The Troublesome Passengers

There were others however,

One night, stuck in traffic facing north and surrounded by other empty cabs, a well dressed man walking in the opposite direction hailed me. I was immediately overcome with an intense dread from the deepest core of my gut. My heart raced, clammy palms and the hair on the back of my neck rose up. My forearms tingled. I gestured to him that I was not for hire and switched off my light.
He never attempted to hail any other cabs as he continued his walk in the opposite direction.
I had to park up for a short break to settle myself. Every other fare I had picked up that evening had been fine, according to my gut. There was nothing visibly different about this man.

On a mid week summer's day a guy stepped out from the front garden of a house and hailed me. My gut didn’t respond in a negative way, so even though he was dressed in stereotypical troublemaker clothes I pulled in to pick him up. He sat in the front with me and although he appeared rough, I got an okay feeling from him. He asked me to wait for a moment as his two friends would be coming out to join us.
Immediately I became a little concerned by this unknown. And out they came, one drunk and the other high on MDMA.
My mind began to race. These three were rough. I’d hoped it would be a short trip but no, it would be forty minutes to their shady neighbourhood.
While the guy who was high began to strip off his clothes the drunk became aggressive with his two friends. The front passenger managed to settle him a little and I topped it off by letting him light up a cigarette. Although challenging, the journey ended peacefully.
Interesting that it had been my mind that was racing and panicked throughout the trip, while my gut had been quiet all along.

Late one Saturday night I got caught in traffic on the main pub and club thoroughfare.
There were empty cabs all around me. In fact, every car was an empty cab.
People were piling out onto the street after closing time.

My front passenger door suddenly opened. Time began to change, everything was happening in slow motion. He put his leg in the footwell and before his backside rested on the seat I was overcome with dread from my gut. I hadn’t even seen his face at this point.

I felt sick to my stomach.

He closed the door and turned to me. He looked and seemed respectable and okay to my eye but my gut was screaming in terror. There was nothing I could do at this point, he was in the car and legally I had no right to eject him.

He was very drunk and slurring his words. I was worried. He managed to state his destination and typically, it would be a long journey of an hour.
After a few attempts to engage with him I gave up, he was incoherent.

Having had a few minutes to compose my mind and with my gut still churning I was better able to interpret what my gut was implying. Trouble was up ahead but I would be physically safe. To my logical mind it made no sense but I trusted my gut.

Within a few minutes he fell asleep. I was relieved. He couldn't cause too much trouble if he’s asleep I thought, though I suspected it would be a challenge trying to waken him from his drunken stupor.

When we arrived to his destination, the center of a satellite town, it took a while to waken him. He started cursing and was immediately angry. He aggressively searched his pockets and I could sense from him that he might not be looking for money.
With one hand searching his pockets he turned to me, put his pointed finger up to my face and said ‘You, you f**ker’ and with that he pulled a knife from his coat.
I froze.

He then opened his door, got out and stumbled up the road.

Overcome by fright, shock, fear, relief and grateful to be safe, I needed a moment to compose myself. I followed him in the cab and rang the police.
He entered an apartment complex and was gone.

Needless to say, I was shaken by the experience but felt the best thing to do was to get back on the road and pick up the next fare as soon as possible.

I continued to drive a cab for another year until my circumstances changed and I was able to move on to another career.