So it happens, you are flagged down by a desperate woman who is late.
She was going to Leixlip from the city center and had to be there as her life depended on it.
She was from Quebec Canada a French speaker, but small talk was not on the menu.
At moments like this mistakes are made, with the panic I put Leixlip on the Google map app ot be sure.
This unsettled her more.
I went along Jameses St and tried to go down for Military Rd but the trams and lights were blocking us.
I just said "What happened that you overslept?"
"My cat was sick and he spewed up all over the sofa a couple of times, I was up all night cleaning"
I didn't ask her why she didn't put the pussy in the bathroom and close the dooor
Shit now we were now motoring past the Liffey Valley shopping center and I knew that there was a left coming up for Celbridge.
Fuck I took the slip road that brings you up to the Balllyowan Rd and I had to wait at the lights forever to get across the road to get going again.
So I floored it again and I was hitting the road in spots as we went past the Weston airdrome.
A few minutes later and we had arrived. She rounded up the fare by €2, still it was a great start to the day for me.
Taxi drivers make their fortune at other peoples misfortune.
Straight back in to Heusten station where I got a job to UCD Bellfield a huge university.
She worked with the poor and we had a really great talk about the corrupt lazy police.
Oh yes they are.
Our conversation gravitated to people trafficking and we both had battles with the police to get help for the victim.
But now people are waking up to the reality of what is happening.
She had come across a Romanian woman who had come to Ireland looking for her daughter, she had sent the girl over to Ireland to get better life and an education but the child vanished and while she was looking for her she got trafficked as well.
They are being helped now but the assistance is inadequate.
I didn't ask if it was prostitution or slave labor.
Twice I tried to help people and response was pathetic.
On the right hand side of my blog there is a link to stopthetraffik.org
Take a look, make a donation.
Once I was doing repairs in a house locally, I fitted locks etc. There was a young African girl there but she had little English, later on I met her bringing her cousins kids to or from school and she would say Hi.
Then one Sunday morning as I finished my night shift she was at the phone box outside my house with a suitcase and she was crying like a slapped child.
I brought her in.
Her English had improved and she told me that her aunt had brought her over on the promise of a better life. She would have free time and she would go to school every day.
The reality was a 7 day week from 7am to 10pn washing cooking cleaning and no school or time off.
She found where her passport was hidden and she found money. Now she needed to get to London where another cousin lived. I made tea and toast while I worked out something.
On the back of a till receipt was a special offer London for £25 I rang the number and they said that the bus was gone. But the boat had not gone, into the car, I gave her cash and paid for the ticket and she promised to ring me.
Five or six years passed and a banging on my front door woke me one Sunday morning.
Ohh My God John I am so happy to see you again.
It was he the little girl had grown up to be more beautiful than Niaomi Cambell
And my confused wife needed an explanation.
She was now a nurse in London and my God I was so happy that my £60 or so had worked for her.
Her aunt had died from alcohol and drugs.
A Mytaxi job in Ballymun brought me a tall Irish girl smiling going into town.
Sometimes the journey is silent and at other times the journey is shortened by great conversation.
Her parents were ill and she had put her life on hold to care for them, very stressful and it took its toll on her, in situations like this other people who should help as well step back and don't help.
Her hair had fallen out owing to the stress.
She wore a bandana.
She had hair at the back but her scalp was bare !
She was pretty around 25 years old.
Today she was getting a wig !
God bless you kid.
You have a heart of pure gold.
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