Methadone runs

I was dispatched to the motel on Turk and Ellis. I didn't see anybody, so I went into the office. The guy behind the desk was on the phone.

"They're not answering."

"They're not?"

"Room 230, right?"

"Yes."

"She's going to knock on the door." He motioned at the cleaning lady.

The cleaning lady walked across the parking lot and up the stairs to the second floor. She stood in front of a door for about a minute. Then she turned around and made a motion with her hand.

"She's still in there," the reception desk guy, who was now standing next to me, said.

"Okay, I'll wait," I said.

The cleaning lady walked towards me across the parking lot.

"Coming," she said."

"Is it a woman?"

"No," she said.

"A man?"

"Yes."

After a couple of minutes, a door opened on the second floor. A blond woman dressed in black appeared. "I'm coming," she yelled. I assumed that she had just prostituted herself in that motel room. Her hair was messy, and she was wearing black fishnet stockings, an extremely short black skirt, black boots and a black bomber jacket. She looked about 29. She was very pretty if you looked past the scowl that was etched into her face.

"I'm going to the methadone clinic on Turk between Leavenworth and Hyde."

Four dollars later we arrived there, and she handed me a twenty.

"I'll be right back," she said.

"You want me to wait?" I wasn't too excited.

"Yeah, I'm going back to the hotel."

She was back a couple of minutes later, and I took her back to the motel.

A couple of hours later, I had just dropped somebody off at 1st and Folsom. I was driving on 1st towards Harrison when I saw a figure behind a tree who was sticking out her hand. I pulled over and saw a woman smiling with a lot of missing teeth. She had a cell phone pressed to her ear.

"Hi! Thank you so much for stopping."

"No problem."

"I'm going to Turk and Hyde and then, if you want, you can bring me back here. I'm getting my car fixed." I had picked her up in front of a gas and repair station.

"Are you going to the Methadone clinic?"

"Yeah."

"That's funny. I just took somebody there earlier today."

"Really? Wow."

She told me that several cabs had driven past her and not wanted to take her. She also told me that she had been talking to this guy in a Jaguar earlier. He was a retired school teacher. He was paying for the repairs on her car. She told me that she had started crying when he did that for her. She told me that she was very blessed.

She was inside the methadone clinic for a couple of minutes, and then I took her back to 1st and Harrison. She gave me a twenty and said to keep the change.

"God is watching over me today. He sent the generous guy earlier, and now he sent you," she said.

As she got out of the cab, she looked up at the sky and said "Thank you!"