The Ride

After work, Matthew Silver waited outside in the parking lot for an Uber ride back to his house. Usually he drove his car home, but on this particular day the car was in the shop. The app said his ride would be there in only two minutes in a white Kia. The driver’s name was Joe.

Matthew had taken Ubers a few times before. Usually after a night at a party when he had been drinking. He didn’t mind them. The upside was he didn’t have to be the one driving in the horrible rush hour traffic through Los Angeles. He would be able to just sit back and relax and let someone else do the work. His Tesla could drive itself for the most part, but Matthew didn’t trust it. He had seen stories on the news of some of the cars doing unpredictable things that had led to some pretty horrific accidents.

Joe Wallace had been doing his Uber gig since four O’clock in the morning. He had spent most of the day driving people to and from the airport. For the most part his customers had been amicable, but there were a few exceptions. The longer he drove, the more his patience was wearing thin. And at this point, he had already been working for 13 hours in a row. He decided that after he picked up Matthew, he would call it a day and go home.

His wife called him while he was on the way to pick up his last customer of the day.

“Hello?”

“Joe…”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“There’s no easy way to say this…”

“Okay? What is it?”

“I just can’t do this anymore,” she sighed.

“Babe, can we please talk about this when I get home? I’m about to be picking up my last passenger for today, and then I’ll be home in like an hour.”

“I won’t be here when you get home.”

Joe followed the GPS directions. It led him into the lot of Neutron Movie Studios. He stopped at the gate to talk to the security guard. “Babe, I have to go. I’ll call you back.” He hung up the phone. He told the guard he was here to pick someone up for Uber.

The guard said, “You’re good, Mr. Silver already told me you were coming. Just go straight ahead.” The guard opened the gate for Joe to drive through. He saw Matthew standing on the sidewalk, waving at him.

Matthew got in the back seat. Joe drove back out to the road. They drove in silence for a long time. Joe’s thoughts wandered. Matthew didn’t mind. He had had people talking to him nonstop all day. He actually enjoyed the silence. The traffic was atrocious. It was going to be a long ride. Finally, Joe broke the silence. It was just out of habit. He had the same conversation fifty times a day. He said, “How’s your day going?”

Mathew replied, “Pretty good, just got done with work for the day, so that’s always nice.”

“Yeah, I hear that,” said Joe “I’m about to be done too after I drop you off. So what do you do at the movie studio?”

“I’m a producer,” replied Matthew. In reality he was the head of production for the entire studio, but he didn’t like introducing himself that way. Perhaps he was worried that it would sound a little too braggadocious if he described it that way.

“Oh that’s cool,” said Joe. “You know, when I’m not doing this I’m actually into writing movies. I wrote a screenplay that I think…”

Matthew’s phone rang. “Sorry, I gotta take this. Hey, honey. Yeah I’m on the way home now. Traffic’s pretty bad, I’ll probably be home in like 45 minutes. Work was good. Yes, lasagna sounds perfect. Did Matthew Jr. get his report card? That’s great! Well, a B’s not bad. Math was never my thing either. I’ll try to help him with his homework when I get home. Okay I love you too, honey. See you soon. Bye.”

After Matthew got off the phone, Joe said, “Oh so you’re a family man.”

Matthew replied, “Yep. Been married 15 years and we have two children.”

“Wow, that’s good for you, man.”

“How about you? You got any kids?” Matthew asked.

“Me? I have one baby and another one on the way.”

“Well, congratulations! That’s great.”

“Thanks,” said Joe. Then there was another long silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable for the passenger. Matthew just figured they were both tired after a long day, and they could both benefit from some peace and quiet before going home to their respective families.

Then after a while Joe said, “My wife’s leaving me. She’s taking the kids.”

Goddammit, man. Why did you have to ruin it?

That was the first thought that popped into Matthew’s mind when he heard the words. Then he felt guilty for thinking that way.

It was also a thought that came to Joe’s mind the second he heard the words come out of his mouth. He didn’t try to say them. They just came out on their own for some reason.

“That’s rough, man. I’m sorry to hear that,” said Matthew.

“Yeah,” said Joe, “She just says she can’t take it anymore. She says I can’t provide for my family. I work my ass off, man. This Uber driving shit just isn’t paying the bills. That’s why I’m always working on writing my screenplay I was telling you about. It’s always been my dream to write the next big Hollywood movie. She just doesn’t understand. She doesn’t believe in me. It’s bullshit, man! I know I have something with this. As soon as this script gets picked up by one of the big movie studios, all of our problems will be over.” Joe became more frantic with each sentence.

Matthew said, “Well I can’t make any promises, but why don’t you send in your script to my studio, and we’ll take a look at it. If it’s good and it’s something we can use, we’ll see where we want to go from there.” He didn’t typically like doing business this way with random people he encountered (too many crazy people out there) but he was hoping it would calm the guy down.

Joe was quiet again for a minute. Matthew thought the driver would at least say “thanks” or “okay, I’ll do that” but he said nothing. At least that was better than throwing a tantrum. Then Joe said, “I already sent the script to your studio. I sent it in six months ago.”

“Well, sometimes it takes them a long time to get to it. As you can imagine we get quite a bit of submissions. I’ll tell you what, Jack, why don’t you email it my personal email, and I will personally make sure it gets to the appropriate people?”

“My name is Joe.” He was starting to get hostile.

“Sorry Joe. Look, I’m just offering to help, man.”

“I don’t want you helping me out of pity. It’s a damn good script, and I’m sure you already read it.”

“I read a lot of scripts, Joe. It’s hard to remember them all. If you want to send it to me, I’ll read it again, if not that’s fine. Totally up to you.”

There was a long silence again. Then Joe said, “That dog’s not your mama, boy.”

“What?” said Matthew.

“You heard me.”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“That dog is not your mama, boy,” Joe repeated.

“Yeah, I don’t know…”

“It’s a line from the script!” Joe yelled.

“Okay, well I’m sorry, but I’ve never read your script, so I couldn’t possibly know that.”

“I know you read it. It’s a very memorable script. I know you read it, and I know you’re lying!”

“Wait…” said Matthew thoughtfully, “I think I might actually remember your script.”

Joe’s face lit up. He felt like maybe he was finally making some progress. Then Matthew said, “Is it the one with the crossbreeding?” “Yes!,” said Joe. “I knew you remembered it!”

Matthew did remember it, but he was beyond trying to help this lunatic. The way Joe had argued so aggressively with him had disgusted him. Matthew said to his Uber driver, “Oh yes, I remember your script. It was probably the worst script I have ever read in my entire life. I think my five-year-old retarded nephew could have written a better script. Maybe stick to driving for a living, because you will never be a writer. That script was absolute, unadulterated garbage. It was shit. It was worse than shit.”

There was silence again. Matthew realized he had probably gone too far, but he didn’t really care. The guy deserved it with the way he was acting. Then Joe took a right turn where Matthew usually keeps going straight. This made Matthew a little worried. “Hey, man, I don’t think this is the right way,” said Matthew.

“It’s just a short cut. There’s so much traffic on the 405 around this time. It’s quicker to take this way. Trust me.”

Matthew trusted that the driver probably did know a better route. After all, he spent most of his time driving around the city. But still the thought that he may be in danger began to creep into his mind. “Hey, man look, I’m sorry about what I said. Things got a little heated. I shouldn’t have reacted that way,” said Matthew. He partially meant the apology, but he was also just wanting to deescalate this conflict before it got out of hand.

“It’s all good,” said Joe. “I’m sorry I lost my temper. I just have a lot of shit going on at home.” “It’s okay, Joe, it happens,” said Matthew.

Matthew had no idea where they were, and it was starting to get dark. They were somewhere with lots of steep hills, and narrow winding roads. There was no traffic around. Matthew couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not. Then they were on a little dirt road that went into the woods. There were no streetlights. A skunk ran across the road, but Joe just ran it over and kept going like nothing happened. He didn't even seem phased by the putrid stench. It felt like he had hit a speed bump. At this point, Matthew was certain he was in real danger.

“Look man, just take me home. I promise you I’ll make your movie, and we’ll give you a hefty payday for the script.” Joe kept driving. “Don’t do anything stupid, John.”

“My name is Joe.”

“Right, Joe, shit. I’m sorry. Look, let’s not do anything we're gonna regret, right? Uber is tracking all of this. They know who you are, they know who I am, and they know exactly where we went. If you just take me home now, I don’t have to tell them anything. It’s all good. We’ll just act like nothing happened.”

“It’s too late,” said Joe. “Besides, I already know you’re going to report this the second I let you go. I’m not stupid.”

“Don’t be like this, Joe.”

“It’s a solid script. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re right. The script is good. I was just jealous because I could never come up with anything that good. Tell you what. If you bring me home now, I’ll start making your movie first thing in the morning.”

Joe said nothing. He stopped the car. The driver turned and looked at his passenger. This was the first time he really got to take a good look at him since the initial pickup. He cocked back and punched him as hard as he could right in the face. Knocked him out cold.

Matthew Silver woke up on the cold ground. He was covered in dirt. He looked up and saw a star. No, it was an airplane flying through the sky. He looked around. He was on the edge of a cliff. There was a long drop off the edge into the dark abyss below. Then he saw his Uber driver standing over him. Matthew found a large stone on the ground. He picked it up and hurled it, but the driver dodged it. Joe grabbed Matthew around his throat and strangled him. “I’ll make the movie! Please!” Matthew begged as he desperately looked into his driver’s eyes.

“Don’t look at me, faggot,” said Joe. Then he threw his passenger off the cliff and down into the depths below.

The End