Source: Pixabay.com
Terrible days don't come knocking. No, that will give one enough preparation time to avert it. Instead, one just wakes up with the hope of having the best day yet, only to have that hope squashed under the intruding foot of a terrible day. For Terry, today was one of those days. He had woken up late for work again. In a hasty attempt to make up for lost time while gobbling a breakfast of scrambled eggs, he accidentally spilled the hot coffee on himself. He exclaimed a cuss word, realising that his shirt was badly stained. He tried not to think about the time and care he put into ironing the shirt the previous night before going to bed after an extremely tiring day. That would depress him the more. Dang! It was too late.
After another five minutes of changing into a new shirt, he was out on the street, trying to wave down a taxi. Two minutes passed, and then a taxi stopped for him.
"Main Street," he informed the taxi driver as soon as he jumped into the backseat. "Drive fast, please. I'm late."
The driver nodded as he hit the gas. Settled down, Terry brought out his phone to check his messages on WhatsApp. There were several of them from different senders. From two of his colleagues at work, from Jim, his good friend whom he had spent the weekend helping out. One particularly caught his attention. U'RE THE WORST, it read, punctuated with an angry face emoji. The sender was his younger sister. He knew why she was mad at him. He was supposed to help her with a research for a school assignment she was working on. But he had completely forgotten. The weekend had been an exhausting one for him. He had spent it assisting Jim to paint, and put his new apartment in order in preparation for his new family. Jim was settling down as a married man. The apartment he had been staying in wasn't ideal to bring a new wife into.
"Man Utd was a let-down yesterday, don't you agree?"
It was the taxi driver bringing up a discussion on the football matches played over the weekend. Terry always wondered why most people think every young adult was interested in football, and also cut out for a discussion at anytime. Well, he wasn't.
"You'd not believe it. I lost a hundred bucks on that game," the driver continued.
"Oops, tough luck, eh," he responded, absentmindedly. He was focused on his phone trying to send a text of apology to Claire, his sister, while also trying to come up with a good excuse for his superior at work.
"So, tell me mate, which of the teams do you support?"
This taxi driver wouldn't let him be now, would he?
"Actually not a big fan of football," he said, getting back to texting.
"Oh, really? Must be a boring life for you, mate," the driver said.
"Mhm."
"What then do you do with your life, anything fun?"
Okay! That was it. Apparently, the driver was doing a poor job at minding his own business.
"C'mon, mate, could you just focus on driving?" Terry asked the talkative driver, almost yelling.
That annoyed the driver deeply. He pulled over at side of the road, turning back to face his discourteous passenger, "You know what, since you think you can come into my taxi and insult me, get out of my car!"
"Hey, man. Sorry about that, I really don't know why I said that."
But Terry's plea was a loud sounding nothing in the ears of the insulted taxi driver.
"Get the fuck out!" he yelled.
As Terry stepped out of the taxi, he knew it was impossible to find another taxi at that spot. He was going to be very late, and there was nothing he could do about it. His superior, Mr Proctor, would definitely serve him another query. The third in that month, and it meant a deduction in his salary. He squirmed in regret. If only he had been a little nicer.
This is inspired by one of the previous prompt, Main Street.
Thanks for reading.
Hehehehehe!!!! One of those days where things just go from bad to worse in a cascading order!!! This somehow feels like the everyday life of Lagos residents!! His frustrations got the better of him and the taxi driver just wouldn't shut his mouth and mind his business... Hehehehe Diceyyyyyyy!
Lovely prompt bro!!!
I was brought to your Hive post through @dreemport"
Hehehe. Thanks, man.
By the way, I didn't know you were on Hive, too. I'll give you a follow!
he is one of the Dreem Teem :)
Hahaha! Terry will most certainly get a third query! I couldn't help laughing when the taxi driver sent him out of the car.
But really, is it a must to get into conversation with a passenger? Some taxi drivers are relentless. Still, Terry should have been tactful about the conversation and drag it till he got to Main street.
What a captivating, and entertaining story. Nicely written. 🙂 @dreemport
Hehehe. Sometimes, I make an outburst like Terry when I'm stuck with a driver like that. But yeah, he could have been more tactful about it.
Thanks for stopping by, Kemmy!
Won't Terry pay for his fare? What then is the business of the Taxi driver? Someone said he isn't interested in football, shey na by force? 😅😅
I just feel People should always mind their business.
If you don't mind, I found your post Interesting 😉😉
@Dreemport
Hehehe. Pay for what? The driver didn't hold up to his own part of the bargain na.
Hello @hillarypowers,
I can't resist making a comment that may annoy you. This bad day didn't happen to Terry. He made it happen. The events that befell him weren't just bad luck; they were luck he brought upon himself.
He overslept. He overslept. He had to rush because he didn't get up on time. Because he rushed, he spilled coffee on his nicely ironed shirt. Then he had really good luck: he caught a cab in two minutes. (I have never waited only two minutes for a cab). But, not satisfied to enjoy his good luck, he insults the taxi driver. Of course the driver was annoying. But really, not that bad. So Terry is ejected from the car.
Another query. The third in a month. One has to wonder why Terry already has two queries.
I did warn you this would annoy you :))
The story was extremely well constructed and believable. Great scene descriptions and good character development. Good job!
Hehe.. The irony here is that I'm not annoyed at all. Instead, I'm excited to see my own story from an entirely different perspective.
Indeed, what we call a bad day, most times, might just be a blowback of our bad choices.
Thank you, @agmoore
Thank you for posting this entertaining story in the Ink Well community, @hillarypowers. The only good thing about a bad day is, there almost always is tomorrow.
Thank you for engaging with authors in the community
This is true. The possibility of a better day is the consolation one gets on a bad day!
Yay! 🤗
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Fantastic story, @hillarypowers. Terry evidently has several lessons to learn about life and treatment of others. But wow, those talkative drivers &mdash sometimes you just need to take care of life and business during a taxi ride. I could see myself saying something like that and making a driver mad!
Good job with the scene setting, conflict and character development!
Haha. Of course, some drivers are just that way. But yes, Terry could have been a more subtle about getting the driver to stop talking.
Thank you, @jayna!
Great writing and poor Terry couldn’t catch a break even got an annoying and Sensitve taxi driver
It just wasn't his day. Thanks for reading, sir!
👍🙂👍
It pays to be kinder right? LOL but the cab driver is supposed to mind his business. People take cabs so they can get on with their work, he overstepped his boundaries and was discourteous too .
@dreemsteem
That's another perspective, and it's true.
Thanks for reading
A sad story... What just happened to Terry is just as they say "it's not his lucky day".
A pity. Honestly, some days are like that, you would just wonder what you did to anger the powers that be. It can be very frustrating.
This is a work of fiction, but it has a ring of realism to it which makes it all the more interesting to me.
Thank you for sharing. You did a great job👍
You're right. Days like that do come by..
Thank you for your kind words
Your story grips us from start to finish, @hillarypowers .
Many times, wanting to move forward in time, we enter into very distressing processes that make us go in circles, like your protagonist who seems to have a day that has to start again with every action.
Indeed, there are days like this, and when they come, there's only little we can do about it.
Thank you for the compliment!
You had me with
Had to find out how bad a day the poor man could have and by the end of the story, I could tell it was only just beginning.
By the way, I am not a big talker in cabs too. So I could totally relate to that.
Enjoyed the read :D
I'm not a big talker myself. Hehe.
Thanks for your comment!
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Really what an annoying cab driver, sometimes people don't know how to measure themselves, but for me the cab driver was to blame for being nosy. The young man was just busy.
Hehehe. You're not wrong. The driver was actually bugging the young man who was doing his best to put his busy life in order. Let's just say the universe just wasn't on Terry's side on that day 😂
Yes, we really should watch the manner by which we talk to people most times.
Thank you, dear friend.