25

Today I picked up three older people around Geary and 18th. They were two ladies and one man with a big push cart full of shopping bags, and they were all Russian. I was driving a van, and the man loaded the push cart into the back. The man and one of the ladies sat in the back and the other lady sat in the front next to me. The lady in the back said

“We are going to downtown-”

“Stonestown?”

“We are going to DOWNtown, Clementina between 5th and 4th.”

“Ah, okay.”

“You know where?”

“Yep. I know where that is.”

After a few minutes, the lady in the front turned to me and smiled with her big purple teeth and said

“You young woman--and cab driver!”

“Yes. I know, it's kind of rare. But I really like it.”

“Oh, you like?”

“Yes.”

Around Geary and Gough the lady in the back said

“You must take 5th Street and then make left on Clementina. After Ho-vard.”

“After Howard?”

“Yes. Before Folsom.”

“Thank you.”

After I had made a right on Hyde, a left on Mission, a right on 5th and a left on Clementina, the man told me to pull over by the gate. They all got out. From the sidewalk, the woman with the purple teeth smiled at me again and said

“How old you are?”

“30.”

Her eyes widened and she said

“I say 25. I say 25!”

“25? Thanks.”

“Yes. 25!”

I guess she thought I was 25.