Dorsai - Taxi

Suddenly suspicious, she asked "Why?"

Doing my best to stay patient with her, I answered "Relax – I'm not after any of it. I just want to know if you can afford a room someplace reasonable tonight, and maybe something to eat. You're too young for the Women's shelter, or any other place that does charity work. They wouldn't believe you're old enough any more than I did."

Relaxing slightly, she hesitantly told me "I've still got almost ten dollars. There was a few folks that owed me money for babysitting and such, but I didn't want to stay long enough to collect – not after Daddy hit me. I've been buying little bits of stuff in grocery stores, and eating it before it spoils, so as to save money. It cost more than I expected to get here, too. That's why when… Charley?… said he could help, I was willing to go with him. I had no idea he wasn't really tryin' to help me. Where I come from, folks usually try to do right by each other, even in the towns."

The money she had wouldn't even get her a room for an hour in the worst flea-infested dump in town. And now that there wasn't any air circulating in my cab, I could tell that it had been a little too long since the last time she'd cleaned up. Her clothes weren't too dirty, but I suspected that what was in her bag was a lot worse.

I told her "Okay, what I'm going to do first is take you back to my place" – and seeing the expression on her face, I quickly added "Before I go back to work. You can fix yourself something to eat, and take a nap; you look pretty tired. I've got a small washer and dryer combo you can use to wash your clothes, and if you want to, you can take a bath or shower. I've still got to work for another few hours, so you'll be there by yourself – I'm going to trust you not to make a big mess or steal all my stuff while I try to figure out what to do about you. When I finish work and get home, we can talk some more and see if maybe we can't get all this crap straightened out."

I saw a glimmer of fire in her eyes when she told me "I told you: I ain't goin' back there! Not after Daddy hit me, and my folks talked to me like they did!"

I waved my hands at her and said "Okay, fine, you aren't going back there. But while you're getting yourself together at my place, you might want to think a little about what you left behind" before turning around and getting my hack started again.

Once I had us rolling again, she asked "What do you mean, think about what I left behind?"

"I mean just what I said. You told me that you and Todd were boyfriend and girlfriend for as long as you can remember, and that you were friends that told each other pretty much everything. Hell, he's even the one you were with when your mother found you. Isn't he somebody that you want to keep in your life?"

Looking at her in the mirror, I could see the wistful look on her face as she answered "Yeah, he is. Doesn't seem to be a day go by that I don't spend half of it thinking about him."

"Before your mother found you and Todd together, didn't you figure her and your dad loved you?"

"'Course I did. But not now. Not after what they said and done."

"Maybe you need to think on that, too, then. If they didn't love you, do you think they would have given a happy damn about what you did, or with who? Think about the other girls you know; I'd bet one of them thatdoes have a reputation with the boys, and that it's pretty obvious her folks don't care what she does."

She started to get thoughtful on that, but I had a few more things to say to her, starting with "And maybe you need to think a little bit about just what the hell you're going to DO from now on. I don't figure you've even graduated high school; how the hell are you going to make a living? Sure, you might get a job doing hair or nails or something in a salon – but do you really think those folks are getting rich doing that kind of work? Or even happy doing it? And what do you figure to do about your friends you left behind, and all your family? Just going to drop them like a hot rock, and never see or talk to any of them again? Wherever you land at, you're going to be pretty lonely at first, with no real friends or family around you. Even if you find a place you want to settle down, how do you figure to get started? You've got to have money to do damn near anything: get a place to live, feed yourself, or even get a job so that you have money. I don't doubt that you're honest and responsible and all that, and that you do good work at the stuff you know; but what do you know how to do well enough that you can get a paying job at it?"

I could see her watching me in the mirror and said "I'll bet that while you were on the way here, you tried to get some money by going into places to see if there was anything you could do for them."

I could see on her face that I was right, and continued "And I'll bet that every last one of them turned you down, didn't they?"

Her expression was answer enough, and I told her "Know why? A couple of reasons: first, you're obviously too damn young to be looking for regular, full-time work. That tells folks that you're out on your own, and that makes them wonder why, which is a big enough worry for them to turn you down. Second, you even look like you're on the move: it's obvious that everything you own is in that bag. People with jobs aren't going to want to give one to somebody they're afraid is maybe going to skip on them. Anybody that did have some kind of little chore that they could pay you for is going to be afraid of doing anything to help you because of your age – which makes two strikes against you the minute you show up. And even if someone did give you some kind of work like that, you'd run the risk of them not paying you when it was done, anyway; I mean, what would you do? Call the cops on them? Not likely!"

"No", I told her, "you need to stop and really think about what you're doing, and why, just like you did when I told you about Charley. Except the questions aren't as obvious, and the answers aren't in the back of the book. You can do that for a little while at my place, while you're getting yourself cleaned up and fed, and I'm out here."

The rest of the ride to my place was quiet, what with both of us trying to get things worked out in our minds.

As we pulled up in front of my apartment, I told Jill "I hope you don't mind cats. I've got one named Demosthenes, and he likes everybody. If you rub his ears, you'll have a friend for life."

That made her smile before she told me "I had a cat at home. Her name was Princess Pretty Paws, and she always slept on my bed with me."

"Well, if you'll let him, Demosthenes will probably keep you company if you decide to take a nap. Grab your stuff, and come on."

She hesitantly followed me into my apartment, and after I'd shown her where the bathroom, kitchen, and washer/dryer were, I could see that she was surprised at how neat I kept the place. I somehow had the idea that her dad was The Man Of The House, her mother played the role of cook and maid, and Jill didn't have a lot of reason to think a guy could or would deal with his own household needs.

As expected, Demosthenes made an appearance and made his new best friend welcome by stropping her ankles until she picked him up and started rubbing his ears. The resulting purr could be heard across the room.

By the time she was ready to put him back down, she had visibly relaxed and I told her "Okay, I'm heading back to work. You know where everything is, so go ahead and fix yourself something to eat, if you like. There're cold drinks in the fridge, along with a few beers. I'd rather you didn't drink any of them, but I'm not going to fuss at you if you do." I had a look at my watch before adding "I should be back in, oh, three hours, three and a half, tops. I usually don't eat until I've had a chance to relax a little and catch my breath; you're welcome to join me or not – I'm fine with either. Okay?"