Without naming names, I had to get out. The energy was weird, like having one foot in the grave. As soon as I walked in the door it was evident I could no longer stay there. I had just gotten off a plane a couple of hours earlier, and it was now past 3pm and I wasn't sure how to get myself out. I had at least 80kg of stuff - my belongings had mushroomed from 23kg almost a year ago to now two suitcases, an additional bag, a backpack, a laptop bag and a handbag. Where had it all come from?
I rang my friend and left a message - 'could I possibly stay at your house for the next few days?' I told myself to be patient and wait. But I couldn't, so I rang my friend's mother and left a message - 'I'm in a bit of strife, could you please call me back?' Next I was tempted to contact another friend, someone I hardly knew, but stopped myself.
Eventually my friend's mother called me back. I explained that I needed to move out as quickly as I could. She said that I could stay with her and that she would collect me if the car was free. I told her I would hire a car if I had to, but by this time it was after 5pm and hire car companies would be shut. She rang me back to say that her daughter had taken the car and suggested to get a mini cab. I assumed a mini cab was a rental vehicle and I was trying to explain that the shop is probably shut but she insisted they were open 24 hours. Our wires were a little crossed over the scratchy mobile line, but eventually I worked out that a mini cab was a taxi service but offered cheaper rates. I had learned something new. After I got off the phone from her, as I continued on my way to the supermarket, I saw a sign in the window:
Mini Cab
020 8942 4444
020 8942 3339
Just what I needed! I rang them and they told me it would cost £28 to get to Ealing. They could pick me up with 15 minutes notice. I raced back to the house and threw everything into my cases. I didn't care that none of it was in any order. I just had to be able to zip up the bags.
I called the mini cab and then went to tell my housemates I was leaving.
"I'll be leaving tonight - thank you for your hospitality - you've been most kind....a cab is on its way..."
The cab arrived and a young good-looking man in a long black overcoat stepped out of the car and came to help me put with my luggage. He didn't look like a taxi driver. He was fine-boned and slender with sensitive, dark eyes. He looked like a Persian prince and probably no more than 26 years old.
As he started driving, laughingly I told him I had escaped and how nice it was to be collected in an immaculate red VW estate. I asked him about the mini cab business and how it differed from a taxi service and did he like his job? "No," he said sheepishly. He told me that everytime he had to pick up a new customer he got anxious. Customers were often obnoxious, rude and racist. Some were even violent and one had kicked his side mirror so now it was broken and taped to the main body of the car. He said, if he has one nice customer, it makes his day.
He was from Qatar and had come to London with his father a few years ago. He had completed a Masters degree two years prior and had been driving mini cabs since because he couldn't find any other work. His brother was a solicitor. He too could find no work so they had bought an off-license together but discovered that its location was no good and the income barely covered the rent. His brother minded the shop and he drove his mini cab of a night because it was less stressful than driving during the day. He had brought his mother from Qatar to live with him only a couple of years before because his father had passed away. His father too had been a solicitor and had sent his two boys to London to be educated. Driving cabs was probably not what he had intended for his son.
He said if he cannot find work in London, he will go to Dubai. It was too hard to return to Qatar - there were too many memories of his father.
"I got married last year but I think it was a mistake."
"Why?" I asked.
"I spent all my money on my marriage!"
"But is she a nice girl?"
"Oh yes, she is out of this world!"
And the way he said it warmed my heart. He was so earnest with so much youthful positivity and optimism.
"Just don't have children right now" I told him half jokingly.
"My wife says the same, " he said with such disappointment, "but I really love them."
"You can have children later, you are still young! - when you've found a job - just not now - you don't need any more mouths to feed". He was living with his brother, his mother and his wife in the one house.
The conversation turned to GPSs. London Black Cab drivers are not supposed to use a GPS system but mini cab drivers can. He said one day he had picked up two ladies and the GPS had taken him through some woods where there was no one around and it was dark at night. He said he had never been there before and feared what might happen if the GPS broke down. His two passengers were scared and so was he but he reassured them that they were just fine because he had been through there before and it was no trouble at all, whilst all the while hoping that he could find himself quickly on familiar territory.
As we arrived at my friend's house, I told him he had made my day and what a pleasure it had been to meet him. He wished me all the best and informed me that I too had made his day.
What a difference from what I had escaped from.
