Friday morning. I had booked a cab for 6:30am but it wasn’t there when I stepped out. I called the cab company. “He’s on his way,” said the lady at other end. The seconds ticked by. Finally, I saw an Orange Cab draw up. But when I walked towards it, the driver shook his head regretfully. “I have a passenger,” he said, indicating the woman in the passenger seat. She was looking straight ahead, with a this-is-SO-not-my-problem expression on her face. Apparently they had stopped in the parking lot of my building in order to get a coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts.

I needed to be at the Marriott Hotel at 6:55am in order to board the shuttle service to the airport in Providence. I had been invited to attend the annual South Asia Conference as a visiting playwright. It was now 6:40am, the airport was one hour away and check-in was at 9:30am. If I missed the shuttle, which was operated by the same company as the cabs, my only other option was a bus. It would get me to the airport just on time but only if there was no traffic along the way.

I went up to the Orange Cab driver. He and his passenger were sipping their coffee in a leisurely manner. I said, “Umm … any chance you could drop me off at the Marriott?” It was literally just down the road from where we were. The driver shook his head once more, though he did call up the cab company. According to the dispatcher, my driver had arrived on time but pushed off because he didn’t see me waiting in the driveway.

I stepped back, feeling defeated. My best option now would be to walk to the bus terminal because I had surely missed the shuttle. I had only a small backpack as luggage but it was drizzling slightly and I didn’t want to start the day on a downbeat. Just then, a voice spoke to me: the lady in the car parked next to the cab had leaned out of her window. “Aww, honey,” she said. “You want a ride to the Marriott? Hop in!” She had a few minutes to spare, she said, and it wasn’t very far out of her way. So I got in.

Thanks to this kind stranger, I arrived at the Marriott in time to board the shuttle. I was the only passenger and chatted with the friendly driver all the way to the airport, caught my flight and spent two wonderful days in Madison. I had some great conversations, attended a lively reading of my play Harvest and enjoyed my luxurious room at the Madison Concourse Hotel. On the return journey, I boarded the Orange shuttle once more from the airport. One of the other passengers was a silver-haired businesswoman with a laughing twinkle in her eyes. We soon began talking like long-lost friends and shared a cab when we got down from at the shuttle’s terminal stop. I got home feeling warm and happy, cherished by the Universe.

( Manjula Padmanabhan , author and artist, tells us tales of her parallel life in Elsewhere, US, in this fortnightly series )

>marginalien.blogspot.in

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW