Posted by Kyo on October 14, 2009 at 03:48:36:
http://taxidiary.blogspot.com/
Monday, October 12, 2009
May 12, 2009 Tuesday: Indecent proposal
Around midnight on Jalan Besar, I was flagged down by a young woman. She took the back seat and told me in Chinese to go to Hougang.
She was in her mid or late twenties, wearing a tight, light color, spaghetti string singlet and a pair of denim shorts that were so small they could pass for a pair of underwear. Although this was a pretty common outdoor getup among teenage ladies in Singapore, it was also a standard dress code for bar girls.
I knew because I had one time driven a KTV girl a round trip who was ordered by her boss to go home to change for something “appropriate”. She went in jeans and tank top and came back dressed in exactly the same way as this woman now sitting behind me.
Sure enough, the woman told me that she worked in a pub near where I picked her up. Today, she said, the business was very slow. The pub was almost empty for the whole evening. As she didn’t get any chance to sit with customers, she was asked to leave “early”.
I was not surprised. “What do you expect on a Tuesday night?” I said nonchalantly. “Worse still, Jalan Besar isn’t exactly a hotspot for night owls. Maybe you should switch to somewhere with a better location.”
She sighed but said nothing in return. I stole a glance at her in the mirror. She looked she had fallen into a sea of unhappy memories. I started to regret the tone I had just used.
After a few moments, she began to tell me that she came to Singapore a couple weeks ago from Fujian, China. She did not know anybody here except a few folks from her hometown. And she could not speak any English. She was able to find a job in this pub only because one of her hometown friends helped her. The job paid peanuts, relying mainly on the handout of the customers, and was very inconvenient to get to by public transport from her place, which she paid $300 a month for a bed in a room she shared with two other girls. She had no choice but to be stuck with both the working and living situations she was blessed with at the moment. She felt she wanted to tell me about it because I was “the first taxi driver from China” she had met, she said.
I knew too many stories like that. I knew how they came, how they got stuck, and how they were carried away by the murky undercurrent beneath the dazzling glory of this place. I heard them time and again so that I had grown immune to the tormenting feelings generated by them. “Yes, I know. I know.” I muttered to her as much as to myself.
As I stopped outside her residence, an old condo, the meter showed a fare of $12. She slowly opened her purse while asked me if I could give her some discount. “I didn’t get any tips today.” She said. “I come home empty-handed.”
I chewed on it for a moment and said, “Okay. $10 will do.”
She took out a $10 note from her bag and said, “This is all I have. I give you this I will go hungry tomorrow morning.”
“I don’t believe you.” I said. “It can’t be that bad.”
“You can see for yourself.” She opened her bag in front of my face and went through the stuff inside. There were keys, some makeup things, a small pack of tissue paper, a phone, and a wallet which contained nothing but some plastic cards. No money. She then patted her pockets, which were set so tightly on her hips that it was obvious there’s nothing in there.
She leaned forward and placed her elbows on the top of the front seats, and said in an undertone, “You are a nice man. I want to be a friend with you.”
I turned and gazed at her. She held my look with a slight smile. I looked away and said, “No matter what you say, you still have to pay for the fare.”
“I will be your girlfriend.” She said softly into my ear. “All you need to do is ju….”
“I am an old man and I don’t need a girlfriend.” I quickly cut her off.
“Wrong. Old men especially need girlfriends!” She said with laughter.
“No!” I turned to her again and said forcefully, “I said no! Okay? Just give me the money!”
“You don’t like me?” She was startled by my anger and hurriedly took out the $10 and handed it to me.
I took the money and gave her back a $5 and said, “This should be enough for your breakfast. Now go home.”
She accepted the money and gave me a long, steadfast look before she stepped out.
I felt I was carrying a terrible weight on my heart as I drove away.
….
Posted by Mingjie Cai at 9:47 PM