This happened a couple weeks ago.
In a rush to get home from work, and thinking the subway would take too long, I decided to splurge and take a cab. I found one without too much of a problem, but we quickly hit traffic cutting crosstown on Bleecker Street. Tapping my feet and biting my gums, I wondered if I had made the wrong decision and whether I shouldn't perhaps get out and take the subway after all. We were nearing 6th Avenue and the West 4th Street subway stop, in a cramped narrow section of Bleecker St, and I was about to ask the cab driver to let me out, when I heard a screeching noise, as the cab drove right up against the driver's side of a shiny black BMW in the right-hand lane.
Oh God, I thought. The driver is going to be angry no matter what, but the question is, will he be angry and also have a gun?
As soon as the light changed, the injured car pulled up violently in front of the cab, so as to prevent it from escaping. Both of the front doors opened and two young, less than clean-cut looking guys came out and surrounded the car, one on the driver's side and one on the paseenger's side.
The first thing I noticed when I saw them was they did not look like BMW types, which meant that this was probably a purchase that had been hard-earned (through legal or illegal means I can't say) and probably much cherished. Not good.
The drive of the BMW, a skinny guy with a shaven head and baggy pants, started cursing out the driver, "You bleepin bleep, what the bleep is bleeping wrong with you? etc etc."
Just as I'm wondering if this isn't the perfect time to jump ship, the BMW driver turned his head toward the backseat and said to me, "Get out of the car, sweetheart. This guy's gonna get you hurt."
Seeing me hesitate, he said, "Don't even pay him, just get out of the car, just get out of the car."
I felt bad for the cab driver, and even a little guilty for leaving him to be possibly beaten, plus I didn't like that this lowlife called me 'sweetheart' so I threw a five dollar bill at the driver -- approximately the amount of the fare -- as I hastened out of the cab and toward the subway. But as I was all but running away the cab driver called after me. I turned around and he was extending his arm out the driver's side window toward me, handing me my back my money. "I'm so sorry," he said. And I really did feel bad for him. Partly I think he was just scared of what those guys would do to him if he kept my money.
I took it back, and dashed into the subway.
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