Sheila entered the taxi and instructed "Follow that car!". The middle aged driver looked in the direction of her extended finger. Confused, he looked back at her and traced an axis with his eyes from where she sat, rummaging her square dark green purse, to where she had pointed. They were in a very quiet residential neighbourhood where he had just dropped off a client. Any car he could see was parked. Motionless.
Noticing the lack of movement, Sheila looked up from her purse. "What are you doing?" her eyebrows frowning.
"Well, miss... Which car excatly do you want me to follow?" he gestured to the inanimate cars on either side of the street.
"Uff!" Sheila gestured hopelessly and rolled her eyes. "We're gonna lose them!" She opened the back door on her side and got out, leaving her thick soft jacket and her purse on the back seat. She opened the driver's door. "Move over!" The driver gasped. He opened his mouth to argue, but she cut through. "I'm not leaving you here, I'm not stealing your car. We need to move. Quickly." She gestured for him to move to the passenger seat. "And you can leave it running. I will pay you."
The driver quickly weighted his options.
He moved to the passenger seat.
Sheila got onto the driver seat and adjusted it to her height. She was a big woman and needed to push the seat back to fit her legs. As soon as she was done, she pressed the gas pedal down the street. She took a right turn. "Ah!" She shighed. They hadn't lost it.
At the end of the street she could make the distant outline of a pink car. Curved, rounded like a muffin. The taxi driver looked at her, puzzled, as she smiled relieved. He looked back at the road in front of them. Empty.
Sheila didn't mind.
She knew not everyone saw what she saw. She had learned some things, like the big spiders crawling all over the taxi got her nowehere. And that sweet things like the pink car, took her where her soul was.
carolina caetano, feb 2023
If you'd like to be notified about new stories on the blog, upcoming events and book releases, you can subsribe to the (few times a year) newsletter below:
