Writing Exercise 14: Finish the story
In his rearview mirror, the cab driver saw…
her explode out of a crowd, dark hair bouncing as she ran. She yanked the back car door open and jumped in, “Go!”.
Caught off guard his foot hit the gas and he pulled out onto the busy city street. There were a few angry honks as he turned down a side street, “What is going on?” He lifted his foot of the pedal and slowed down to a reasonable speed. The woman in the backseat had pulled out a slim black cell phone and was rapidly talking but gave him the courtesy of holding up a finger to indicate one minute.
The cabbie cruised the streets not at all certain if he was going the right way, if there was any such thing.
“I told you this wasn’t going to work, that they knew I was coming! Someone tipped them off and it’s your job to figure out who that was. So now I’m in a cab,” she turned to look out the back window, “no I’m not being followed. I want an extraction, pronto.” She was silent for a couple moments, presumably listening to the person on the other end. “I’m not going to stick around here! Are you crazy? Not only did they know I was coming, you can’t guarantee that they don’t know who I am!” She paused and listened some more, “fine.”
Flipping her phone closed she turned her attention on the cab driver. “It’s a long story, thank you for driving me around. You can let me out here.”
He obeyed and pulled to the curb, “Are you sure you’ll be ok here? I have an apartment complex you can stay at.” he wasn’t sure why he was offering it to her but there was a look of desperation in her eyes. He turned to really look at her while she made her decision. He decided she had a very peculiar heartshaped face and wideset almond eyes.
“Where are these apartments?” she said cautiously dropping her hand from the door handle. “I could really use some rest.” She stared him intensely in the eyes, trying to make a judgment on him. It was quite possible he was planted by whoever interrupted her stakeout.
“Just down the block and around the corner. I have a corner unit that opened up. There is a great Chinese carryout here,” he said pointing to a store just down the street. “We could pick something up and you can take it back to the apartment.”
Giving in she sighed, “that sounds good.”
