The Impossible Quest Of Hailing A Taxi On Christmas Eve (Scrooge Retelling)

Stave Two

Outside in the street, it was getting darker and chillier. It was Christmas Eve, downtown Athens was decorated with lights and snowflakes, people were cheerful going up and down, carrying wrapped gifts and last-minute dinner shopping. It wasn't snowing, but it was chilly enough to see your breath and frost windows.

Scrooge rubbed his hands together, tightened his old and patched coat and got to the street corner. He took out his phone and used the Supertaxi app, to call up his usual ride home. It only showed one available driver, and Scrooge grunted. "A 4.6 star rating! Really, I should send them a firm email about their low hiring standards. The man might as well be a drunkard, for what I know!"

He tried again for a few minutes but then decided to hail the driver through the app. He stood and waited, sidestepping behind an advertisement sign to shield himself a bit from the cold wind. He glanced at his phone, which showed his route towards him. "Bah! He should have turned earlier. The man is keeping a client waiting in the cold! I'll have a firm talk with him when he gets there, just you wait."

He was beginning to shake. The taxi finally came, pulled aside and Scrooge walked to the door. Before he could get in, the cabbie locked the doors.

"What in God's name?" Scrooge bellowed and rapped the door handle.

The window rolled down slightly and the cabbie turned to him. "Sorry sir, we've had an unfortunate ride before. I had a switch in my account and it didn't show up for some reason. I can't give you a ride, you'll have to find someone else."

"That's insane! Open this door at once," Scrooge said and raised his chin.

"I'm sorry sir, it is within my rights to refuse an undesirable client. Merry Christmas," he said and started the car.

Scrooge lost his temper, tapping on the window and demanding the driver to stop. The taxi left, turning into Ermou, the busiest shopping road and leaving him in the cold. "Did you see that? The man just left me here," he told to a couple passing by, but they shrugged and moved on.

His nose was turning red from anger. He fished out his phone and tapped for another taxi. There were no cars available, the app said. Please try again in a few minutes, we are sorry for the inconvenience. "What a horrible service! I'll be sure to leave them a firm review, I tell you that," he muttered to himself. Scrooge didn't drive. He had a license, sure, but he preferred to be driven and over the years, his skill had vanished anyway along with his eyesight. It was cheaper nowadays to use a service like Supertaxi, to use the car only when you needed it, driver included. He had done the balance sheet of course, it was the cheapest choice. He had been using Supertaxi for years now, relying on them for his daily commute to and forth from work, but also on the rare times when he needed to visit someone, usually for work related issues, and occasionally when he treated himself with a proper meal at a restaurant. Nothing too fancy of course. He would have a steak on his birthday, and a proper wine to wash it down. Table for one.

And he liked the Supertaxi's service, there was no interaction involved. Sure, Greek cabbies were always talkative, but when they saw that you didn't want to strike up a conversation they shut their yap and drove along. No interaction was necessary, tap the app, hail the cab, get inside, drive you there, get off and go home. The destination was selected from the app, no need to explain the address every time. So efficient. And the payment was taken directly from his bank account, in a neat exportable spreadsheet that could be put into his expenses with ease.

No talking necessary. Scrooge loved it.

But now, he had to call up a phone, wait in line, talk to an operator, like Neanderthals. The horror. So he found Supertaxi's phone number and called them to complain. He was placed on hold, said to wait patiently by a recorded woman's voice and was soothed by some modern music he had never heard of before.