March 27, 2009 – A Gentleman’s Agreement

            A few days ago I found myself having to race back into Cortez after dropping off my last fare.  Drivers are giving calls in the order that they dropped off their passenger and returned to Cortez.  Upon arrival back into town you are put back into the call rotation.

            In this case, another driver and myself had dropped off a large group of passengers downtown.  I arrived first and dropped my passengers off.  The other driver, Andrzej, had dropped off his passengers a few minutes later.  As I am approaching Cortez in anticipation of letting the dispatcher know that I will again be available for calls I see Andrzej suddenly dart past me on the freeway.  As drivers, we have an informal agreement, a gentleman’s agreement if you will, that we will respect each other’s position in traffic when returning from a call.  Normally I just let it slide but this time I sped up and passed him.  As I looked at my speedometer I noticed that I was going 85mph.  I said the hell with it and let him pass.  If he wants it that bad, so be it.

            Well, today Catherine called me in her normal passive aggressive manner to ask me about the incident.  It turns out that a fellow motorist had called in to complain.  I denied if of course.  It’s really odd how Catherine’s mind works. 

            Whatever it is, if it can’t be unequivocally proven she feels that she has to give you (in the case that you are being accused) the benefit of the doubt.  Conversely, if you can’t prove without a doubt that her mechanic is stealing gas out of your taxi for example - she will side with him.  Even if your taxi goes in with a full tank and comes out with a third of a tank and Stanley (the mechanic) is the only one who had driven it.  I don’t see how that might happen while getting the brake pads replaced.  This has led to a bit of frustration for Catherine as well.  Many of the drivers have neglected bringing the cars to shop for break service because they are tired of having their gas stolen.  One night I looked at my brakes and they were glowing red.  They still had a few rides in them.

            Also, I heard an odd piece of wisdom out of Kirk, or Sling Blade as we call him.

"Kirk"

            Marty: What are you doing Kirk?

            Kirk: We can do it, Catherine says so.

            Marty: We’re all waiting outside the hotel for calls Kirk.  We have a gentleman’s agreement.

            Kirk: There’s no gentlemen in the cab racket.

            For once, he may be right with this one.