Oblivious

I ran and jumped into the nearest taxi, yelling at the driver to follow the blue Nissan Honda trying to pull into traffic taking my wife with it.

The man shakes his head, “Dude I am not doing that.”

I take the gun out of my holster and point it to his head, “We don’t have time for this follow that car.”

The driver lets out a shaky breath before locking his eyes on the blue Nissan and immediately follows it into traffic. 

Sighing, “Thank you.”

I lean back against the seat looking at the car in front of us. I try to dial my wife’s number again but no answer. 

I wish she would pay better attention to her damn surroundings and not just get into random cars that are in front of the house.

I click over to the Uber app and reread the message that the driver sent to me and my wife, “I am here but I had to park down the road. I am in a silver Toyota.”

“Fuck!”

The driver cleared his throat, “The car is turning down that road and since this car cut in front of me, I can’t follow them anymore.”

I snap my head in the direction he nodded to seeing them drive out of sight. 

I glare at the man through the rearview mirror, “Jump the curve and speed. I don’t care what you have to do but if that car disappears so does my wife.”

The driver’s eyes widen as he heard the safety be switched off. 

He nods his head and jumps the curve, trying to avoid the people on the sidewalk. A trashcan flies over the hood hitting the roof of the taxi. 

The tires screeched as the taxi is being pushed to the max and cleared everything that is in the way of it. 

It screeched again as we go back onto the road with about fifteen cars behind the Nissan. 

Looking at the rear-view mirror, the driver’s eyes light up with excitement as he dodges and weaves through the cars. 

The Nissan turns onto the highway, and the driver swerves onto the ramp to the highway he almost missed it and drives against the railing of the ramp causing a screeching sound and sparks to appear. The rail releases its grip on the car, and we shoot out on the highway running over traffic cones and almost T-bone a car before we were successfully merged into traffic. 

Nissan within our sights the driver smiles, “I haven’t had that much fun in years.”

Despite the situation, I found myself smiling with him. The adrenaline coursed through my body more than my current security job ever brought me. It reminds me of the life-or-death missions needed for the country to be safe. The thrill of trying to stay alive, trying to complete the mission at all costs. 

Heart racing, I place the gun back in the holster after watching him swerve cars and cut off an 18-wheeler. 

The Nissan is directly in front of us now, “What do you want me to do now?”

“For now, just follow them. I don’t want to hit them and then she gets hurt.”

He nods before trying to lock eyes with me in the rearview, “So how long have you been married?”

I keep the car in my view and tried to see her or at least her shadow. I need to know that she is okay, but I can humor the man that I took hostage and was able to drive like a race car driver. 

“Five years. Where you learn to drive like that?”

The driver shrugged, “Dad liked cars and so did I. Loved them so much that I would race them against anyone at any time anywhere. Could’ve been a NASCAR race but I turned it down and regret it ever since.”

I see a figure on the passenger side who looks to be in the backseat before the driver turns around and the figure gets pushed down to the floorboard.

I’m going to kill that bastard, but I got to get to them first.

I clench my fists setting them on the seat, “Shame you should try to go back after this.”

The driver laughs, “Yeah I just might.”

Silence took over as we both soon got lost in our thoughts. 

Why is she so damn trustful to everyone? 

Then again this is my fault as well. I should have never pursued her, knowing that I have a closet full of skeletons and those skeletons would love to either kill me or someone I love.

I should have left her alone and just loved her from afar but now she is in danger and could die. 

This is all my fault.

“Um heads up at the end of this tunnel we may lose sight of them over the bridge once we get to the other side.”

Jerking my head back to the window I can still see the car. “Why would we lose sight of them over the bridge?”

“There is a toll that we have to pay, and the toll person is slow if you don’t have cash or exact change. And with our luck, the draw bridge will go up and we’d have to wait for it to be lowered again.”

I get my wallet out, “How much is the toll?”

“$3.75”

I count out the money that I have and wind up with 3.50, “You got a quarter?”

“Yeah”

Pulling in behind the car I see the guy give a card to the worker and waited.

Giving up the money I see my wife’s shadow and feel just a tiny bit of relief. 

The woman gives the card back to the guy and lets them by before it’s our turn. 

I try to keep my eyes on the vehicle but like he said the car went out of sight around a bind. My driver gives her the money and it seems like forever as she counts the money out like a damn turtle. 

She finally waves us through, and the driver guns it to try to catch up only to see the bridge going up. 

“Damn I’m sorry mate.”

I shake my head, “Gun it, we going to jump it before it gets too high.”

He only hesitated for a few seconds before putting the pedal to the metal. Throwing me back into the seat and he lets out a scream as we go up into the air. 

The car starts to direct itself back to the ground and my screams join his. The front end of the car screeches against the road before the tires land on the road as well. 

The driver swerves, trying to get control of the taxi again. The taxi spins a few times before hitting a fire hydrate causing water to shoot in the air. 

Groaning I see the Nissan parked on the side of the road and my sweet wife out of the car. 

I jump out of the car leaving the driver’s groans and cusses and run to her. 

“Oh my god, Jay. Are you okay? Wait did you just jump a bridge?”

Ignore the question I make sure that she was okay before locking eyes with her, “Yes we jumped the bridge and I’m fine, are you?”

“What the hell is wrong with you? I got into the wrong Uber and didn’t realize that until we got here. Jesus Christ. Now we have to move again.”

I shake my head, “Why the hell didn’t you answer your phone? And I saw the guy push your head down under the window?”

She sighed, “My phone is dead, and no one pushed me down in the car. I dropped my paperwork for the presentation tomorrow.”

I nod about to let her off the hook when the most important question popped up, “Wait why did you need an Uber in the first place?”

“Oh, my lord Jay, you forgot to take lunch with you, so I made you and your coworker lunch and had to take an Uber to drop it off since the car is in the shop and there wasn’t a bus going in the direction, I needed it to. Now, what in the hell did you do?”

I gave her a sheepish smile as an ambulance was heard from a distance, “Some things, and we’re going to get you a car in the morning if I don’t get arrested.”