Wednesday's Words on a Friday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write, a story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.
If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along and read it.

This month the words are supplied by Margaret Adamson and friends and can be found here.

This week's words are:

1. giraffe

2. puddle

3. thorny

4. evergreen

5. distant

6. tubular 

and/or:

1. torrent

2. cab

3. aspidistra

4. faucet

5. teddies

6. carbuncle

Here is my story:

"I'm Sam. Sam McKenna. I've been driving this cab for thirty years.

Boy, the things I've seen 'n heard. Lemme tell ya a few things. People don't notice cabbies much, as long as we're there to take 'em where they wanna go. 

The things they get up to, I could tell ya stories that would burn your ears off. Young kids on a hot date, gettin' carried away in the backseat, boy it got steamy in here that night.

And snooty people, you'd think butter wouldn't melt in their mouth, they get in and tell ya all high'n'mighty where they wanna go and could I please make it quick because they're running late, they shoulda been there already, and I just say yes ma'am, or yes sir and step on the gas a little and all the while I'm thinking  ya shoulda ordered a cab an hour earlier, but I don't say that out loud.

Then there's the ones who insist they have the right amount for the fare and turn out every pocket lookin' for that dollar they know they got somewhere.

And once there was a drunk fella, says he can't walk home, he's too drunk, so I drive him and it's just two blocks away, and he stumbles out right into a puddle and throws a fifty at me, prob'ly thinks it's a fiver, says keep the change buddy. Well, I kept it alright.

Lemme tell ya, I met my wife in this cab. Pretty young thing, had a box of teddies with her, so right away I ask is she goin' to a teddy bear picnic, she says no, her mum makes these for the Children's Hospital and she's just delivering them because her mum's got a sprained ankle. Well, right away I likes her, ya see, with a mum that kind-hearted a girl can't go wrong can she?  she just has to turn out nice.

Course I didn't think she'd feel the same, but next day, there she is, gettin' in my cab again, goin' to the museum and we gets to talkin' and one things leads to another and we got married about a year later. She died a few years back, my Janey did. Couldn't have any kids and it just about broke her heart. Anyway, life goes on doesn't it?

I had a snooty lookin' woman in here one day, giant boil on her neck, so I says that's a heck of a boil you've got there, and geez, the torrent of abuse that came out of her mouth! How dare I and so on, but the words she used, lemme tell ya, a sailor would blush, then when she gets out she says it isn't a boil, it's a carbuncle.

So when I get home that night I looks up carbuncle in the dictionary and just like I thought, it's a boil. Guess she just didn't wanna be common like the rest of us. Some people are just more thorny than a rose bush. Anyway, where ya goin' son? The Richmond Hotel? That's a really old part of town, not many people wanta go there, ya meetin' someone?

I had a fare from there once, tiny little old man, had a potted aspidistra nearly as big as he was. I says where ya takin' that thing? He says to the cemetery, it was mum's and we buried her yesterday and she loved this thing a lot more than I do so she can just have it with her forever now and good riddance too. I'm gonna plant it by her grave, he says. Good on ya I says. He gave me a good tip for that ride.

Another time, out at that old boarding school, used to be just past The Richmond Hotel, they was havin' a fancy dress party for some reason and I drove a bunch of kids all dressed up, one had a giraffe costume and couldn't fit in the cab, so he takes off the head an' neck part and holds it out the window that whole way, there was a lot of laughin' on that trip, lemme tell ya.

Hang on a minute mate, ya lookin' a bit green there, I'll just pull over for a minute, are ya okay?

I'll stop the clock, we'll get out and walk a bit under these trees, evergreens they are, green all year round and there's a bit of a fountain, well there used ta be, I see it's just a faucet now, lean down here and wet ya face a bit, cool off.

Get carsick do ya? Maybe shoulda taken a train, but they don't go near The Richmond anymore now that I think about it. Sit on this bench a bit, near this funny tubular thing they call a sculpture. Don't worry about that thunder, it's distant, ain't gonna rain for a while yet.

I remember when the fountain was here, long time ago, before I was married to my Janey, I used to meet a girl here, every Saturday night for a few months, then one day she just didn't come, I never saw  her again. Barbara her name was, Barbara Marlowe, that was her. Had real dark eyes, just like you do. Never knew what happened to her."

"She moved to Washington, to her aunt's house, her parents made her go because she got pregnant with me. My name is Sam Marlowe, she named me after you. You're my father."