She got out of the car, and you won’t believe what happened next!
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Somebody mentioned that it was “just like me” to post clickbait so I just had to use that title lol.
So, as promised, I have a story from last night’s driving that is a doosey. I picked up this lady today from out in the 68th and Division area. I was already a bit nervous about the pickup because I drove about 15 minutes from across town and it seems many times when I do those pickups where I drive 15-20 minutes to pick somebody up it’s always a very short drop off. So I pull up in front of her house and wait about 4 minutes and she finally saunters out. Immediately the red flags start going off because she comes out side and sits down in her lawn chair and starts having a cigarette. She then after she smokes for 2-3 minutes she finally starts stumbling towards the Jeep. At this point i’m not really sure if she’s drunk or it’s because she’s an older woman, although I’m definitely leaning towards her being drunk because of how long she’s been taking. So she climbs in which ends up being a several minute process in of itself because she can’t get her little chihuahua to jump up into the Jeep. She gets in and almost immediately things start going downhill.
It starts out with my usual pleasantries, asking how are you, how was your day, etc etc. She pretty much ignores what I’m saying and tells me I need to do a U Turn in the driveway across the street. I inform her that I usually go around the block because the lights on my Jeep are pretty bright and I don’t like pulling into driveways at night because I don’t want to wake anybody up. She then informs me that I need to do a U Turn in the driveway again, so I do and we start our journey towards the motel. Now, because I get into the rest of the story I need to establish one thing. She’s going on a 16 minute drive. 8 minutes there, 8 minutes back. Probably way less because this is at like midnight or so, and the roads are empty. So I pull on to Division towards 44th Street and “Rita” as I will call her decides to tell me what’s going on. She’s picking up her grand kids from her daughter in law and her son because there’s some sort of family drama doing on (again). She’s telling me about how terrible her son is and she’s sick and tired of always being the one to have to take care of her grand kids. Now up until this point, she’s been fairly calm. She’s very clearly inebriated, because she’s slurring her words, talking in broken sentences. She apologizes and tells me that she’s drunk because she wasn’t expecting to get the phone call about the kids so she was at home relaxing. At this point I’m pretty much hook line and sinker feeling terrible for this lady’s situation. Boy was I in for a surprise.
At this point she starts like freaking out. Like yelling and cursing. She’s basically repeating the same information over and over except she’s yelling it and mixed in with expletives. Currently I’m giving her a pass because I understand what she’s going through being upset about her grand kids. I can understand the frustration. She barks some more orders about putting some music on. I turn on some beach boys as requested because there just happens to be a dedicated Beach Boys station currently on my SiriusXM radio. It’s a slower song so she’s not happy about it and asks me to put some 70’s music on. And by asks, I do of course, mean she yells as me and orders me. At this point we’re about 7 minutes into our ride and I’m starting to get a bit annoyed, but I keep telling myself that she’s in a bad spot and she can’t help it. We pull in to the “Motel”. I use the quotation marks because the sign says Motel, but it’s even worse than the stigma that would normally be perceived when you think of a Motel vs a Hotel. This place is the kind of spot where it’s several different buildings. Each little bungalo type building appears to have 4 rooms in it. Which is remarkable because each little building is so small it appears to be the size of maybe my living room and the next room put together. VERY small.
I pull in and she informs me that she’s not sure what room they’re actually in. But she thinks it’s room 108. So I start driving around this place and all I’m seeing is up to 40. Nothing higher. She orders me to drive around more. I do, and we circle around the place several more times. and I come to the same conclusion. So I drive back up to the front and she starts calling her son and and screaming at the voice mail. I’m going to shorten down this middle part because this whole process was just repeated over and for the next 50 minutes or so. Screaming, cursing, her getting out and walking around with her dog, getting back in, slamming my door over and over and over and over. Finally, she decides that she’s had enough and we start heading back to her house. We get about 6 minutes out of 8 into our trip back to her house and she gets a phone call back from her kids. They start yelling at each other on the phone and the lady tells me to turn back around and meet them in the McDonalds parking lot right next door. At this point I’m furious because I’ve spend a sneeze away from an hour for this one ride, and while I feel for what this lady is going through, I’ve got bills to pay, and I can’t do that spending an hour for one ride I’m not getting paid for. So I pull into the McDonalds where the lady assures me her grand kids are there and waiting for us, and low and behold they’re not there. She calls them again and then she asks me to wait a few more minutes. At this point I’ve had enough.
I politely inform her that I’m going to need her to call another Lyft because I’ve spent an hour already driving around and not getting paid. Surprisingly enough, she apologizes and tells me she understands. She of course took about 5 minutes to get out and by this time her grand daughter has walked up to the Jeep. She introduces me and then finally gets out of the Jeep. Her grand daughter asks her what’s going on and “Rita” tells her that she’s been kicked out. At this point the grand daughter starts screaming at me and tries to kick my Jeep. So I politely peel away and listening to her grand daughter scream obscenities at me over a situation she literally has no idea about.
I had to go pull into a gas station and sit for about 15 minutes to calm down after the whole ordeal. I felt bad because I know she was in a bad situation, and the kids as well. But I have a strong suspicion that the night would not have ended any time soon if I continued to “drive” “Rita” around.
Anyways, there’s my story.
