Yesterday I was heading late for V’s birthday at a Greek restaurant so I grabbed a cab. After discussing how to best get to the venue I asked the driver if he was a longtime taxi driver, because he knew the streets. There was a moment of silence and he looked at me intently, as if studying me. I initially interpreted the stare as an annoyance, so I added “if you want to tell me”.

“18 years” he responded dryly. “That’s been some time” I said “Do you like it?”. “Yes, much more than other things I’ve done, I’ve done a lot of things” he answered. I knew the other things would come later so I asked “what do you like most about driving a taxi?” and he said “conversing with the passengers” and I smiled because I would have guessed the opposite, I felt myself conducting an interrogation which felt unwelcome yet he was expressing the opposite.

The man was approaching 60, a nondescript slim gray man who had more in common with a librarian than a taxi driver. He spoke with a nasal voice, as if complaining about everything. He described what he liked about driving a cab (flexibility and constant novelty) and then said it didn’t require any special talent. Then he corrected himself: “Well, it does require to have a minimum of interpersonal skill, you can’t be a taxi driver if you’re very reactive and get angry at the passengers.

After this he let loose and re-enacted situations with passengers. They weren’t really upsetting situations, but the way he imitated the passengers and his own was over-the-top and hilarious. I wasn’t sure if he was getting too excited or angry, because he seemed to be too mild mannered to be a good actor, yet he screamed and repeated dialogues with autistic-like memory. He accused that short-fused taxi drivers would not be able to deal with idiot passengers like that, and that him, and only him, had the patience to deal with these people.

The entire ride was him doing impersonations and me cracking up in the backseat. When the ride ended he was very kind and I could tell he had a good time. I was perplexed at first, but then I understood: it was him who barely cleared the “interpersonal skils” bar, and that’s why he was so reticent to conversation. He’s an excitable and neurotic man who has to pretend to be cool at all times. A passenger just gave him an excuse to vent and be himself and boy did he take advantage of it.

It was an interesting ride.