Max's Cab

By Vicky Neal

A trio of short stories revolving around Max, a big city taxi driver, and his more interesting cab fares:

Mid-Life Affair - A middle-aged man gets in the cab with his mistress. Once Max drops her off at her apartment, he is instructed to drive to an office building, where the wife joins her husband. Tension fogs the air, tension filled with anger and hurt from both parties. Hating to see a marriage of so many years go down the drain, Max helps to talk them through their crisis and remember why they fell in love in the first place.

Stick `em Up - A man down on his luck gets into Max's cab. When he attempts to rob the driver, Max retains his cool and digs deep to find out why the man is destitute, finding that it all started with the loss of his job. Now he is unable to take care of his family. Feeling for the young man, Max talks him through his problems and makes a pledge to help him better his life.

The Model Passenger - A beautiful model has Max pick her up after a photo shoot. Only caring about her looks, she gives the appearance of someone very shallow. Still, Max sees potential within her. Through his wise words, he helps the model understand that being a snob doesn't make one a good person, and that changing her insight will bring her the happiness she desperately seeks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vicky Neal
• Release date: Aug 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370769384

Vicky Neal

Vicky L. Neal is a produced screenwriter with feature and short films. She has more than 70 feature screenplays she is in the process of translating into book form to be published. While working on those, she has begun the endeavor of writing numerous short books in order to publish herself. She writes in a wide variety of genres, including horror, thriller, comedy, drama, family, fantasy, action, and adventure.

Book preview

Max’s Cab

A Trilogy of Short Stories

by

Vicky L. Neal

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Mid-Life Affair

Stick `em Up

The Model Passenger

About the Author

Preview

Foreword

Max was a kind man. Slightly overweight with a receding hairline, he wasn’t great to look at and realized it, but his pleasant personality made up for what he lacked physically. Now, he would choose to be a stud if that option were offered to him. Few would turn down the opportunity to be great-looking on the outside. However, Max was very down-to-earth. Being handsome on the inside was far better than a pleasing outward appearance. At least that’s what he kept telling himself.

In college, he didn’t know what he wanted to be in his early years. Max was a fairly good actor, as he had proven in high school, so he made the decision in his sophomore year of college to major in language arts. He had big dreams, to act on Broadway someday. So many actors were needed for all of the many plays taking place at any given time. Why wouldn’t someone of his talent be given a juicy role in some popular performance?

Iowa was a long way from the East Coast. He saved money during the summers to finance his transition to New York when the time came. That was more important to him than paying off the student debt that got him the degree he planned to use in that search for Broadway success. If he made a big name for himself, the loans would be a drop in his bucket. Paying them off would be a cinch when he raked in the big bucks.

Upon arrival in the Big Apple, Max got a job waiting tables. He was fifty pounds lighter then so being on his feet for eight hours at a time wasn’t such a chore. With the city having some of the highest priced real estate in the country, he wasn’t able to afford a place alone. He would eat through his savings in a short time and need to return home before he achieved his dreams. Instead, he answered an ad from a man seeking a roommate to split expenses with. Ricky was from Guatemala, also hoping to get a break in acting. His accent was thick, making it difficult to understand him at times. Max was certain he would get a prestigious job on stage far before Ricky ever would. At least the audience would be able to comprehend his dialect.

Max went on numerous casting calls but to his dismay, didn’t pick up a single part. The rejections were overbearing and caused Max to realize he wasn’t the acting stud he had believed. Maybe that had something to do with his appearance, a hindrance he really couldn’t do anything about. He wasn’t a plastic surgery kind of guy, and couldn’t afford it even if he were. If Max lacked complete common sense, he may have continued pursuing an unrealistic dream until he went flat broke. There were many stories of the failed around town who experienced that very thing. Max wasn’t about to become another of the stories. His parents didn’t raise a fool, at least not a complete one.

A more realistic career was needed. He enjoyed driving and one day, while reading a morning newspaper, saw an ad for cab drivers. If he couldn’t have his dream job, this might be second best. He was hired when he went in for an interview and started the following week.

Ricky, however, picked up a leading role in a Broadway musical. He was a very good singer it turned out. The role was suited for him as the character was Hispanic, as he was, so perfect English wasn’t needed. In fact, it helped that he didn’t speak English too well. The theater was across town so Rick vacated their apartment right away. That left Max on the hook for the entire rent himself. While being a cab driver paid more than a waiter, it wasn’t enough to pay for an apartment on his own.

Fortunately for Max, his backwaters cousin Jim wanted to move into the city and was more than happy to share an apartment with