Taxi!

Tonight, I was standing on the corner trying to hail a cab after I got off work just like I do every other night. I always walk the few blocks to Larimer to clear my head and shake off the day. Seven cabs just drove on past, one right after another. They were either in the wrong lane or going the wrong direction, or simply driving too fast to stop once they saw me. It was bitter cold, and the sky was hanging full of stars against a blackness that only comes in the dead of winter.

Across the street, parked in front of the Capital Grille restaurant, there was a beautiful, shiny, white, town car with a driver wearing a fedora. It was the kind of car that is for hire from a car service if you have cash or clout. The driver rolled down the window and gave me a smile. I smiled back and continued my search for a cab. Finally the driver yelled out to me, “Lady, do you need a ride?” I smiled and nodded my head yes. I asked him if he could leave his patron for a few minutes and what his fare was. He said, “On a night like tonight you’ll be trying to get a cab all night long, so get in.”

He was from Washington D.C. and recently moved to Denver to open his own car service company. He has a fleet of 30 cars ranging from Town Cars to Limos. He asked me where I was from. He said I didn’t look like a Denver girl and if he had to guess I was from the Big Apple. He said I had a certain style that you don’t see in Denver very often. I took that as a compliment. He said a big city girl in a small town needed a touch of the east coast now and then…He didn’t even charge me for the ride.

There are gentlemen in this city after all and the kindness of a stranger on a cold night can bring hope to a slightly cynical small town lady with a big city soul.

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