Excerpt
EARLY SHOPPING
…was that the cigarette smoke overpowered any other bodily foul smell
expected in such cases. They arrived in front of the store they were
headed to at eight forty-five, so they had an hour and a quarter to wait
outside until the famous store opened its doors. The driver calculated
quickly that this meant about twenty-some dollars of waiting time;
however, he turned the engine off and stretched his legs in front of his
seat, trying not to pay attention to the click of the taxi meter, which
clicked ten cents every few seconds, a sound so loud you’d think the
whole neighbourhood could hear it.
Right at that time, the driver counted it as about seven in the
evening in his homeland. He wondered what his parents could be
doing at this time while he waited outside the government-run Liquor
Store, where his customers wanted to buy something. Perhaps his
parents were having their supper at this time, or they had gone to a
local taverna to have their meal along with friends. His eyes fell on the
customers in the back seat who were almost asleep in their drunken
stupor, and he lowered the window of his door a little to let some fresh
air come into the space and freshen it up.
Without any unforeseen things, the doors of the Government-
run Liquor Store opened at exactly ten o’clock when he woke
up his customers, who helped each other get out of the car and staggered
into the store. Minutes later, they got out, joyous and smiling
like kids who got a good mark for their schoolwork, each holding a
Mickey of whisky. They got into the taxi again, and the driver started
taking them back to their place, which they reached in fifteen minutes.
The fare was eighteen dollars and some cents. The white guy
took out a twenty-dollar bill and handed it to the driver. The customer
didn’t ask for his change. The driver didn’t rush to hand it over
to him. The thing was, they went and bought two Mickeys, which
cost them around four dollars each, while they paid twenty bucks to
the taxi driver.
Yes, as strange as it might sound, the earth kept on going around
its axis with no thought about the two drunk customers who had collected
the Government cheque a couple of days ago…
