A Thousand Hills

The Friends

The phone has been ringing non stop bringing me back from memory lane but Mr passed out in the back seat doesn't move
I'm a little worried, the pills are strong, normally I just take half a pill when I'm required to function while on my period but I let him take two
Oh Lord please don't let him be dead!We're almost at his destination in Brooklyn

"Mr Mashaba we're here" I say again for the 2nd time.
Crap! he's out cold so I shake his knee
Father god don't let this man be dead! I can already see the news headlines!

"Taxiezy driver kills passenger because she didn't feel like talking to him"

Oh my god!

Oh.. he's coming to

"oh sorry, I must have dosed off"

No shit!

"It's a card payment right" he asks

"yes it is''

"I'll be sure to tip, thank you" he goes on

"I'd appreciate that thanks"

I'm more relieved about him being alive than the actual tip.

" Fuck" he sighs just as he's about to open the car door and instead of stepping out, he closes the door and sinks deeper into the seat

Haibo and now?
He's on his phone before I can ask out loud

"Aya, I've left for the day, what did he say when he got in"

The other person on the line seems to be explaining too much because it's a while before he responds

"damnit, I even left the car so he'd assume I'm still in the building, why didn't he just call me directly"

I can only hear his side of the conversation. How frustrating

"Fine, I'll call him and if he comes around again, tell him you got ahold of me and I'm coming back from a lunch meeting. I'll be there in 30mins" he hangs up and stares at the roof

Okay, now what?

He asks if I could drive him back to Fourways, the trip is R350... so he's going to pay R700 just to sleep in my car while I drive him in circles

"okay, but you'll have to request again"

"Sure, do you have more water and nuts?"
I go to the boot to get the refreshments I keep stacked in the cooler bag, his stress sounds work related and I just drugged him.
There's no way his head is going to be working right for the next few hours, so I grab 2 red bulls and water. I'm out of peanuts so the biltong will have to do.

My phone pings indicating his request, and I notice he tipped me R150

what?! for a R350 ride!
Okay Mr Monied
Thanks to him, I'll make my R1000 target and get some groceries plus wine, to drink this day away

"still no music?'' I ask again approaching the N1

"as long as it's not loud club music, I'll listen to what you got" he says while typing on his laptop

I was listening to old J Cole on my way to the interview and I'm not sure if that qualifies as loud club music so I pick my afro pop playlist and Sjava's Linda chimes in softly.
He seems so focused on the laptop I doubt he even notices the music.

We drive in comfortable silence, with me no longer upset about the interview
Honestly I'm just happy I won't be going to jail for murder, other opportunities will come

I'm running away from a toxic work place, and with how this interview went, I probably dodged another toxic situation.
I'm strangely alright now, I still have a job, this taxiezy gig helps, black tax is under control and it's my final year at school so I have no reason to be stressing.
It's a good day to have a good day.
Sky is blue and I'm about to get drunk and play with myself after dropping off this man.