This wasn't going to be a story until he asked for one

I picked up two men in the Castro and took them to the Oakland Airport. They had been visiting a friend here in San Francisco and were going back to Dallas, TX. They asked me if I had ever been to Texas. I told them that I had been to Austin once and that I would love to visit Dallas and Houston. I told them that the reason I wanted to see more of Texas is to fight the stereotype and to form my own opinion. Then I paused and said

"You do know about the stereotype of Texas that exists here in California, right?"

"Stereotype? What? No..."

I couldn't believe that their friend hadn't told them. I told them that some of the words used to describe Texas are "hick", "cowboy", "conservative", "redneck", etc. Then I felt really bad for revealing these prejudices to their ignorant souls.

I don't remember how it came up but I also told them that I'm a writer. I told them that I write taxi stories.

Shortly before arriving at the Oakland Airport, one of the guys turned to the other and said

"I don't think she's going to write a story about us."

And that's when I knew that I was going to.