The nephew

I picked up a guy at the airport. He appeared to be in his early 20's. He had a huge plastic case and a huge duffel bag with him. He wanted to go to 201 Mission.

"So what are you doing in San Francisco? You don't live here, right?" I asked.

"No, I'm from New York. My uncle lives here, I'll be doing some work here this week, and I'm doing a sailing competition this weekend."

I found out that the work he does is something non-profit that has to to do with transforming congress. I also found out that the big plastic case did not hold golf clubs, but a rudder and a pole for his sail boat.

"So where I'm taking you right now, is that where you work?"

"No, actually, that's a Bistro Burger."

He told me that his uncle was the founder of Bistro Burger. There were four or five of them in downtown San Francisco. He said he was meeting his uncle at one of them. I asked him if they had any vegetarian burgers. He said yes, there were several vegetarian burgers.

I said "I'm starving. If I find a parking spot, maybe I'll try out your uncle's burger place."

I did find a parking spot, less than a block away. I went into the Burger Bistro and ordered a BBQ Veggie Burger. Right around the time that my food was being delivered, my passenger and another man walked in. My passenger waved at me, and they both walked over to me.

"So you're the uncle?" I said to the older man.

"Yes, I'm the uncle. So you're the cab driver?"

"Yes, I'm the cab driver."

"Have a soda on the house, okay?"

"I will. Thank you."

They ended up sitting at a small table next to mine. Far enough away so that they could have their own uncle and nephew conversation, but close enough so that the uncle could turn to me and ask me how the food was.

When I was finished, I thanked the uncle for the drink. And to my passenger I said "Thank you for the tip. I always love it when a passenger tells me about a place I haven't been to before."

And the uncle said to me "Thank you for taking such good care of him."

I never found out either of their names, but that's okay.