Taxitales

"Seafaring pays you $3000 a month," asked red-bearded Larry, manager of the day shift, "and you want to be a cab driver?" Larry looked intensely between my application form and me, as if suspecting I was from another world.
"I want to explore this experiment called civilization," I declared. "Besides, nobody's hiring in the shipping business." So I found myself behind the wheel of United Taxi 208 one warm September Friday evening, squeaking gently along curving Alameda Street toward Anaheim Street and the unknown.