Taxi Cab tales

Over the summer, some witch ran the drum circle out of the Ped Mall. Now every Football Saturday I laugh my ass off at her, trapped in her tower. I wonder if that’s not her giant alabaster face staring down on where the party throbs on like a forgotten Cold War beacon, and taxicabs, like […]

Taxi Driver Vic Pasternak is back with another episode of “Business as Usual,” a 12-part storytelling series. This edition is an excerpt from ‘All the Help You Need,’ coming soon from Slow Collision Press. Captain Jerry Nicodemus leans on the helm looking at the slow clock, and I hang around the taxi shack looking to […]

I’m stepped out taking a whiz at one of Coralville’s dozen gas stations. Next I make the rounds for water, fresh coffee, smokes. Four hours to go and then I’m out of town for six weeks, maybe longer. I’ve salted away my ducats and am taking my first vacation in years. The counter kid asks, […]

Paulie Floyd is fucking pissed. The phone rings and he snatches it up. “Good luck getting home,” he singsongs before slamming it on the cradle, shouting, “Cocksucker!” Our dispatcher hammers a fist on his desk when the phone rings anew. “God, fuck,” he curses and then answers, “Good luck getting home!” Again he slams the […]

When I get to the taxi shack, everybody’s freaking the fuck out. My dispatcher Paulie Floyd is in the parking yard smoking grass and has three cigarettes burning, two of them wedged in the downspout outside his office door. Our rookie, #12, also wears a long face like he’s going to bust out crying. “Fuck’s […]