The Taxi Driver

Life was getting Sarah down. She just wanted to escape - to anywhere she could. But where? Then an idea came to her, so she reached for her phone.

‘Hi, it’s me,’ she said to her friend, Justine after Justine had answered her phone.

‘What’s up, Sarah? You don’t sound too happy?’

‘You wouldn’t be happy if you were me.’

‘Why, what has gone wrong?’

‘Just about everything. I've thrown Dean out. I'm beginning to regret it. I've looked everywhere but I can't find him.’

'He'll turn up at some stage. So try not to worry

‘Can I come on stay with you?’

‘Course you can. Come for the week. Dean may have turned up by the time you are ready to make your way from visiting me. Then the two of you can sort things out.’

That suited Sarah. Maybe that was what she need to do - get away for a few days, and where better than to the seaside. Perhaps the sea air would do her some good, plus she hadn’t seen Justine in a long time. They go way back as friends - to their days in primary school. But the first time they saw each other, they didn’t get on. The only thing that changed the matter, was one night when Justine was making her way home from school - some girls decided to have a go at her. Sarah soon sorted them out. And they had been friends ever since.

After showering and having her breakfast, Sarah got some together before phoning for a taxi to take her to the railway station to get the train to the North Wales coast. She loved Wales. She wished she lived there. She was even going to at one time, but meeting Dean had changed everything.

When the taxi arrived, she got inside, then the driver headed towards the station. But making their way, Sarah kept thinking about where she had seen the him before, but it just wasn’t coming to her.

Once at the station, she paid her taxi fare and made her way to catch her train. She was looking forward just to being free of things for a few days, Besides her problems with Dean, she was getting stressed with her job. She needed a break.

Sarah read a book for most of the journey, then an hour later, the train reached its destination. She couldn’t wait to get on the beach. All they had where she lived was a canal, mostly covered in rubbish. It had everything in it - old bikes, shopping trolleys and a lot of other undesirable junk, including plastic bottles. It didn’t seem fair to pollute it because people were too idle to dispose of their rubbish in the proper manner.

After getting off the train and having made her way out of the station, she saw Justine, waiting for her in her beat-up old car. With the money she was earning, surely she could have afforded to get something decent.

‘Hi, Sarah,’ Justine said after Sarah had got into her car.

‘Hi, it’s been a long time. I’ve missed you and going for long walks on the beach. Oh, Justine, do you mind if I ask you something?’

‘Yeah, of course, you can.'

‘Why are you still running around in this pile of junk?’

‘Get lost, it’s a good runner,’

‘It’d make better scrap,’ Sarah replied, which made the two girls laugh.

When they got to Justin’s, Alice unpacked her stuff and then went for a walk on the beach. It was a warm, still evening - ideal for a stroll along the sands. And as she kept walking, she was trying her best to remember who that taxi driver was, but it still wouldn’t come to her.

When she got back to Justine’s, Justine was lying on the sofa, watching TV

Alice went and sat down in the sea opposite, then after a while, she decided to go to bed. It had been a long day and she needed a rest.

The next morning, Sarah got out of bed and then drew back the curtains, and then it came to her - who the driver was.

When Alice got down the stairs, Justine said to her:

‘Fancy coming into town later?’

‘Yeah, I could do with some new clothes. We could go to Primark,’ Sarah replied while looking in her purse to make sure she hadn’t lost her credit card, which she had a regular habit of doing.

The two girls spent ages in town, just wandering from shop to shop, then ending up in Primark before heading to a café Justine knew, so they could go and get some lunch.

‘Are you just staying for the week?’ Justine asked allice as they were eating.

‘Well, that is what we agreed, wasn’t it?’

‘You can stay a bit longer if you want. To tell the truth, I could do with the company. It gets a bit lonely stuck out of the way in that place.’

‘Well, at least it is by the sea.’

‘You can be fed up with that after a while.'

That was one thing Alice wouldn’t get fed up with, living by the sea. She’d be walking on the sands most days, even if it rained.

Just before the end of the week, the two girls were in town again doing more shopping when Sarah spotted someone on the other side of the road.

‘Look over there?’ she said to Justine, tugging at her arm to get her attention.

‘What the hell is he doing here?’ But as soon as Justine had said it, he walked over to them.

‘Hi, Alice,’ he said to her, wondering how she was going to react to seeing him.

‘Well, fancy seeing you here,’ she replied in a calm manner.

‘You don’t seem too surprised to see me?’

‘Why should I? I had a sneaking feeling you'd turn up.'

Of course, she did and that is where she knew the taxi driver from. He was a friend of Dean’s. He must have told Dean that he had dropped her off at the station. She remembered telling the driver where she was heading once she was on the train.

She met the driver again, once she and Dean were back in their home town. He was driving the taxi that took them back to her house from the station!