel looked up to see her go into the restaurant that he noticed she was still wearing the snorkel.
"Are you kidding me or something? You really expect me to believe that crap!"
Axel's boss, a short fat man with graying hair, was red in the face with rage. Axel's story of how he had been tipped three hundred dollars had caused the boss to go slack jawed. A still lit cigar lay on the floor where it had fallen after dropping out of his open mouth. The cash was lying on the desk between them.
"It's the truth boss. You know what the fare is for a trip that distance. The three hundred is a tip! It's mine!"
"Bah! This-this..." the boss stuttered and struggled to find words. "This is embezzlement! You're stealing from my company!"
"What?!" Axel was outraged now. "Listen you old crank, that's a lie and you know it!"
"Oh, I'm a liar am I?" The boss was really pissed now. He looked like his cranium was about to explode. "I ought to fire you right now, you damn punk!"
Axel frowned. "You know what; I'll save you the trouble. I quit! I've had it with you and with this piece of crap company!"
"Fine! But don't think you're walking out of here with any of this!" The boss reached across the desk and scooped up all the cash.
Axel stormed out of the office and onto the sidewalk. He was too tired to keep fighting and just wanted to go home. As he began what was going to be a long walk, he heard a car horn beep just behind him. He turned his head and raised an eyebrow. Behind him, sitting in a custom 1949 Mercury taxi cab, was Gus, the guy his passenger had pointed out in the parkade.
Gus grinned. "Need a ride, kid?"
Axel turned around. "Thanks, but I don't really have the cash on me."
Gus just kept grinning and waved his hand nonchalantly. "This one's on the house. See, my company and I have a business proposition for you. Get in the car and we'll talk on the way."