Last Ride

Welcome aboard… Guess you are my last fare for the night. We have about thirty to forty-five minutes before we get to the terminus and usually no one ever takes this last ride. Take a seat. There are about thirty for you.

Right at the front… Yeah, I’m a little bored, too. Working nights has made me think that I must have something wrong with me. Better to be up and doing this type of work when the sun is coming around and you can feel the rest of you waking up. Only doing this…for my own reasons.

Night shift for you, too? Great, then you understand what I’m saying. Have to talk to someone who understands what the hell you are talking about. Something about the night keeps us going. What are you…?

An investor? In this city? Well, good luck with that… That is a tough one, and you guys are not that popular right now. Must be doing all that work overseas so the time difference doesn’t… Anyway, you got a tough job. All those numbers and making sure it gets balanced. Something I did…

Okay, okay… Why not? Can talk about it at least once in my life…? I was a financial advisor before the glamour of this job. Had a really good set up with a company that…well, if you ever picked up a financial paper, you might have heard about it (about a decade ago?). You know about that? Great…

Long light, this one…

You didn’t invest in anything too sketchy in the last five years, did you? I hope not, yeah… You’d have told me if you had. Everyone else did and I had to keep a low profile for a while. Wife and kids were long gone, but the company kept standing up and getting sued by all of the people who thought that they would get rich without lifting a finger. A lot of rich kids and their idiot friends (now those were the ones I felt bad about; they were really screwed over); some retirees (poor fools); and then the general investor who did not do their due diligence (always hated that term; really hated hearing it in depositions, court rooms, and seeing it in the papers and on web sites).

You gotta take a seat now. Have to take the incline and it… Well, you should know. You live here all your life?

Me, too. Actually, a bit out of town because of my dad. My father was a factory worker who never had more than the price of a beer in his pocket if he even made it home on payday. My mother was the one who took care of things at home. A damn good businesswoman who taught me everything I needed to know from behind the counter of a hair salon. She was wise enough to have her own business, money, and ideas about what she wanted for her favourite son. I always wondered why she married my dad. Even bigger questions about my…

Sorry, construction… We got a detour.

Yeah, yeah…family is nothing anyone would pick. My sister made her choices because she was not happy with ours. Haven’t spoken to her in about ten years, but I know all about her. Not the only one who made it into the papers. 27 and she got so reckless… Anyway, that was what made me forget all about her. And my mom…?

She taught me everything. How to manage and invest; how to do a deal for your benefit (always giving them what they think they want). Probably why I hated school… Waste of time…

Damn long route. Wish the light was better here.

And another light…

So, that was my family. Still love her. I took over for things before we had to bury my drunk of a father and it was just the three of us (soon to be two). Just a hair salon for some; just a perfect front for others.

Back to it…

You would be very surprised at how many businesses in this town are hanging by the cheapest thread. A lot of people with a lot of hands in a lot of pockets. Wouldn’t work if people did not try to help each other out. There are still the kitties used to pass the money around and some are now using check-cashing stops and…

Sorry, I’m old. A kitty is what we called the money we put together. You shared it out at the end of the month so everyone got a taste. Another reason why I was so good with numbers.

No, I saw some things I shouldn’t have seen. My mom did not lie to me, but she never went out of the way to tell her youngest son all of the truth. I learned by watching, listening and just thinking for myself. You cannot let a twelve-year-old run around doing errands and “special deliveries” – her term for it – and not figure things out.

Got the highway now…

Yeah, yeah… It is such a cliché. Kid goes to school and learns nothing; kid drops out of school and makes a fortune. Well, not a fortune. Not really much, but it got the wrong attention.

Mom? She passed before all the heat went down. I was always in the papers and I did not want her to see it, so I gave it all up. Gave up some big names, too.

Commercial Road is coming up.

Come on. I don’t blame that for her death. She knew what I was up to, but she could not really point a finger at me and say, “I’m so ashamed.” How could she? She taught me. The others out there, well, they weren’t so sympathetic.

And that is why you’re here…

Just sit back. I knew. I knew from the moment you stepped on board. No one working in an office handling things up would be without a bag or suitcase or something to carry their things in. And your dress sense were a real clue (shoes were a real giveaway). Like I said, I had to learn things very quickly. You know, everyone has a tell – a giveaway – the way they act and speak…

The questions they ask.

No one is going to be around this stop for a couple of hours. And that bulge in your coat is obviously a revolver you want to take out and use right now. Would be the perfect place to use it. But that would be stupid.

Why’d you think I became a driver? Why’d you think I moved to this town, got a new name and decided to take these night shifts? Perfect set up for me.

Yeah, it’s loaded. Yell if you want (no difference to me). This isn’t even on my regular route and you have not even taken yours out yet. Should have done the deed when I had both hands on the wheel and had just pulled in. So stupid. Just glad that I had someone to talk to before I took you out. They’ll probably find you in few days. That undeveloped land has a lot of raw space the city never touched (always good to know where literal bodies can be and are buried).

Stop it. It has to be this way. You put this on me. I will have so much to explain when they see that the cameras were off. Not my first mistake on the job.

But it has been an interesting ride…