Chapter 3

We head towards the west side. It isn't the greatest of neighborhoods, the kind you don't want to be in at night. I wonder what we are doing here?

Whatever it is I'm going to follow Gary. I gotta know what he's doing.

"Pull up to the curb, please." Gary says.

Gary hops out of the cab and walks up to a homeless guy pushing a shopping cart and hand him the box of burgers. The guy nods and says thanks, then Gary got back into the cab.

"That's it?" I ask.

"Yup."

"O-kay..."

"Can you take me to Navy Pier?"

"Uh sure..."

I pull off into the street and head towards the highway.

Well that was very anti climatic. I was hoping for something interesting. All I get is him handing a box of burgers to a homeless guy. What's that? I mean the first stop we made he is covered in mud and feathers. That would have probably been a sight to see him fall into mud or wrestle with the ducks or whatever they were. The second stop had a beautiful woman thanking him in her bathrobe. I mean, almost naked! Bathrobe. Pool net. Puppy. Naked!

We drove across town to hand a guy a box a of burgers.

"So... How much do I owe you?" Gary speaks up after we arrive at the pier.

"Are you sure you're done?"

"Yeah." Gary looks at me puzzled.

I shrug and hand Gary back his wallet. He didn't even count the money in the wallet to see if it was all there. Pulling out several crisp new bills from his wallet and hands them to me. I count them quickly and realize he gave me way too much. I hand him the extra bills and his change, but he refuses to take them.

"You sure?" I ask him. He nods. All I could say is, "Thank you... You enjoy the rest of your day."

"Your welcome... And you enjoy yours." Gary got out, and disappears in the crowd.

Humph. Five bills. That's more than what I made in the last two days and it's not even 9:00 am. Maybe I'll call it a day, and get some tickets for tonight's Bull's game. My kid would like that.

Glancing up I noticed that Gary left his fire extinguisher. I try to find him in the crowd, but have no success. Hope it wasn't that important to him.

I head back to the garage. I need to get my cab cleaned up.

"Damn Ray. What happen?"

"You wouldn't believe the morning I've had. The first fare I picked up got yanked out of my cab by some guy."

"That must have started some sort of fight. Was it a good fight? Was there an ass whooping?"

"It turns out they were good friends..."

"Well, was there an ass whopping? Are these feather?" Kenny holds up a handful for me. "What someone had a chicken back here?"

"It was a duck. I think. It wasn't in the cab. I think he got attacked by some ducks..."

"And mud. I wouldn't have let him in my cab like that."

"Well..."

BOOM

Holy crap! What was that. Me and Kenny duck down. We cautiously look up, and see that J.J.'s dispatch equipment is on fire. That isn't very good, especially since we are in a garage full of combustibles. J.J. runs towards the wall and grabs the fire extinguisher thats hanging there. He yanks out the pin and presses the lever, nothing happens. I watch as J.J. shakes the extinguisher in an attempt to get it to work. He glances down at the guage and frowns. It's on red.

"It isn't charged!! Someone give me another fire extinguisher!"

Most of the people in the garage have fled for their safety. I hope someone had enough sense to call the fire department.

Kenny grabs the fire extinguisher from the back seat and rushes in to help. This one is full and it quickly douses the fire.

"Good thing you had that in your backseat, huh..." Kenny says slightly out of breath. He motioned towards the stickers on the extinguisher. "And it was the right kind we needed. ABC..."

"Yeah."

Good thing Gary forgot it.

I never saw Gary again, but I know he's out there, helping people. I've realized that much from my morning with him, but I never figure out how he knew.

It bothered me for days how he knew. Did he even know? Was it all coincidental?

I even tried to visit him at the Blackstone, but I was told he moved out a couple days ago. Something about his room catching on fire. That made me feel guilty. I did have his fire extinguisher. The clerk said he was fine, the room had a little damaged to it. I even tried to bribe the clerk into telling me where he went, but he didn't know. I couldn't remember his last name when I looked at his license.

Maybe he's psychic. That would explain a lot. Or Maybe he's like that leaper guy with an Al and Ziggy feeding him info.

Maybe he's an alien sent to help and study human behavior and help us along the way. Or maybe he gets tomorrow's newspaper. Naw, that's a bit too far-fetched.

It doesn't matter, now. Just know he's out there make feel better, that some how the city's just a bit safer.

The End.